Marion, contractor to split cost of filter fix

Marion, contractor to split cost of filter fix

City will share in $ 1012,000 repair for water system with missing part

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion has agreed to split the cost to repair its water filter plant with the contractors.

The city’s water and sewer committee met with a representative from B& B Utility Contractors, who did the installation work at the filter plant, and worked out an agreement to fix the problem first and sort out the financial questions later in order to get the plant running properly again.

“I would like to get this behind us,” said Mayor Frank Fogleman. “And of course, the focus is getting it repaired so it is functional. Then we can sort out who pays for it down the road.”

The city shut down part of a water tank at the filter plant, which is located behind Trinity in the Fields Anglican Church, last November after it was discovered that sand and anthracite from the plant had gotten into a customer’s plumbing.

A forensic engineer hired by the city concluded that an improperly installed water nozzle somehow worked its way off and caused a depression in the sand and gravel filter media layers inside the tank.

The tank has a grid of nozzles below the filter media layers which are spaced out to ensure a unified flow rate of water goes down through the layers and that the water rises in a unified rate during the filtering process.

Fogleman estimated that the repair costs would be about $10,000 to $12,000.

The city has already spent $5,000 to reimburse East Arkansas Youth Services whose plumbing was damaged, $3,000 to hire the forensic engineer, and several hundred dollars that it will take to replace the media which had to be removed during the digging process to get to the bottom of the problem.

The city may also have to pay another $2,000 to Tonka Water Treatment Solutions, the equipment manufacturer, which sent a representative out to inspect the repair work.

Councilman Jim Spence who chairs the water and sewer committee, asked Fogleman what City Attorney James “Jimbo” Hale’s opinion was about splitting the costs.

“What’s Jimbo’s feeling on this?” Spence asked.

“You can imagine what Jimbo’s first reaction was,” Fogleman answered. “He’s since mellowed.’ Hale is the one who strongly urged the city to hire the forensic engineer as a neutral set of eyes to determine responsibility.

Mike Bell of B& B Utilities said he is eager to put the matter behind him and believes sharing the costs is fair and also the cheapest option.

“We are at a point where it can be fixed for minimal dollars,” Bell said. “We don’t know what happened. It could be my fault, or it could be something else happened. We’re hometown people here, and I don’t want to see us fighting or holding hard feelings. I’d like to see it come together, get it fixed, and split the cost.”

Bell said the only other option would be to dig deeper into the filter media inside the tank to find the actual nozzle, which could add another $10,000 to the cost compared to a couple hundred dollars for a few bags of filter media.

The excavation determined that there was no nozzle or plug in place. The forensic report indicated that there did not appear to be any thread damage nor did there appear to be any traces of any sealing glue.

The nozzles are hand tightened and sealed with a Teflon adhesive that bonds to the plastic piping.

“The fact is, we really don’t know what happened,” Bell said. “There is no debate that it’s not there. If there is any debate, it’s how it came out. My thinking is there is very little value in removing all of the media to find out whether there is a nozzle or plug in there.”

Bell said it is unlikely that they missed putting the nozzle in.

“You can’t miss it,” Bell said. “You have grids every 12 inches. You can not miss it.”

Bell said he would rather buy the bags of media and fix the problem without more digging.

“I‘ve had enough of this,” Bell said. “You’ve known me for 30 years. I take pride in my work. We’ve been around a long time and done a lot of work for the city. It’s gone way too far.”

Councilman David Bigger questioned why Tonka should not have to share in the costs as well.

“Why is Tonka off the hook?” Bigger asked.

“Why shouldn’t they take a share?”

“Because nothing is broken,”

Councilman Cliff

Wood answered.

Bell said he is willing to do whatever it takes to rectify the problem.

“I will help you do anything,” Bell said. “It’s not going to take us long to do it.”

Spence said the priority is to get the problem fixed.

“I’m ready to move forward,” Spence said.

“Me too,” Wood added.

Fogleman said the city already has a new nozzle and will order the bags of media, which will have to be shipped from Fort

Smith.

By Mark Randall