EAST LIVERPOOL — During Thursday’s meeting of the East Liverpool Board of Public Utilities, Tim Clark, Utility Director, told the board that everything regarding utility services is pretty much on track currently and that parts for the SCAIDA System are starting to show and they will be working to get together soon.

Clark also said they are working on getting all the operators certified in the lab and operational to meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements.

The Pope Street Reservoir has been painted and is all good. It was completed before school started with no issues.

The generator was taken back from Pope Street.

Waste Water Superintendent Dave Freeman and Water Superintendent Paul McCarthy were not in attendance at the meeting, so Clark delivered reports from them to the board members with his report.

According to Clark, Freeman said there wasn’t a lot going on this month in anticipation of the start of the upgrade and wait-time for parts to complete projects being worked on.

T.S. Elliot replaced a blower at the plant which should give full capacity back to both blowers which approximately $35,000 was spent on repairing.

Clark said they are still working on an issue they are currently having the sludge settling.

Getting the blowers in with the water running at 100% should help with that.

Wastewater held a joint class which allowed some of the employees to gain contact hours.

Clark said he met with Dallis Dawson and Associates and asked them for a schedule for the upgrades which is supposed to start in October.

Clark said he and Freeman met with the Strand Corp., the engineering firm being used for a few projects at the water and wastewater plants. He noted they are preliminary talks and that they chose them to be the engineering firm for at least one of the projects if not all three of the projects. They have asked for prices but have not made any decisions yet.

Clark noted that there have been four appointments made regarding the utilities and three of them have worked out well and is now asking that three temporary employees be passed onto to Civil Service to be made full-time employees with a probationary period. He noted that a fourth employee was not able to pass the Civil Service test. Clark said he went to Civil Service and asked them about some potential things that could be done to keep him.

The union said that they could extend his probation period, but he would not be allowed to be in the union during that time, but it would give him time to retake the test to meet hiring qualifications.

Clark said one of the projects the Strand Corporation has been awarded is the state Route 39 lead removal project. Strand has sent the city a proposal for the engineering work for the project in the amount of $125,000. A purchase order has been issued for the cost.

Clark said he will contact the law director to make sure it doesn’t need to be approved by council since it’s over the $75,000 limit. The board members approved and accepted the proposal. Clark said time is of the essence in this matter because the city has $1,532,000 grant which has to be awarded by April and the project which involved 137 lead lines has to bid by April.

Clark noted that utilities is waiting for the server to be connected, and he went to council which awarded $7,000 from wastewater and another $7,000 from the incinerator as a small payment towards the server and software.

Clark also said that he has gone to city council on the board’s behalf on three separate occasion to try to get council to allow the Board of Public Utilities to be able to set the rates and benefits for employees, but he has been met with some resistance on that. He said after meeting with the council’s finance and utilities committees that they are willing but are wanting more conversation on the matter. Clark said he would keep fighting that fight on behalf of the board and see where it ends.

The East Liverpool Board of Public Utilities meets the third Thursday of each month at 4:30 p.m. in council chambers at East Liverpool City Hall. Previously meetings were held at 2 p.m., but the time has now been changed to 4:30 p.m. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Oct. 16.