City of Durham continues major cleanup
Contributing writer
The April 4 Durham City Council meeting came in the middle of a successful town cleanup week. Mayor Glennon Crowther informed the council the large Dumpster furnished for the occasion already had been filled to overflowing. Stutzman Refuse Disposal had emptied and returned it.
"While the Dumpster is here," the mayor said, "maybe we should look through the stuff in this building (the newly acquired bank building) and dump what we don't want." The council agreed to meet Thursday evening for that purpose.
Crowther reported calling the county to learn whether material for patching streets is available. He had been told the city could obtain some, but there was some question about delivery. The council discussed possible options.
Prospective contractors had not yet turned in bids for the sidewalk project. The council decided to wait and see what develops since the project is not an urgent priority.
The mayor read a letter from the Marion County Commission announcing a meeting about economic development in the county scheduled for 7 p.m. April 20. Tentative plans were made for at least one member of the council to attend.
Verlin Sommerfeld, water supervisor, reported 340,250 gallons of water pumped in March with a loss of 29.55 percent. The lift pumps ran 32 hours. "I noticed the electricity had been off at the pump house for about 14 hours, but I never noticed any loss of pressure," he said. "Did any of you?"
Mike Sorenson and Joyce Medley both had been aware of some loss in pressure, but not enough to be a serious inconvenience.
Crowther mentioned that when B&B Services had repaired a leaky altitude valve at the water tower, they had offered a service contract for $135 which would cover checking out problems on an annual basis. The consensus of the council was this would not necessarily be a significant savings over paying the extra charge for one-time service when needed.
The mayor called the council's attention to printing work Gary Unruh has been doing without pay for the city and suggested some reimbursement for him.
"I'm not concerned about it," said Unruh.
"I know," Crowther answered, "but it isn't right for you to keep doing it for nothing."
Tom Harmon moved to pay Unruh $100 to cover supplies. On a second from Mike Sorenson, the motion carried 4-0 with Unruh abstaining.
Bills approved for payment included $576.14 to B&B Services for repairing the leaky altitude valve, $90 for tractor repairs, $46.79 for the water protection fee, and $155.17 to Water Wise for spare parts for the chlorinator and AquaMag pump.
Molly Holub is promoted, deployed
Marion High School graduate Molly Holub recently was promoted to the rank of specialist by the U.S. Army.
She recently was deployed to Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division (mechanized) assigned to a military police unit.
Holub is the daughter of Daniel and Rhonda Holub of rural Marion.
