Knox officials continue working out kinks with the upgraded wastewater treatment plant. Wastewater Superintendent Jason Clemons told the board of works last month said he was still dealing with “little bugs and glitches,” like gas and other alarms that keep going off.
“For some reason, one of the alarms was tripped, going off non-stop,” Clemons explained. “It called me 23 times in a row, and I’m like, ‘You know what? Kill it. Shut it off. I’m not going to deal with it right now.'”
But he said a bigger concern was the organic load coming into the plant. “I’m not sure if there’s just not enough flow behind it and the engineer just messed up somehow, someway, but it’s settling in there and then once it – I call it denitrifying – it rises up again and it’s big masses floating in there that they’re having to break up and send it on down into the plant,” Clemons said.
He felt the issue was uncalled for, and he wanted the vendors to cover the cost of installing one or two mixer pumps.
Meanwhile, a back-and-forth negotiation continued over the city’s final payment amount to Thieneman Construction. The board had decided back in January to deduct $7,000, following a concrete pouring accident last year that led to the need for an unanticipated cold joint in the basement wall. Thieneman objected, wanting to provide a $7,000 maintenance bond instead.
But Mayor Dennis Estok told the rest of the board that the company has since only agreed to five years at a time, while the city asked for at least 10. “The question is, do you want to take them at their word?” Estok said. “Do you want to take them at their word that they’ll be down two months prior to the five years and if nothing’s wrong – with the trouble we’ve had with this company?”
Board Member Steve Dodge directed Estok to continue negotiating and get the full 10-year bond in writing.
