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Durham City Council: Grayson property demolished at Durham

Contributing writer

At Durham's city council meeting Tuesday evening Mayor Glennon Crowther informed the council that Dalke Construction would come Wednesday morning to demolish the property formerly occupied by Debbie Grayson, which had been condemned by the city. Crowther said a Dumpster already was in place to haul off debris.

Other business discussed dealt almost entirely with the water system.

Verlin Sommerfeld, water supervisor, reported 387,550 gallons of water pumped in June with 321,950 gallons passing through the meters. That means a loss of 16.93 percent, much lower than before the recent work on the system.

Sommerfeld also noted he had made an error in reporting the loss rate for May. It was actually 19.29 percent, not the higher figure reported at the last meeting.

John Steele from Kansas Rural Water Association came to Durham with a listening device which is supposed to detect water leaks. He had used it on some of the meters and thought a portion of those had leaks. However, Sommerfeld commented, "I still see no place where there is water coming up."

Material for copper and lead monitoring had been received, and the council made plans for collecting samples for that purpose.

The council also discussed recent major fluctuations in water pressure. Pressure had dropped quite low for a while, especially in the lower part of town which usually has the highest pressure. Although nobody was able to find a reason for the drop, the pressure soon came back up.

"If it was a leak which caused the drop in pressure," remarked Sommerfeld, "it would not have come back up." Nobody had a reasonable explanation for the fluctuations.

A new valve recently installed in the water system had been run over by a wheat truck at harvest time, and the riser was broken. However, the valve apparently is still functional.

Sommerfeld had received a survey from Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said he would fill out the form and send it in. FEMA also recommended an emergency management officer for the flood plain in Durham.

Among the bills approved for payment were $164.89 to Dalke Construction for rock, $100 to Jim's Plumbing for digging at the elevator, and $70.66 for work to unplug the sewer.

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