SALEM — The utilities commission discussed continued delays to the ongoing improvements at the water plant in its meeting Thursday.

Project Engineer Drew Paul said that Project Contractor A.P. Ohoro still hadn’t completed pressure testing, which was supposed to be completed June 17, and has given “various excuses” for why it hasn’t been completed. Paul said that if the testing was not completed by “early next week” Benesch Engineering would submit a field order to complete the testing. He also said that they had not received an updated schedule for June. Commission Chairman Bob Hodgson said that “the frustrations are coming to a boil” with the delays.

“It’s kind of getting old hearing ‘yeah, we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it.’ There’s a lot of stuff out there that’s getting old,” said Hodgson.

Project Representative Greg Carver said he had concerns with the current location of the transformers, noting that he felt it was a safety issue as they could potentially be struck, especially given their proximity to water. He also said that he wanted to ensure that the fence around the sanitary system was installed.

“I sent [the plans] to them but I want to make sure they fence it off, especially around the tank itself, all the way to the building because they haven’t been on site all week and if they’re not there and the electricians there or somebody unloading

equipment they might not know what’s there,” said Carver.

While pressure testing remains incomplete, Paul said that hydrants had been installed and backfilled, and that electricians had been on site and begun laying conduits into the generator building for electrical work.

Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager Dean Stokes said that “a lot has happened in the last 30 days” on phase three improvements at the wastewater treatment plant. He said that the roofs had been completed for both the sludge condition and anaerobic digestor buildings, and that seed sludge intended the jumpstart the digestors had arrived and been pumped into the system this week. He also said that the insulation of PONDUS equipment had been completed and that the system should be coming online soon with Centrisys set to be on site by July 21, noting that the goal was for the system to be fully operational by August.

Project Manager Bob Schreiner told the commissioners that the East Cold Run rip-rap repair project was almost complete and was mostly down to a few punch list items and some additional detail work being done with unspent allowance funds like miscellaneous concrete repairs and filling in a low-lying area with stone. Hodgson asked what the status of the fence around the property and service road was and Utilities Superintendent Butch Donnalley said that the materials had been ordered.

Hodgson said that it would be “nice to get that project wrapped up,” noting that he had read a recent article by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that said the department’s studies had found that 60% of all dams in the state of Ohio are in need of immediate repair, and 80% are in “substandard” condition.

During public comment, resident Albert Lesko told the commission he wanted to dispute his water bill for the month of May, which totaled $486. He said that he was not in the city at the time, and that while he was told he had a leak, he didn’t know where it could potentially be.

“He said I had a leak, but I don’t know where 3,000 gallons would go. My house would probably be flooded by now,” said Lesko.

Hodgson suggested checking to see if he had a toilet which was not sealing properly after refilling the tank as “you can’t believe the amount of water that can go through” without being apparent when this is the case, noting that in the past he had experienced a similar situation which doubled his monthly bill before being identified and repaired. He also said that it was against state law to adjust the amount of water that is billed from what is reported by the meter, and that “water through the meter is water billed.”

“Under state law, any water through the meter, is water through the meter and we don’t have any authority to adjust that in any manner, it’s actually against state code. The only discretion we have is on the wastewater side of the charge if it can be shown the water did not go down your drains into the sewer system we have the ability to waive that, if not we only have the ability to waive one half of the difference between your normal bill and the increase in the bill and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime adjustment,” said Hodgson.

The utilities commission will meet next at 3 p.m. on July 17.