Ephrata to spend $135K for emergency well repairs
The city of Ephrata will be spending about $130,000 on repairs to one of the city's wells. The hope is that the repair is done in time for peak demand during the summer months.
FILE PHOTO
Interim Ephrata City Administrator Kurt Adkinson said the city needs to perform emergency repairs on one of its wells prior to summer demand getting into full swing.
Ephrata City Council Member Matt Moore said the city is looking to simplify its codes.
EPHRATA — The city of Ephrata is going to spend around $135,000 on emergency repairs to one of its wells.
According to Interim City Administrator Kurt Adkinson, the city needs to do emergency repairs work on Well 9, which serves the southwest portion of the city and provides some water to the reservoirs that ensure adequate water pressure in Ephrata.
“Well 9 was experiencing earlier in the year and for quite some time issues with pumping air,” Adkinson told city council members during a regular meeting on Wednesday. “The determination was made we needed to sink the pump deeper into the well.”
Adkinson said work would take about two weeks, and is needed before the full heat of summer arrives and water demand rises across the city. The staff report attached to the meeting agenda said the pump and lower well casings needed to be replaced, and Adkinson added that the well was torn apart and now it needs to be put back together as they lower the pump.
“We need to get it back,” he said.
The city council unanimously approved the expenditure and waived the competitive bidding requirements, awarding the contract to Lad Irrigation in Ephrata, which Adkinson said has already done about $30,000 in diagnostic work associated with the problem.
The council also voted unanimously to repeal two sections of the city’s code regulating pools halls — including restrictions on alcohol sales and prohibitions on gambling — and imposing monthly city licensing fees on pool tables, video games and pinball machines.
According to both Adkinson and Council Member Matt Moore, the repeal is part of a process to clean up Ephrata’s municipal code of old and outdated ordinances.
“These are two industries that are regulated by the state,” Adkinson said.
The ordinance imposed a monthly fee of $1 per billiard or pool table, $2.50 for any shuffleboard or bowling table, $5 for any pinball machine, and $2.50 for any video game machine. Moore said while it’s not a lot of money, the ordinance compels businesses to account for every table or machine they have and has forced some taverns and restaurants to either rid of their machines or not install them in the first place.
“It’s a fairly inconsequential amount of money raised, but it’s an extra fee,” he said.
Moore said he is looking at other possibly outdated city ordinances for the council to repeal in the future.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
