(Posted July 14, 2016)
By Amanda Amsel, Staff Writer
Construction is progressing on Mount Sterling’s new water treatment plant. The village broke ground on the $6.7 million project in April.
“We will have a truck filling station,” said John Martin, village administrator, in an update at the July 11 council meeting. “Also, the plant is still set to open in June 2017. That date has not changed.”
Martin also informed council that the village’s 21 fire hydrants have been flushed. As a result, the water coming out is now crystal clear, he said.
“Most of you should also be getting better water now,” he added. “We had a hard water reading of 420 a month ago; now we are at 192. This is a huge improvement, so I hope residents are seeing the difference.”
The village continues to replace all indoors water meters with outdoor meters at residential properties.
“When the meters are inside the home, it is very labor intensive and hard to get into people’s homes to read them,” Martin said. “By having the meters outside the homes, we can better serve our customers and more accurately read the meters.”
The village hopes to all meters moved by this fall.
“This is going to be a huge financial benefit to the village as water is our biggest spender,” Martin said. “As a result of replacing these meters, we will be able to have more accurate water bills and save the residents money, too.”
Council member David Timmons asked Martin about the status of spraying for mosquitoes in the village.
“I have had several residents ask me if we will be spraying,” Timmons said. “They are complaining that there is a mosquito issue in the village.”
Martin said the Madison County-London City Health District has set up six or seven mosquito traps in the village and is testing the mosquitoes for the West Nile and Zika viruses. They also are collaborating with the village of West Jefferson to spray for mosquitoes.
Additionally, council approved the hiring of three new full-time staff members: Tyler Curtis, Dennis Cage and Ronnie Vansickle.
