Utility Board talks water rates, access to dirt in lieu of voting

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

CLOVERDALE -- A meeting of the Cloverdale Utility Board became something else when three of the five members of the board were not in attendance.

With only board president Cathy Tipton and Larry Fiddler present, no actions requiring a vote could be taken, including the approval of the agenda for the meeting. Instead, interim utility manager Rich Saucerman presented problems he'd been having and discussed possible solutions with the board members who were present.

Utility clerk Melissa Boldman discussed different ways to make the public aware that a water rate increase would be coming at the start of 2011.

"Starting Jan. 1 there'll be a rate increase of 3 percent," Boldman said. "That's just for water, not for sewer."

Saucerman brought up a pile of dirt outside the Cloverdale sewer plant and how to best dispose of it.

Saucerman said he considered Friday a good day to allow the public access to the dirt, which has some concrete in it, but did not come to an official decision at that time.

Town Attorney Alan Yackey suggested Saucerman use a form that clears the town of any liability when putting the dirt in a vehicle.

Saucerman brought up one of the fire hydrants on Lazy River Road.

"It's had an out of service sign on it for nearly a year," Saucerman said. "The people in the neighborhood know that and they want it fixed."

Saucerman said there might be three hydrants that need to be replaced and the cost to replace a hydrant was around $2,500.

Since there was no quorum, the board could not vote on the hydrant, but Saucerman said the board might have voted to approve a new hydrant before the spending freeze from earlier this year went into effect. Yackey said if a vote took place, those repairs that were approved could occur.

Saucerman discussed different uniform options for the utility workers, including the possibility of renting uniforms.

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