Highlights of Water/Sewer Committee Meeting

A salute to all Veterans on this special day,

I attended a committee meeting Thursday evening and was most impressed with the information that was presented by the Director of Operations for the city of Vinita, Ok. He presented slide pictures of the water treatment plant that is southeast of Vinita. They have Trane #3 down and empty and it's amazing what remarkable shape it is in after 20 plus years. The media(it lays in the bottom of the trane for filter purposes) is still in good shape and will have to be added to, but not completely replaced. My description of the media is; it looks like millions of tiny plastic bubbles. There was one side that wasn't aerating and mud had built up, so that side will have to be replenished. The outside of the trane will be resealed with a cold seal process, but what's remarkable is that after this many years the inside will only have to have a few places spot touched. 99% of it still has the wonderful new look when it was built in the 1980's.

I spoke of the free media the city was able to obtain from a water plant at Roland, Ok a couple of weeks ago. They're tearing down a plant and replacing it with a new one, so six of our city employees went down with shovels and buckets and retrieved the free media. Retail of that media new would have been over $30,000.00, so it cost about $800.00 to the city for wages, fuel, etc. to go get it.

So far the estimated cost of refurbishing one trane is $81,261.20, that's barring no major problems. If the city can do this on all four tranes at the same cost it could be under a half million. Now compare that to the 9 or 10 million that the previous administration was pressing to spend on a new filtration system that would have been more expensive to operate and no good examples that it's successful. Our new Mayor and Director of Operations are doing an outstanding job and our council people are diligent in protecting the taxpayer dollars and getting the most bang for the buck.

Our new engineer working for the city is an absolute gem and he's saving us dollars and our water quality is much improved already. The Ketchum water plant operator and his crew have been a great help to our water plant employees and deserve a great big "Thank You." Rural Water District #2 is a customer of Vinita Utilities Authority and the city has been working in conjunction with them also to create a good working relationship. This is the way it should be with all the small communities, helping each other. I feel like a proud Momma or Grandma this is so dear to my heart.

I'm really excited about this project because there is a small group of people that have investigated and fought for this very thing. We knew with our minds and instincts that our water plant needed some updating, but not a completely different kind of system that's unknown and little used by anyone. Persistence does pay off in the long run.  When we see our Mayor, councilors and Director of Operations we can honestly thank them for saving our city money and  for being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

I could go on and on, but I need to just say, "YIPEE!!!"  Thank the Lord things have changed and are going the right direction now.

There was another issue with the owner of the old Holiday Motel on South Wilson street and the sewer when it floods. More information is needed to let the committee make an informed recommendation to the full counsel, so that issue isn't resolved.

Gotta go and have some fun Friday, so.............

Until Later,
Okie Girl @ Home