Dade Water Authority Moving Forward On Reservoir Project

By REBECCA HAZEN
News Editor

The Dade County Water and Sewer Authority will hold an executive session with CorBlu, and the authority’s attorney on Sept. 27, to discuss a possible drinking water reservoir.

A company named CorBlu did a feasibility study of the land, to see what the next steps would be moving forward.

The Water and Sewer Authority jointly purchased the land on Sells Lane in 2018.

“What happened is that we got a preliminary report back, sent it to the attorney, and the attorney had some questions. He was going to meet with CorBlu and discuss those and work those out. They want to meet with us,” Chairperson Eddie Cantrell said, during the authority’s Tuesday, Aug. 24 meeting.

“What we hope is by the 28th or 29th, depending on the advice of the attorney, we will let everyone know what we have discovered,” Cantrell said. “We are just trying to do our due diligence. We know it’s been slow.”

Also during the meeting, it was noted that last month, there was a site visit from Micro-Comm. Micro-Comm is the company that handles the telemetry system.

“They found that all of the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) are more than 20 years old, and really can’t be upgraded. They need to be replaced,” General Manager Sherri Walker said.

The authority voted to approve a quote from Micro-Comm for the purchase of the new PLCs, for $204,127.

Walker also gave the authority an update on on-going UDSA projects. There are 7,873 feet of water lines installed to date, part of the water main upgrade project. The estimated completion date is Oct. 25.

The rehabilitation of water storage tanks project is in progress, the work began on Aug. 18.
Pump station upgrades have been delayed for another 8-12 weeks due to material supply issues with the contractor. The meter replacement program start date has been delayed until more meters can be shipped.

Elizabeth Zeller presented the financial report. The total income for the month of July was $342,993.69. Total expenses were $304,911.47. There were 6,486 payments processed and 259 work orders processed. There were 132 line locates, 15 water main leaks repaired, and eight taps installed.

The next Water and Sewer Authority meeting will be on Sept. 28.