Council hears water update

On Monday night at the Town Council meeting, Mayor Dale Davis reported on the latest update on Whitehall’s water situation and the DEQ.

According to Davis, the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) came in last week to look at the town’s water issues at the lagoon, and help Whitehall Public Works employee Kory Klapan with paperwork. Davis said the meeting was very informative on the operation of the lagoon, and the DEQ is pleased with the proactive stance taken by the town.

Davis said the problem with the lagoon is there isn’t any water. The lagoon was over-engineered that DEQ required, even the pivots were over-engineered said Davis. The Mayor added, it was not the engineers’ fault, but the evaporation rate is greater than the intake right now, we do not have enough water to maintain the pivots. The pivots should have been designed to irrigate ¼ to ½ of the field we are irrigating.

“We need to operate the lagoon at a much higher level and the DEQ agreed with us,” Davis said. “

The Mayor added, at the exact same time The Department of Labor and Industry showed up for a safety inspections of the town’s water system. Davis said in the pump houses there was one junction box, and light bulbs that didn’t have covers, noting one has been that way since 1952, and the other 1975. Davis added, the Department of Labor and Industry requested to get safety harnesses on the water tank that was built in 1996 or 1997. The safety harness should be from the ladder to the air breather. It is the second safety inspection in the last nine months, before that it had been 20 years or more for the Public Works Department, Davis said.

Clerk/Treasurer Report

The official Town of Whitehall website has been launched. Town Clerk/Treasurer Summer Fellows thanked all the people that helped get the website done. Fellows said eventually the town ordinances, resolutions, minutes from town council meetings, meeting agendas and anything else the town officials feel is important to have posted will be published on the web site.

Fellows also said there will be a place for people to email the town, but asked that people please keep emails civil, and the town will not respond to nasty or mean emails.

Fellows said the mill levy has been completed, and will be set at 125.12. A mill levy is a tax rate that is applied to the assessed value of a property. The mill levy - which is sometimes referred to simply as a levy - is multiplied times the assessed value of a property to determine the amount of taxes due.

Charles Shank was named as the official town photographer. Shank will be taking photos for the town’s website. Fellows asked that is anyone has an idea or wants a picture of something on the website to ask Shank to take a picture. Fellows said they will try to get the pictures on the website, it is about our community.

There will be a meeting scheduled to approve the final budget for the next fiscal year. The Meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 15 at 6:30 pm.

Pool Commission

Maxine Samuelson reported for the Whitehall Pool Commission. In the report, Samuelson said the pool season would be ending in about two weeks, and on August 17th there will be a party at the pool called “Last Splash”. She said the event is to encourage teenagers to visit the pool; they haven’t had many teens visit this year. Samuelson said the pool lost two employees before the season was up and one had fair duties to do. Also in the report, she said some of the concrete edges on the pool are chipping and need patched, which is a regular yearly maintenance.

Public Works

Public Works employee Kory Klapan said that Frontier Days kept the department pretty busy, with lots of trash and street closures. Klapan said the department got some equipment from the public surplus. He said all the equipment seems to be working great and saved the department a lot of time. Klapan said more potholes have been filled, and more will be filled soon. The department also finished up some tree trimming that needed done.

Ambulance Director

Ambulance Director Tyler Steinbach said the EMT classes are moving forward and are about 2/3 of the way through. Classes are expected to wrap up in September. All of the full time EMT’s will be advanced EMT’s or have endorsements, this way every crew will have advanced EMT’s or have endorsements across the board, Steinbach said. He also noted that ambulances one and two are running the way they are supposed to, and able to staff both of those ambulances. He said another ambulance needs some wiring work done in the lights before it is running correctly. Steinbach added Whitehall Ambulance Service is trying to streamline all of the billing so all of the information required will be in every trip report needed for billing.

Town Attorney

Town Attorney Elizabeth Musick said their office would be contacting the County Commissioner’s office to set up a meeting to set up a meeting with the Town Council regarding the Amendment to Inter-local Agreement governing a Sewer Main Extension to Sugar Beet Row. The proposed time for a meeting will be next Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at 6 p.m., depending on the commissioner’s availability. A resolution to charge a fee for fulfilling a public information request has been tabled until next month’s regularly scheduled town council meeting as the office is still drafting the complicated document.

Approvals

A business license was approved fro Grinders. Building permits were granted to Kristi Wilson for a Cedar Fence. Affordable housing was approved to build on lot 19.

Old Business

Musick said the town attorneys’ office requested a meeting with Great West Engineering, but they declined to meet with them at this time. The engineering firm sent over some of documents to be reviewed by the attorneys’ office, and responded accordingly with any questions. The town attorneys’ office sent the questions to Great West Engineering’s attorney and is waiting on a response. The hopes by the office are to keep dialogue open and come to an amicable agreement with the firm. Davis said some of the problems with this are; in the agreement with Great West, in the OEM manual, there was supposed to be a pump installed on Pipestone Creek that was not. Davis said this way when the town runs out of water in the lagoon, water can be pumped from the creek for irrigation. The DEQ agreed with Davis and Klapan that the lagoon has to operate at four to six feet deep, since there hasn’t been enough water in there, it is at the lowest level of two foot deep. As reported by Davis, with levels that low you get tremendous amount of algae growth. Davis said he has been unable to find the plans from Great West, and has had to go by the OEM manual and the meeting minutes to determine that the pump should have been installed. Davis stated it is taking away from what the lagoon is designed to do.