SALEM – Equipment issues persist at the wastewater treatment plant.

During the utilities commission’s February meeting Wastewater Treatment Plant Manage Dean Stokes told the commissioners that while issues with the conveyor system in the sludge dewatering build had been fixed, the main control valve for the Pondus system was still having issues, and he was continuing to work with Centrisys to find a solution.

“They got things back to how they should have been, and it went right back to the same kind of issues we’ve been having. So, we talked to Centrisys, they’re on it. There’s got to be some kind of a solution to fix this, because obviously that’s kind of the brains of that whole system,” said Stokes.

He said the valve controls three flow meters, and that when the manufacturers for the flow meters were on site, the issue may be caused by an improperly sized meter.

“They’re telling us that main meter is not the right size so it’s probably not going to work. The solution from Centrisys was to put a valve downstream of it and throw the valve to put backpressure on it, which would fill the cavity of that flow meter which probably wouldn’t give us a consistent number,” said Stokes. “What I think is going on is that we are pumping what we set it to, but the flow meter is not seeing that so that information is never going to be correct.”

Commission Chair Bob Hodgson asked if the manufacturers’ design had been used without modifications, which Stokes confirmed.

Stokes also gave the commissioners an update on the new F-750 SD purchased by the commissioners in a Feb. 5 special meeting to begin hauling its own sludge for disposal. Stokes said that since the truck arrived nine loads, totaling approximately 57 tons of sludge, had been hauled to the landfill from the plant, and that while he would compile a full comparison that he estimated that doing so had cost less than half what the department would have paid for it to be hauled away by a contractor.

Hodgson asked Howells & Baird President Jon Vollnogle if the South Ellsworth Avenue Water Main project was ready to go out for bid. Vollnogle said he was waiting for results from boring tests to see if there is a way to avoid having to bore under an existing brick storm sewer in the area, which would significantly reduce project costs. He said that once those results came back and he adjusted the project to reflect them, the project could be put out for bid. 

Hodgson asked if the project was still on track to be completed prior to scheduled paving work on South Ellsworth, and Vollnogle said that work is expected to take 90 days, and that if the project is advertised for bid by March there should be no issue.

The commissioners also discussed a request to tap into the city’s septic system from a property outside the city limits. Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey said that the owner of the property at the intersection of the U.S. Route 62 bypass and Depot Road is looking to construct a manufacturing plant and other commercial developments on the property, and that the property is too close to existing sewer lines for the Ohio Department of Health to issue a permit to build their own commercial septic system.

“They are not contiguous at this time, but they are going to seek annexation once some other contiguous properties in the area do,” said Dickey.

Dickey said that the property owner was aware of the requirement by city ordinance and department policy to file a deed restriction which would mandate annexation if the property ever became contiguous and did not have an issue with it. Hodgson said that no formal action was required from the commission and that the discussion was intended to ensure everyone remained “on the same page.”

The utilities commission will meet next at 3 p.m. on March 19.