Hickman awaits Republic’s response on contract

Hickman City Commissioners met in regular session March 14, at Hickman City Hall.

Commissioners attending included Alicia Esters, John Wiley Gannon, Robert Griggs, Rob Hitesman, and Mayor Heath Carlton.

Michael Apperson, Alliance Water Resources representative, updated the Commission on the treatment of an average of 687,877 gallons per day in February with a total of 19,260,560 gallons for the month, as compared to 40,000 a day in January.

"The loss is getting pretty substantial. We are producing an extraordinary amount of water. This is concerning because demand is too high for a filter to be shut down to fix. Aside from the water loss, this causes increases in chemical costs due to longer working hours,” Apperson said.

“Also, our concerns for the month include Headworks has not been resolved. The indoor samplers are being exposed to the elements in both the influent and effluent process,” Apperson concluded.

Hickman Public Works Director John Amberg reported his department had been been cleaning a ditch from Steve Fields Drive, behind Insteel, to Hwy. 94 and there had been a leak around First Baptist Church March 6, which took approximately six hours to repair.

"It was an odd size line and we called Fulton to get some parts. A barricade and cones were run over and caused the leak at the hydrant,” he reported.

Hickman Chief of Police Tony Grogan reported the police department's C.A.D. and/or call response were 126 for February; uniform offense reports 10; arrests and two warrants 3; worked five accidents; alcohol checks were 327, these checks are very important to funding as it brings in about one quarter of the budget.; bringing the call total volume to 453.

"One code enforcement warning was issued, one code investigation, and one code compliance. Animal control actions were six in the pound, attempted three other captures, two general complaints about dogs was investigated and one was euthanized after being hit by a vehicle,” Grogan said.

“The police are continuing to patrol the school, East Hickman, Cedar Street and Ivey Street, and high water checks,” Grogan reported.

The Commission voted to hire Hunter Woods as a Volunteer firefighter and following discussion voted to write off bad debt on utility bills that have been on the books for six years or longer.
Sandra Alexander and Brother Tom Quimby were reappointed to the Housing Authority of Hickman Board for a 4-year term each.

Discussion of the Republic contract (garbage) was heard.

“We have no contract. It expired. I sent changes in the contract to Republic we would like to have done and sent back to Republic. We don’t want to balance and collect overdue accounts. We will possibly see a rate increase soon. We like the wording in the old contract with the change of collecting,” Hickman City Manager David Gallagher said.

The S4 Water Sales and Service, LLC was then discussed.

Gallagher said they are to come Thursday to take samples from the filter media.

Apperson said, “This will be the third party to come and take samples.”

“I’ve not seen any reports from the other two,” Mayor Carlton said.

“It will cost $1,000 to see if the filter media is clean,” Gallagher stated.

City Attorney Leeanna Wilkerson asked, “Will he provide a written finding of his report?”

Gallagher said, “Yes.”

The Zito (cable service) contract was discussed.

“We received their contract today and I haven’t had time to look at it. I suggest the Commissioners take home and review and we discuss at the next meeting,” Gallagher said.

Wilkerson said an honest copy was needed to sign, not a draft copy.

Gallagher explained the draft was to look at and to make changes.

The lease agreement with AT&T for the rental of property on the water tanks on the bluff was discussed.

Commissioners indicated they would like to see the original lease agreement and see what the length of the terms are before making a decision.

Commissioners went into Executive Session at 5:37 p.m., returning to open session at 6:59 p.m., with no decisions and no votes being made.

Gallagher told the commission Midco is the company coming to dive in the tanks as part of the Agreed Order. One of the tanks will be scraped and painted again.

He also explained he Division of Water put that as part of the Agreed Order.

"I called Midco about what they would do, and they asked which tank we are talking about, they all look the same to us. I told them to look at the tanks, they all look bad. I’m sure we can do both. I asked for a price to do both and pick one of them. If we have any money, we will do the other one. We couldn’t identify which one had to be done,” Gallagher said.

Apperson said he talked with the Division of Water today, and they gave a report to the City before Ihestarted working.

"I received the report about a month after I started working. The clearwell is more important than the tanks. If Midco agrees we can only choose one, the Division of Water will say to do the clearwell. If there is over a foot of debris in the bottom of the tank. When they came out they only did three inches of scum from the bottom. It is believed Midco dropped the ball and didn’t reschedule to have more debris removed from the tank. I can only use about five feet of the clearwell before the water starts to change color,” he said.

Gallagher said, “The Division of Water is calling the shots. We will do what they say.”