MOUNT VERNON – Employees at the water and wastewater treatment plants are earning certifications from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mount Vernon Utilities Director Aaron Rinehart said.
A chief operator and three operators at the water plant earned their microbiological lab certification.
“That’ll be quite a cost savings to the city,” Rinehart said. “We were sending it out to an outside laboratory.”
Two operators at the wastewater treatment plant are also working on their operations certificate, he said.
Preliminary engineering has been started on the sewer plant for phosphorous removal, mandated by the Ohio EPA, Rinehart said.
Contractors sought for curb and gutter, railroad depot projects
City Engineer Brian Ball said his department would soon request bids for concrete curb and gutter projects in different areas of town for brick and asphalt streets to get some of the worst problem areas fixed.
The bids will also include the Harmony Park handicap-accessible family restroom proposed as a precast structure.
Mount Vernon wants to reroof the CA&C Railroad Depot on South Main Street and the B&O Railroad Depot on West High Street.
“We’ve been working for quite a while to figure out the best way to replace these authentic tile roofs,” Ball said. “And so we are requesting contractors submit technical proposals with their experience, skills and price for restoring these roofs to an authentic tile with upgrading all the underlayments, gutters, valleys and hips.”
The department will soon send out a request for contractors to help rehabilitate the east clarifier for the water treatment plant. The west clarifier was successfully rehabilitated.
A clarifier “is, in essence, a very large water softener,” Ball said. It uses water and quicklime.
Having two operational clarifiers will enable the city to accommodate the growth of housing units, he said.
Street Department repairs catch basins, potholes
The Street Department has been rebuilding catch basins along Coshocton Avenue and on Yauger Road behind the Knox Community Hospital pavilion, Public Works Director Tom Hinkle said. Snowplows damaged the driveways, so workers must realign the curb and fix the catch basin.
As the weather warms up, crews are taking the opportunity to fix sod from plow damage. Hinkle said they get complaints yearly, so they put sod back in place and fix curbs where they might have been damaged.
As the temperatures freeze and warm up, more potholes are discovered, so crews have been using cold mix to patch them. In addition, a batch of hot mix was being picked up to fix some of the larger potholes in areas where the damage was worse.
Hinkle asked the public to call the city at (740) 393-9501 with pothole reports so the Street Department could update its repair list.
City Engineer Brian Ball said his department has been working with the Street Department and actively looking for contractors to repair brick street potholes. Focus areas will be Burgess and Hamtramck.
Small salt barn limits deliveries
The Street Department has received 650 pounds of road salt so far, a little more than half the 1,200 pounds Mount Vernon ordered for the winter. The city is responsible for 90% of the 1,200 pounds of salt, Public Works Director Tom Hinkle said.
He said the city has always had an issue with its limited salt storage.
That is one of the reasons the city wants to get a larger salt barn, Mayor Matt Starr said.
Hinkle said he’s been working on capital improvements for equipment for projects by all the departments in public works that the city council approved in the budget, such as snow plows for the Street Department or mowers for the Parks or Cemetery Departments.
It can take a year to get a snowplow delivered, he said.
Public Buildings and Land purchased enough smaller flags for downtown on South Main Street and the Public Square, plus some larger flags for the cemetery.
Workers have installed a footer longer than 120 feet at the cemetery to mount markers needed for indigent burials. Hinkle said installing the longer footer is more cost-efficient.
