City Council approves update to water controller

The Malta City Council last Tuesday approved the purchase of $56,875 upgrade to the broken controller at the town's water tank.

At an earlier City Council Meeting, Public Works Director James Brown told the council that the controllers at the water tower in town were not working and that City Works employees were climbing the tower to manually adjust the water pumps.

"A guy is getting a half-hour of overtime per day to run out there and check the pumps," Brown said. "They are having to climb the tower at night to make sure the pumps are working."

Brown explained that the pumps at the tower fill the water system throughout the town and the water left over goes on to fill the water tanks. When the tanks reach 18-feet deep, the pumps shut off. When the problem with the pumps started, the water levels and water pressure around town started to drop.

Since then, Director Brown checked with two different companies to see about upgrading the controls on the tower. Brown said that the first option to fix the pump controller would be to have a company come and fix the already existing – and broken-system. The Price tag on the patch-up was quoted at $6,000.

"And there are no guarantees that this will fix the problem or how long it would work for," Brown added.

The second option Brown found, called an I-Control System – has a price tag of $60,902.

"It is pretty fancy," Brown said. "It uses radio waves from the pumps to the hill."

Brown added that WiFi would be needed at the tank at a cost of $70 per month and an extra annual charge of $1,440 a year for an annual user fee.

"This system is very high-tech," Brown said. "You can check the water levels from a PC or even your Smartphone."

Brown said that he discovered another option as a company from East Helena came to town to assess the situation. Brown said he was quoted a price of $56,875 – the job would take six weeks to complete and the price includes instillation with no yearly fee – to install an upgradable control system.

"It is my recommendation to go with the second option," Brown said.

The City Council unanimously approved the request.

The costs of the new controls system will come out of the $500,000 that the City Council set aside from this year's budget for waterworks. Since the cost of the work is under $80,000, the City Council does not have to request bids for the job.

City Works Director Brown also informed the Council Members that the city crews have been busy getting the town's Christmas decorations put up for display. He said the Malta Chamber of Commerce recently donated Christmas banners to the town and new holders are being put together to display them.

"They have snowflakes and they say 'welcome'," Brown said. "We are going to make 10 banner holders out of exhaust pipes to secure the banners and keep them from blowing away."

Brown said there are currently 38 bales of clean and dry cardboard but added that at this time, no one is looking to purchase them for disposal. Mayor Shyla Jones added that she has been in talks with a company who says they will be looking for loads of cardboard in February.

During the Clerk's portion of the Tuesday night's meeting, Clerk and Treasurer Lorie Bond informed the Council that Digger Hanson came by City Hall and "farmer-ized" a slot which was formerly used by the Dispatcher's Office.

"All I had to say was 'what do you think of that'," Bond said when she showed Hanson the slot. "He said he could fix it and make it look nice."

"It looks much better now," Mayor Jones added.

During the New Business portion of Tuesday night's meeting, two members of Girl Scout Troop 3995 – Jamison Schaaf and Micaela Missildine – and Troop Leader Glenda Knudsen – asked the City Council for permission to do a make-over on their office next to the City Hall. The Girl Scouts – in order to earn badges – are going to re-paint and repair the room and build a new shelf and re-purpose an existing cabinet in the room. A total of five Girl Scouts will do the work on the room.

The City Council approved the Girl Scout's request and will cover the cost of paint for the task.