Skip to content

Water Tanks, Pump Stations Maintenance Is Completed

By REBECCA HAZEN
News Editor

The Dade County Water and Sewer Authority heard from Frank Hawkins, Water Treatment Plant Manager, about a site visit from Micro-Comm, during the Tuesday, July 27 meeting.

“Micro-Comm is the company that handles our telemetry system,” General Manager Sherri Walker explained. “That takes care of all our tanks, lets us be able to see the levels in the tanks and whether or not pump stations are running on and off.”

“We have had a lot of trouble with the New Salem tank. It would go out of signal and stay out of signal. Sometimes it would lock up and shut everything else down,” Hawkins said.

The authority received parts to fix it. They put a new radio in and a new power unit.

“That system was put it in 1988. It’s an old, old system,” Hawkins said.

According to Hawkins, he called Micro-Comm and they walked him through the procedures.

“They said that if that one had that much trouble, then a lot of the stations probably do, too,” Hawkins said.

A representative from Micro-Comm came in and visited all of the pump stations and tanks to do maintenance.

The cost was $6,800, which was mostly travel for the representative and hotel costs. The parts that were fixed were covered by the service contractor.

“He did things that we probably could have done, but we didn’t have the know how or the man power. It was well worth getting him here. There are things that he fixed that had been ongoing,” Hawkins said.

Also during the meeting, Walker proposed getting a Verkada Security system for all of the facilities.

“EPD (Environmental Protection Division) has encouraged us to increase security, which we have been looking at doing anyway. We have a camera in the office and the battery life and the length of recording is causing issues,” Walker said.

Walker noted that there has been vandalism and theft in the past at the maintenance shop.

The proposal is for nine cameras, for three in each facility, two outside and one inside. The cost would be $14,486.90. The service would be for 10 years.

The authority voted yes to purchase the system.

Walker updated the board members on USDA projects. The water main upgrades are in progress, with 5,555 feet of line installed to date. The original estimated completion date was mid-August, but that has been changed to October due to rainfall, and rock that has slowed workers down.

Residential meters have been shipped, and 1,500 meters are expected to arrive this week, for the meter replacement project.

Pump station upgrades have been delayed until mid-September, because the new electrical panel for the Sand Mountain pump station is not due until Aug. 24. The current electric panel was damaged by lightning. Rehabilitation of water storage tanks has been delayed until mid-August due to contractor delays.

The Emergency Community Water Assistance Grant, the Slygo pump station project, which entails going under the interstate, will start Sept. 13, with a projected completion date of Oct. 13.

Elizabeth Zeller gave the financial report. The total income for the month of June was $372,731.31. Total expenses for the month were $223,712.56, for a net profit of $149,018.57.

There were 6,448 payments processed and 236 work orders processed. There were 132 line locates, 19 water main leaks repaired, and nine taps installed.

The next Water and Sewer Authority meeting is Aug. 24.

Leave a Comment