As part of its continued response to an unexpected change in the color of the city’s drinking water back in June due to temporarily elevated levels of manganese, the Altamont City Council on Monday approved the purchase of a new destratifier for the water plant in the amount of approximately $30,000.
“We’ve got to move on it,” Altamont City Commissioner Terry White said regarding the purchase of the destratifier. “I think we all know that caused the manganese issue.”
The spike in manganese, which exceeded limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency, occurred after the destratifier at the water plant malfunctioned when an object became wrapped around one of the destratifier’s blades.
The machine became stuck and could no longer mix the chemicals in the water.
“It actually got tangled up and pretty much destroyed the cage that was outside of it,” White said. “We basically freed the foreign material from that.”
Although the city managed to solve the issue for the time being, the destratifier, like much of the equipment at the water plant, is roughly 30 years years old, and its condition has noticeably worsened since being damaged this summer.
“It’s running now without the cage,” White said. “It has a wobble to it, so we don’t know how long it will be before we end up with bearing issues because of that.”
Instead of continuing to invest in the city’s current destratifier, White recommended that the city purchase a new one.
“We all know what the destratifier not working caused us,” he said.
The city’s purchase includes safety railing which will reduce the risk posed to workers as they periodically maintain the destratifier.
“We have to change oil in this thing, apparently annually,” White said. “We’ve got to be concerned with that when our guys are working on this stuff.”
The railing accounts for $1,850 of the total cost of the destratifier.
In total, the destratifier and the railing the city is purchasing from Limnetics Corporation will cost $30,350.
The new destratifier could be installed as soon as the spring of 2024, and the city plans to have an engineer look at the city’s current destratifier to see if it could at all be salvaged and used as a back-up if the new one ever malfunctions.
“There’s no spare parts available for it,” White said.
White said he doesn’t expect the water plant’s destratifier to malfunction again before the instillation of its replacement because issues at the water plant tend to occur during the summer.
“It’s not as big of an issue this time of year if it would stop before they get done,” he said.
White also said the purchase of the destratifier is covered by a 2-year warranty.
In light of the city’s recent issues with it’s destratifier, White also shared some of his concerns with the council regarding the age of similar equipment and the water plant’s multi-level intake structure.
“Apparently, all that stuff’s been trashed out over the years,” White said regarding the multi-level intake structure. “You can’t run something into the ground.”
Altamont City Commissioner Tayler Polk agreed with White’s concerns about the age of the water plant, saying that the plant is “living on borrowed time.”
“At some point, I feel like we have to figure out what we’re going to do,” Polk said.
Also during the meeting, Altamont City Commissioner Michael Walker announced that the city’s new playground equipment has been installed at Gilbert Park.
Walker said residents could be seen using the new equipment during a softball game in the park just a day after its installation.
“It was good,” Walker said.
Of the equipment’s total cost, $15,000 has been paid for by the estate of Jim Stice and the Altamont Youth FIELDS Committee.
In August, the council voted to use $27,757 of the city’s funds to cover the remaining cost of the equipment.
Walker said some more landscaping must be done at the park before the project there will be entirely complete.
“We’ll finish the project come spring,” Walker said.
Additionally, he said there are plans to place a plaque in the park in the spring honoring the Stice family for their donation.
In other matters, the council:
• Approved a payment to 120 Water for the second year of its lead service line inspection program in the amount of $13,230.
• Approved the purchase of a 2020 Dodge pickup truck from A&H Implement Co. for the Altamont Street Department in the amount of $20,000.
• Approved an ordinance authorizing the Effingham County Emergency Telephone System Board to lease the city’s water tower at Gilbert Park where it plans to install part of its communication system.
• Approved an ordinance authorizing of a contract with Fred & ScottMo Enterprises for private development pursuant to the city’s tax increment area redevelopment plan.