Chrisman City Council discuss weir repair
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The Chrisman City Council meeting was held on Monday, March 7th. The first order of business included approval of the Chrisman American Legion liquor license renewal and the posting of a seasonal mowing position. Claims were also approved for the amount of $222,180.33. Approval for a building permit for 401 West Washington Avenue was also granted.
Dan Moore, Chirsman Area Community Club President was in attendance at the meeting to discuss plans for the Sesquicentennial that will be held September 8th-11th 2022.
“Things are pretty well placed, but we haven’t finalized anything,” Moore said. “We should have it finalized by May at the least.”
Moore asked if the City of Chrisman would be interested in buying a banner to put across the highway to advertise for the celebration. Moore had checked with Superior Graphics in Paris for pricing. A banner at the size of 5×20 would run about $650.00. “They said if you get it cheaper somewhere else, they would lower their price to match it,” Moore said.
The position of the banner would be by the Chrisman Elementary School at the underpass. Permission would have to be granted by Ameren to place the banner in that area. The banner would include the dates of the Sesquicentennial and the emblem that will be featured on the coins that are being made.
“I say go for it,” Mayor Danny Owen said.
Moore said the committee also wanted to have an open ceremony for the celebration that included the Chrisman elementary kids as well as the junior high and high school students. “We want to include the kids as much as we can,” Moore added.
On a different note, Moore mentioned the campers that he had seen being parked around town. The city has an ordinance that states vehicles without stickers are in violation. “We’re getting a lot of campers and some of them do not have stickers on them,” Moore said.
Mayor Owen told Moore to give Police Chief Tom Dolan a list of the campers to have Dolan check it out.
“We need to act on it,” Dolan said.
Moore also mentioned that lights were still out and had to get in touch with a state worker to have the matter handled. “I don’t know what you have to do to get Ameren down here,” Moore said. Commissioner Cory Chaney said that he would look into it.
“Give me the location and I’ll give it to them,” Chaney said.
Commissioner Bryan Haddix told the council that he was waiting for the city attorney, Robert Morris, to finish paperwork that is to be sent to USDA so bids can be opened for the sewer project.
“I spoke to our engineer today and he said there’s nothing we can do until we get the paperwork,” Mayor Owen said.
Haddix stated that everything had been done on the city’s end concerning signatures and is being delivered to the recorder’s Office.
“We’re just waiting on him to approve it and get it to them,” Haddix said. “Give me his number, I’ll call him Tuesday.”
In a previous email from the attorney, it was stated that the matter would take only five days, but that time period has since passed. Haddix suggested sending another email telling him that USDA is waiting.
The current backhoe that the city is using has started producing problems. “I looked at it before the meeting and the leaking is substantial,” Commissioner Brice Stratton said. Mayor Owen suggested to get prices on repairs and replacing it – this way the city can make a better decision on what to do.
Commissioner Thad Crispin gave an update on the electricity that was supposed to be added to the Centennial Park pavilion.
Work was to start last week, but due to a family emergency, it had been moved to this week to begin.
Also, Crispin has been thinking of ways to make the park more presentable for Chrisman Days. “We can kind of clean up and put new pea gravel around the equipment and clean that up some,” Crispin said. “It looks better all around instead of the mud and weeds.”
Concerning Chrisman Days, Commissioner Haddix stated that he wanted to make sure that Centennial Park was ready for the tractor pull.
Erik Bohle mentioned that Fehr Graham will have two guys starting the process of putting a ‘band-aid’ on the weir at the water treatment plant. On the sixteenth, someone will be available to use as the operating engineer to make sure the process goes smooth. “They’re thinking they will have it done in a week,” Bohle said.
With the excess flow clarifier, Bohle hopes that this fixes the problem. “I won’t know until we get it all set up,” Bohle said. “Theoretically, they’re going to basically put a short force main in from the weir to the other plant.”
This fix will circumvent the miscalculation of the size of the weir. The miscalculation causes the gravity flow to not function properly.
“We’re going to put two pumps on the outside of the weir,” Bohle said. “The weir is too small in the way its designed.”
The weir should’ve been nineteen and a half feet taller than what was designed. Being that small, it’s not able to separate the water. “Is this on Fehr Graham?” asked Commissioner Crispin. Bohle stated that it was.
Bohle said that he would like to not pump it due to ‘more money, more maintenance’. The elevation isn’t remotely close to use gravity in this situation. “I don’t know what is going to come of the new weir or the weir that’s there,” Bohle said.
When a rain event happens, Bohle says that he has no way to control it at that point. Valves will be put out at the plant.
“I’m going to have to live and die by the weatherman,” Bohle said. “When we know there’s going to be a weather event, somebody is going to have to go to the plant and open the valve and close two valves and let the rain event happen. When the rain event subsides, we get our flows caught up, switch the valves back and they’re going to be manual valves.”
In addition, Mayor Owen stated that work on the storm drain that goes through the middle of town would be worked on in the next week or two.
