Council discusses water plan, equipment

The City Council mulled actions that they hope will prevent or mitigate another total shutdown of the water system like the one that occurred March 6-8, while citizens feted city workers for their tireless effort during a severe thunderstorm to get the service flowing again.

The Council voted to use some of the remaining $603,000 in leftover American Rescue Plan Act [ARPA] funds to purchase two ground-penetrating radar devices and hire a technician to map the City’s byzantine underground water pipes and other utilities. Also on the “wish list” for the remaining ARPA funds were a hydraulic pipe cutter, new heavy-duty mud tires for the City’s wastewater truck, which became mired in farmer Bobby Wainscott’s wheat field during the repair process, and possibly a four-wheel-drive backhoe to replace the City’s two-wheel-drive model.

The City lost 1.5 million gallons during the water leak, Public Works Director Michael Jacoba told the Council.

The Council also considered purchasing or leasing a “trackhoe,” or excavator with tracks. The Public Works Department borrowed a trackhoe from Mr. Wainscott to dig out the broken pipe and replace it with a 20-foot section of pipe acquired from the City of Graham. “I think what we learned the other night is that we don’t have anywhere near the equipment necessary to begin water replacement and repair of infrastructure that we could even attempt it,” Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker said.

Mr. Parker advised Mr. Jacoba to get prices on a four-wheel-drive backhoe with a maintenance program, but Mr. Jacoba said it may be better for the City to lease or borrow one under a standing agreement.

“It’s happened twice in the 12 years I’ve been here - pipes breaking in wheat fields,” Mr. Jacoba said. “It would just sit.”

Councilmember Harrison Wellman and City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon pegged the extended nature of the outage on the fact that the Public Works Department could not find valves or water lines to shut off the water and isolate the leaks. “The maps are completely wrong,” Mrs. Pagsuberon said.

“One of the City’s biggest needs is to find the lines and valves to map this,” Mr. Wellman said.

The city’s latest infrastructure woes came just days after Mrs. Pagsuberon submitted an application for state funding to replace Olney’s aging water and wastewater pipes. Mr. Parker traveled to Austin last month to lobby state lawmakers and the Texas Water Development Board for $16.5 million in state grants and other funding for a plan to ring the city with a new system of pipes, valves, and water storage tanks that will alleviate the frequent repairs to the existing pipes. (See graphic) Public Works Director Michael Jacoba recently estimated that his crews repair, on average, seven pipe breaks per month.

Mayor Rue Rogers last year spearheaded the sales of $13.5 million in revenue bonds to replace the city’s 100-year-old water treatment plant. He said the city hopes to break ground on the new facility in the second half of 2023 and is installing valves to divide the city into quadrants to isolate areas with leaking pipes. Faulty maps and valves led to the cascading problems that shut off the city’s water on Tuesday evening, Mrs. Pagsuberon said.

In the meantime, the community held two thank-you lunches for city workers who toiled for three days straight to restore water to the city. Stewart’s Food Store and Fort Belknap Electric Cooperative sponsored a steak lunch, prepared by Jeff and Tami Harvey, for city workers and first responders at the Civic Center. Fort Belknap General Manager/ CEO Kendall Montgomery acted as master of ceremonies, thanking the crews for going above and beyond their job descriptions.

Later in the week, Kathie Smith, granddaughter of Katherine Atchley, and her husband invited City workers to lunch at Cub Country Cafe and picked up the tab. “We recently moved back here so we’ve always had a connection to the city,” Mrs. Smith said. “We just know it takes a lot of sacrifice to keep things running – especially working all night – we were just grateful that they served us. We just wanted to give them a small token of appreciation.”

The Olney Hamilton Hospital also has scheduled a meal for the City crews at the end of March.