ARMA, Kan. — Early, this month, the Arma City Council approved costly repairs for its water plant filter, including a removal of media, inspection of the water tank, repair of the water tank, and replacement of the filter. The cost at that time was estimated to be around $48,000.
This week, city superintendent Austin Spragg returned to the council to talk about the next steps for the plant.
“The filter media has been removed, there’s no false floor there like they thought there might have been, based off those types of filters,” said Spragg. “They might have been retrofitted several, several years ago ... The cost to that kind of didn’t change where we thought $28,500 was going to be the cost to repair it. That cost didn’t change, but the scope of work did.”
The city crew initially presumed that the inside of the tank could have potentially been rotted and rusted. However, the floor of the water plant near the tank and filter is damaged, which means the cost of the total project will be greater.
“It’s not the walls, it’s the flooring,” said Spragg. “... The tank is sitting on concrete, so you have electrolysis that happens, like setting a battery on concrete. Over time, that concrete is going to heat through that metal ... They’ll come in, sandblast all the metal, the paint off it, they’ll put an epoxy floor in and then they’ll come back in and put the coating paint and seal it up good. There’s no guarantee on how long this will last ... This is going to get us by maybe a couple of years. This isn’t something that’s going to fix this permanently ... It’s a $12,000 Band-Aid.”
Following discussion, the council approved a bid from Starbuck Trucking to conduct the repairs at a price not to exceed $12,000.
Fire Department & Library
In other business, the council heard from Arma Fire Department/Crawford County Fire District # 2 Assistant Chief Brandon Hubbard and Arma City Library Director Shelley Corley.
Hubbard updated the members on training and the department’s busy schedule. According to Hubbard, so far this year, the fire department has had 356 calls.
“We’ve got a new contract with the state of Kansas for wildfire deployment,” added Hubbard. “So we are going to be start deploying our guys more often ... You guys are probably going to see the trucks out quite a bit. We’ve got several new faces ... They are going to be learning their driver’s training.”
Corley highlighted the Arma City Library’s food pantry, which is open every Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. According to the report, the pantry served 46 individuals in May and 19 families. So far through June, the pantry has assisted 17 individuals and 10 families.
Pantry needs are oatmeal, canned tuna, grape jelly, pancake mix, syrup, spaghetti pasta, and pasta sauce.
Corley also noted that the Arma City Library is planning to change its hours from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The next council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, July 6. Meetings are held at the council meeting room next door to Arma City Hall, located at 701 E. Washington St. For more information or to be placed on the agenda, call the Arma City Hall at 620-347-4125.
This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.
