Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Farmington City Council is set to decide at its next meeting, Oct. 21, whether to buy a remote readout monitor for the city’s sewer lift station.
Estimated to cost $4,300, the purchase cost for the town would be reduced to $3,300 with a grant from the city’s insurance company. It would eliminate the need for someone to personally check the pump’s readouts. The town’s permit for the 2006 lift station requires the numbers to be checked five times per week.
Mayor Ron Dugan does that now.
“I read the meter and walk my dogs so it’s fine with me,” he said, noting that reading the meters led to the discovery of a plug in the system earlier this year.
The remote reader idea came about, Dugan said, after he thought of setting up a camera in the lift station, before learning about the remote reader devices which can be programmed into a telephone or computer. An alarm system can also provide information.
The remote meter, if approved, could be set up in any location, such as the mayor’s residence or at the town’s “Fix-It Shop,” where Todd Lobdell, Farmington’s water maintenance supervisor, goes every day to check the chlorination in the town’s water.
The sewer lift station is connnected to a 28-foot deep wet well, which pumps sewage up to lagoons at the edge of town. The wet well reaches that deep in order for Farmington’s sewer pipes to function on gravity flow.
Dugan said it’s likely the town representatives will approve purchasing the remote reader.
“I think the council is going to pass it,” he said.
Dugan will leave office at the end of the year, when a new mayor will take over.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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