City Council News Briefs
Public Works pushes forward on signage, poly-carts
The city’s Public Works Department installed 36 new ‘yield’ and ‘stop’ signs in November and cleared the alleys on the north side of town in preparation for deploying new poly-cart trash receptacles, Public Works Director Michael Jacoba told the City Council on Dec. 12.
The City Council voted earlier this year to put signage on about 50 uncontrolled intersections to cut down on pedestrian and traffic accidents at the request of Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck. “They look good,” Chief Birbeck told the Council.
Mr. Jacoba said city crews had finished trimming back trees on the city’s northside alleys and would soon begin work on the south side of town so that poly-carts could be delivered to all residences. City crews also filled 21 potholes in November, “which after this rain [we’ve] got a whole lot more,” Mr. Jacoba said.
The city experiences twelve water leaks and five sewer stoppages in November, he said. The elevation at Lake Cooper is 1,132 feet, meaning the city’s main reservoir stands at 56 percent of capacity, he said.
The city’s water plant produced 11 million gallons of water in November, and the city’s active 1,558 meters were billed for 7.4 million gallons - a discrepancy that city officials believe is due to issues with its new software, Mr. Jacoba said. The city’s wastewater plant processed 6.5 million gallons of water last month, he said. The Public Works Department is down one employee, he said.
OPD makes monthly report
The Olney Police Department fielded 109 calls for service, made 15 total arrests, wrote 58 citations and 200 warnings, and deployed K9 Officer Bond once for two arrests in November, Police Chief Dan Birbeck told the City Council on Dec. 12. EMS crews received 59 calls for service, Olney Volunteer Fire Department responded to six calls, and Animal Control picked up nine stray animals last month, he said. OPD has opened 940 cases so far this year, and has a “very large case” coming up in January in which most of Olney’s police officers will be subpoenaed, he said. “Everything to my knowledge is going very smoothly,” Chief Birbeck told the Council. “We met with the District Attorney today and they were very complimentary of everybody’s work. If you are keeping up with the newspaper you are seeing convictions and things that are starting to roll in. It was a long process but we are seeing some fruits of our labors as these people are taking plea deals and we are now going to trial on them, so lots of big changes.”
City completes migration to new billing software
The City has completed its migration to a new utility billing system and has been troubleshooting discrepancies in water usage and billing information, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon told the City Council on Dec. 12. Some residents saw a shorter billing cycle on last month’s bill as the city switched over to the new system but most bills included 20 to 30 days, she said. Although there were no major hiccups, the new system had problems migrating some addresses properly, she said. “We are finding some discrepancies. We are answering questions as they come in,” she said. The city also has purchased three new iPads with meter-reading software to allow three public works employees to read meters and take photographs of meters every three months in case of discrepancies. “The expectation is that every single meter will be read,” she said. “We can get the meters read by the 15th of every month.” The city also is looking into purchasing flowmeters that will allow residents to track their water usage independently of city meter readers. The flow meters “are an independent opportunity to see their water consumption,” she said. “It’s about $200 and there’s an app. If we buy it and put it on meters that seem to have problems with consumption, once that is resolved after three months we take it off and put it onto someone else’s meter.”
Miscellanea
The City’s revenue bond now stands at $13.698 million while earning an interest rate of 4.02 percent, City Secretary Tammy Hourigan told the Olney City Council on Dec. 12. The City issued the $13 million bond to pay for a new water treatment plant to replace the century-old facility that now processes Olney’s water.
The City requested bids for mowing the Olney Airport infield on the city website and in the Olney Enterprise, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said. The city will decide on that contract at its first council meeting in January, she said.