City hears project updates

Clarendon Aldermen heard updates on several city projects when they held their regular meeting last Tuesday, February 12.

Public Works Director John Molder told the board an effluent meter at the city’s waste water treatment plant was “basically done” with final calibration to be completed in two or three weeks.

Molder also said the city’s water system study by KSA Engineers was nearing completion. Using old maps found in City Hall, Molder and his crews had been using metal detectors and uncovering buried valves on water lines in the north part of the city.

The sewer line replacement project is also moving forward, Molder said, and a tractor on that job found a lost original manhole by when it collapsed under the machine.

Mayor Larry Hicks said KSA was also ready to move forward with the water and sewer line replacement that is being done ahead of street improvements approved by voters last spring. Advertising for bids on that project began this week.

Code Compliance Officer Jason Conatser reported progress on several dilapidated structures and code violations. He said that he and Municipal Judge Tommy Waldrop were working several cases and that many had been going on for years. In the most extreme case, a warrant was issued for one property owner, who was given 30 days to correct a longstanding violation, and work started to correct that problem the next day, Conatser said.

Conatser and Hicks also discussed the city’s efforts on the old hotel at First and Kearney and the old drug store at Second and Kearney, and the mayor expressed his interest in working with those property owners.

Greenbelt Water Authority Board Member Gary Campbell reported on the project to pump city groundwater into the authority’s system. As of the date of the meeting, the contractor selected to build a pipeline from the city to the filter plant had not gotten started, but most other work was completed.

Campbell said five wells were drilled on the north side of the city and that they were not going to produce as much as originally thought. Additionally, following discussions with the Panhandle Ground Water Conservation District, Greenbelt agreed to reduce the maximum amount of water it can pump from the Clarendon well field. Campbell said the wells’ capacity, however, would probably never reach that maximum and that Greenbelt would likely pump at most 1,100 or 1,200 acre/feet per year.

“But even at 1,100 acre/feet, that is $180,000 in revenue for the city,” Campbell said.

The city wells will probably satisfy about one-third of Greenbelt’s demand, and the authority is already moving to develop wells on Kelly Creek and looking at other sources of water, Campbell said.

In other city business, aldermen discussed nominating a citizen to fill a vacancy on the Donley County Appraisal District Board and then unanimously nominated Roger Estlack for that position.