Amendment on Florence clear well goes back to contractor
Florence City Council remained at a stalemate Monday night over repair work to the clear well deck. Ken Hoffman announced to council members that he was in receipt of an amendment from the construction company, J&N Elliott, that built the clear well. The amendment agreed that earth around the clear well needed to be excavated to a depth of 12 inches instead of two inches as previously proposed.
However, the letter did not state that Elliott construction would be responsible for the excavation so council members did not approve the amendment. City superintendent Hoffman was instructed to contact Elliott and have the agreement re-written.
Hoffman outlined recent repairs to the water plant by U.S. Filter Company and announced that everything is running smoothly. However, Hoffman noted that the engineering firm that designed the water plant is now advocating a low-pressure back wash system over the high-pressure system installed in the Florence plant. The cost to install the new, more efficient system will be $43,000 should the city switch.
After discussion, council member Randy Mills suggested the council schedule a meeting with Stuart Porter of Straub Eaton, the firm that designed the Florence plant. Mills wants Porter to explain to the council why the system Florence just installed is suddenly obsolete.
In a related matter, bids to repair the roof at City Springs were opened, but no action was taken pending additional information about insurance and bonding of the companies placing the bids.
Leonard Ellis addressed the council concerning aeration of the sewer ponds. Hoffman told the council that stagnation at the ponds during the summer months is becoming a problem and will only get worse as time goes on.
A solution would be to trim out a large amount of growth around the ponds to allow air movement in the area.
Ellis recalled he planted 100 walnut trees around the sewer ponds in 1961. A group of trees are now large enough to harvest and Ellis would be willing to donate his time and equipment to cut and market the walnut trees in exchange for the wood from the remaining hardwood trees.
Funds from the sale of the walnut trees would be used to pay John Siebert to clear a larger area of brush and overgrowth complicating aeration at the sewer ponds.
Ellis encouraged the city to adopt a management program to take care of timber in the area, saying the walnut trees could be harvested periodically and funds would provide income for the city.
Council accepted Ellis' proposal, but declined to commit to a long-term timber management program at this time.
In other business, the council:
— accepted the resignation of Scott Zogelman as member and director of Florence Ambulance. Zogelman also resigned from community committees on which he has served for a number of years. The council unanimously expressed its gratitude to Zogelman for his many years of service to Florence.
— heard from the PRIDE committee that it will pay for new downtown flags. The council agreed to pay for poles needed to fly the flags. Council members also approved a plan by PRIDE to decorate the downtown area for autumn.
— heard from fire chief Tony Leeds that assistant chief Larry Creamer had resigned and Tim Parmley was appointed in his place. Leeds also updated the council on the department's plan to create a fire district that includes townships around Florence.
— approved the fire department's purchase of insulation material for the fire station.
— approved purchase of a new computer for the police department from CG Computers for $400.
— appointed two new members to Florence Housing board. Pat Lemon of Carriage Manor will fill the position vacated by Bob Madsen and Larry Blosser will fill the position vacated by Mark Moore.
— appointed Suzanne Robinson as Florence FEMA representative.
— requested a renewed effort by city employees to clean up the area around the city shop. Council also heard that a barrel of Malathion is still on the premises and approved disposal will cost $2,000. Old and obsolete equipment owned by the city will be inventoried and an attempt made to sell it.
— heard from Sarah Cope that Marion High School National Honor Society students will be at Highland Cemetery to paint new row markers for a community service project.
— entered into an executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel. No action was taken on return to open session.
