SALEM — Some system hiccups continue as work winds down on phase three upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant.

Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager Dean Stokes told the utilities commissioners in their June meeting that issues with the sludge conditioning building’s main flow meter reading incorrectly still had not been resolved despite ongoing collaboration with Centrisys to diagnose and correct the route issue in recent months.

Stokes said that he and his team were doing everything possible on site to keep the sludge treatment process running, but that he “does not want to inherit” the problem long term as phase three upgrades continue to be finalized around the plant.

Stokes said that issues at the power building appear to have been more successfully resolved. He said Salem City Electrician Scott Devan had checked the system and that after working with First Energy a regulator was installed on their power line to adjust the incoming power. Stokes said that since then there haven’t been any major power issues and that he would be following up with First Energy to discuss what the best next steps would be.

Commission Chairman Bob Hodgson asked if Project Contractor Stanley Miller had finished work on site, and how many loads of sludge had been hauled from the plant. Stokes said that Stanley Miller had finished and hadn’t been on site in a few weeks, and that sludge hauling had reached a fairly steady rate of three or four loads per week.

During his report, Water Treatment Plant Manager Larry Sebrell said that the sludge tank had passed its leak test, and that Ohio Edison had set up a new pole and transformer at the plant and was roughly half done with the installation. Sebrell also said that the SolarBees had been re-deployed at their prior positions at the Salem City Lake.

The meeting concluded with an executive session for the discussion of pending legal matters with no action to follow.

The utilities commission will meet next at 3 p.m. on July 16.