Fresh drinking water should soon be flowing through a new waterline along Wintergreen Drive in Franklin, which is anticipated to be put into service in a few days, Clint Hoffman of the city water network told the Franklin General Authority at the panel’s meeting Tuesday.
Recently-replaced waterline on Pinoak Drive is in service now, work on replacing waterline along Bell Avenue will likely start Monday, and the water network expects to purchase about 1,000 more feet of water pipe for upcoming work on Woodland Drive, after using up what it has left in-house, Hoffman said.
The amount of pipe purchased will mean “we’ll still have some on-hand,” he added.
Kyle Fritz of the EADS Group engineering firm said the newly-replaced 15th Street pump station is scheduled for startup during the week of March 25.
A fifth payment of $15,546.68 was approved to Terra Works Inc. for work on the project.
In general, “Everything’s been going very well” with the water network, said utilities director Kurt McFadden. “We’ve had a blessing with the weather to be able to get this stuff done. The guys have been working really hard to get the waterlines in.”
On the sewer end of things, the authority approved a few engineering expenses for upcoming projects on Tuesday.
An additional $21,400 was approved to the EADS Group for engineering work on the A-108 combined sewer overflow project, which will remedy an overflowing manhole.
The additional funds will cover obtaining about 35 easements, which Fritz explained were not included in the original engineering agreement, and also the redoing of some engineering drawings upon request by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Fritz added, as a general update to the authority, that the EADS Group has been working on the contract for more than two years and is within the budget on all the other items in it.
The panel also approved a $50,000 engineering agreement for improvements at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which will include sludge removal and replacement of some plant equipment.
The plant’s numbers are looking good, according to the plant’s 2023 wasteload management report that will be submitted to the state DEP.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting:
— The authority approved the submission to the DEP of an annual Source Water Protection Program update, which authority chairman Tim Dunkle said the panel hadn’t been aware it was required to submit annually until this year.
He said the city’s Source Water Protection Program plan was written in 2009, and “it’s a very good plan,” he added.
“The old plan has a lot of maps, analysis, and valuable material, so we should hold on to it,” Dunkle said.
He suggested the panel assemble a committee to go over and update the plan.
— A request from Shawgo Real Estate for relief of a water bill was denied for a property the company purchased in October, for which water was not properly turned off.
The panel also denied a request for industrial waste discharge from Voyten Electric.
— Mike Moore of the wastewater network said crews “love” the new sewer jet the city recently acquired to replace the old, broken one. “It’s a relief to get in the truck and drive down the road and not worry about breaking down,” he said.
— City tech coordinator Michael Gorman said the city is still looking for more residents to sign up for the citywide alert system, and that the finance department now has paper forms for people to fill out, as many people were having a difficult time with the online sign-up process.
“We have had several sign-ups that way,” he said.
Gorman added that the city’s annual water consumer confidence report has been submitted to the DEP and is on the city website.
Authority member Jody Freni was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
