The rain continues to come which is indeed great for our agriculture, but please be patient with the City as rain does increase and bog our work down. The Street Project has been delayed several days due to the rain. The contractors are at key points in connecting the storm water lines and if not done in dry conditions, it could undermine the underlying foundations. So until a few dry days come back to back, the work will continue to be slow.
The sewer contractors finished their work Friday, May 15th but there are still a number of manholes that need to be raised by the City crew. These manholes had previously been buried beneath inches (and in some instances feet) of dirt or asphalt. The crews will install collar risers to raise the lids. But due to the rainy conditions, the crews are busy trying to keep up with much needed (and required) mowing at the lagoon, airport, lake, and around town. In addition, the rain has deteriorated several heavily used alleys. The city crew is attempting to get to these as well.
The crews are also hard at work installing new padmount transformers at the power plant to maintain low voltage power in the building and keep the work flowing to the next phase of construction with the electric contractors. The power plant project continues to hum along and take shape.
In addition to the needed power plant work, the City crew is also making immediate plans to replace a couple broken valves just east of Main Street along Highway Street. Before the contractors can begin working on the water mains under Main Street, the City crew will need to successfully shut the water off to these lines which will require a couple of days of valve replacements.
All in all, it’s a very busy time for the much stretched city crew. The City has reached out to a couple of communities for assistance, but they are busy as well with their own projects. So please be patient with the City as this is a very busy time.
For anyone interested in the City Administrator position, an advertisement has been listed on the League of Kansas Municipalities website: http://www.lkm.org/classifieds/jobs/. Please pass the word along to anyone qualified who is interested.