City looks to upgrade sewer plant system

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WILMINGTON — City council held a first reading of a measure to assist the Wastewater Department after a recent malfunction.

During the Wastewater/Sewer Committee report, Chairperson Lonnie Stuckert said the legislation would transfer $50,000 from utilities and $66,000 from “Vehicle Fuel” to perform system updates. The updates would be to the Programmable Logic Controllers and the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems at the wastewater plant.

The updates would mean workers at the plant would not need to operate it manually. According to Safety/Service Director Brian Shidaker the additional costs were due to them getting the extended warranty which he thought was very important.

Council was only able to hear one reading of the legislation Thursday night due to two members being absent.

The new system is needed after an incident on Labor Day that made the former system fail. Because of this failure, there was no more support for the system and the workers had to operate it manually, according to Stuckert.

Shidaker said they’ve already moved into an agreement, and now they just need to move money into a contract to get it paid.

“It’ll take four to six weeks to get where we want to be,” said Shidaker.

During his report, he reiterated that it wasn’t raw sewage but prime sewage that went into Lytle Creek, making it discolored. It lowered the oxygen in the creek and an unknown amount of fish were found dead, according to Shidaker.

He added Friday that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has not reported a number at this time.

He also said they did receive a notice of violation from the Ohio EPA, but won’t be given a fine at this time.

“We’re doing everything we can to resolve the issue, but it was computer failure and completely unexpected. That’s where we’re at now,” said Shidaker.

Also during council:

• Two Rotarians, Fred Ertel and Jennifer Woodland, presented a plaque to the City of Wilmington in honor of its role helping with two Honor Flights for Clinton County veterans and the community’s continued efforts to honor its veterans.

Jennifer Woodland, left, of the Rotary Club, presents Wilmington Mayor John Stanforth with plaque honoring the city’s work with two local Honor Flights.
http://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2017/09/web1_honor_plaque_p_f-1.jpgJennifer Woodland, left, of the Rotary Club, presents Wilmington Mayor John Stanforth with plaque honoring the city’s work with two local Honor Flights. John Hamilton | News Journal

By John Hamilton

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Reach John Hamilton at 937-382-2574

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