Sewer questions answered at public forum; last steps being taken to bring project on line
With the city of Onaway almost ready to begin hooking up the 173 phase one customers who live along the sewer collection system that’s already been installed, about 30 to 40 citizens gathered at St. Paul Hall to ask about the status of the project and to have questions answered. “I think it went extremely well,” said Hefele of the 75-minute public forum. “There were a lot of good questions. I think we answered a lot of them.
“There are still some things falling into place here at the last minute, but I felt that it was a very productive. I know all of us were glad to see the amount of interest and the number of people there.”
Hefele remains hopeful that sewer hookups will begin sometime this month. There is a sewer plant startup meeting Tuesday with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to discuss what needs to be accomplished.
“BASICALLY WHAT has to happen, the primary pump station at Chandler Park needs to have passed all of the different tests that are specified in the contract with Glawe (Inc.),” said Hefele. “We need to have one of the two lagoons having passed its test and available to accept waste flow.” Hefele said the second lagoon is currently being tested. The contractor was trying to find out why the first lagoon was experiencing a reduction of water and failed a test. The city manager believes it is nothing to panic about, although some citizens expressed a concern at Wednesday’s meeting. He said the water wasn’t going down at an alarming rate, but it was enough where it failed the test. Glawe is trying to determine if the problem is in the collection pools. “IN OTHER WORDS, here’s lagoon number two we have started testing,” said Hefele. “Here are some tubs that are much more firm and less flexible, so they don’t bend out, and here are the old tubs, and letR
“It’s just a little bit off right now,” said Hefele. In terms of the city making the hook-ups, the city needs to make sure there is enough funding “and some breathing room to ensure that we can do hook-ups throughout the entire community, as opposed to getting started and then running short near the end.”
The city also is trying to make sure they have the process straight with the State of Michigan Plumbing Department. Then, in the coming weeks, if everything finally falls into place, the long awaited sewer project will finally have its first customers.