New London council discussed starting storm water utility

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

NEW LONDON ? During its Tuesday night meeting, the New London City Council discussed the possibility of creating a storm water utility for the city.

?The perks of this, is it would provide a means of funding for construction, operation and maintenance of storm water management facilities,? explained Dan Berner, councilman, who presented the idea to the council. ?We?d be creating ourselves a fund that we could use to help to improve our storm water runoff issues.?

The city has had many issues with drainage problems, yet the money is not there to fix the problems. A storm water utility would charge property owners a flat rate ? i.e. one rate for a house and another for a commercial building ? and put this money into a fund that could be used to fix problems that arise.

?You?re going to make some people happy because we?re not going to have to say, ?I?m sorry sir, we just don?t have the money available to do that,? as compared to being able to say, ?Yes, we?ve got a place where that money can come to take care of that,?? said Mayor Mike McBeth.

The idea of a storm water utility was only a discussion item and no action was taken. Berner was asked to look into the idea more and get back to the council with more information.

?We?re going to have to make sure we?re prepared to lay some numbers on the table for the public,? said McBeth.

Ames, Burlington, Bettendorf, Coralville, Des Moines, Iowa City and Dewitt are some of the places listed by Berner that already use a storm water utility.

Another drainage-related issue discussed by the council was possibly completing a sump pump inspection in the city. The council ultimately decided to table the project for financial reasons.

The potential cost for the project was said to be $17,500. McBeth asked that the finance committee will look at numbers and see where the funding would come from and come back to the next city council meeting to say whether the project would financially work.

Looking at the amount of water going into the Washington Street lift station, it appears that there may be sump pumps hooked up to the sanitary sewer system.

?There is an extreme amount of water getting to that Washington Street lift station,? said Matt Walker of French-Reneker Associates. ?The average person uses 100 gallons of water a day, and that?s how those lift stations are designed. There?s a lot more than 100 gallons a day going into that Washington Street lift station.?

Having this excessive amount of water going into the system causes the sanitary sewers to back up, the pumps to run constantly and affects the plant. With the new mechanical plant that is in the works, it?s going to start costing the city more and more to treat what is essentially just rainwater.

The inspection would have either representatives from French-Reneker or someone from the city go door-to-door and ask to look in basements to see if the house has a sump pump and to where it is connected.

The city has an ordinance that it is illegal to have a sump pump hooked up the sanitary sewer, but there is no ordinance specifying what the penalty is for having it hooked up to the system.

In other business, McBeth updated the board on the status of the New London Veterans? Memorial.

So far the memorial committee has raised over $20,000 for towards the memorial, and $10,000 of that was raised at the street dance held in July, organized by Judy Wiegard.

?What a wonderful go-getter she is,? said McBeth. ?She?s ready for the next one ?bigger and better, in her words.?

Although the house currently on the future memorial site still needs to be demolished, McBeth said that it is getting closer to coming down.

?It?s going to happen. It?s going to come down,? said McBeth.

Fye Excavating will demolish it for the city at no cost other than the dumping fees.

?That saves us $8,000-10,000 based on other bids that we have taken in,? said McBeth. ?Fye Excavation really needs to be thanked for that.?

Because the company is volunteering its services, McBeth said he does not want to pressure them. However, he knows that someone from the company was talking with Denny Bozarth, public works supervisor, last week.

?That means we?re getting closer,? said McBeth.

In the meantime, McBeth encouraged the council to start pushing the signing up of names for the memorial. Those listed on the memorial must have ties to New London and be a veteran.

?You don?t have to be deceased. You just have to have served,? said Alisha Hudnall, council member. ?You don?t have to have served overseas. You just have to be a veteran.?

Applications can be picked up at Two Rivers Bank, Danville State Bank, the New London City Office and VFW Post 7641. There is also a link to the application under the veterans? memorial section of the city?s website, www.newlondoniowa.org.