By Nick Worth
In a move to upgrade the city’s sewer system and save money, the Holbrook City Council approved Ordi-nance 12-05 authorizing the purchase of a 90’x150’ lot from Mary Barker for $8,000.
City Manager Ray Alley told the council purchase of the property would allow him to get rid of one of the city’s 12 sewage lift stations. He noted that maintenance of the stations costs the city “tens of thousands of dollars per year.”
Alley later told The Tribune-News the lift stations are in place to pump sewage up from lower areas in the city, in order to reach the sewage treatment plant.
Each lift station consists of two motors, with control panels and an alarm.
“Because of the corrosive nature of sewage, they wear out fast,” Alley said.
He noted that purchase of the property would allow him to put in a new sewer line that relies only on gravity flow, with no need for pumps and motors. Alley also told the council that once the work is complete on the lot, it could be sold as a building lot and the city would recover part of the expense.
He said the $8,000 price tag on the lot included closing costs and following council approval, he could begin work on the project next week.
The council unanimously approved the purchase of the property.
In other business Aug. 15, the council:
* Heard a report from Chief of Police Mark Jackson that his department had hired a new officer, Sean Tyler, who is currently at the police academy and will graduate in December.
He also showed council members one of the new police cars received by the department and said he was doing the preparation work on the new vehicles himself, which saves the city about $3,000 per vehicle.
* Issued a proclamation establishing Navajo County Fair Days on Sept. 12-16.
“We’ve had over 20,000 visitors for the fair for the past several years,” Mayor Jeff Hill said. “We encour-age everyone to come to the fair.”
* Approved the payment of claims for July 19-Aug. 9.
* Approved payment for claims from Walt’s Hardware totaling $1,296.05.
* Awarded a contract to Cholla Ready Mix to haul off waste material taken out of the streets.
Alley told the council Cholla Ready Mix bid $85 per load and would provide a bucket loader. He said it was the cheapest bid and the same price as last year.
* Appointed Teri Walker as the city’s representative to the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG) Economic Development Council.
Hill said he was originally appointed, but could not regularly make the meetings. He said Walker would be a good choice since she works for the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce.
* Approved Saturday, Sept. 8, as a clean-up day to get the city ready to receive visitors to the Navajo County Fair.
Councilman Bobby Tyler said the city will provide gloves, vests and bags for the clean-up, and that the area to be covered would encompass the fairgrounds and up to one block on either side of Hopi Drive.
* Awarded a $7,350.17 contract to Laron, Inc. for work on a variable frequency drive pump project at the wastewater treatment plant.
City Accounting Assistant Ron Eisele told the council that the electric motors at the plant currently cost approximately $200,000 per year to run. Putting VF drives on the pumps will save a lot of money and there are potential rebates available from Arizona Public Service Co. He said two of the existing motors at the plant are equipped with VF drives, which have never been activated.
“The first step is have Laron troubleshoot the existing VF drives,” Eisele told The Tribune-News. “If they do this job well, we’ll move on to other projects.”
* Approved holding future council meetings just once per month on the third Tuesday of each month.
Hill noted Alley makes the council’s job much easier by proactively taking care of a lot of problems that used to be put on the council meeting agendas.
After checking the charter, Hill said the council is only required to hold one meeting per month, to be held after 5 p.m.
The next scheduled council meeting is set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18.
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