Susan McDaniel Havre Daily News smcdaniel@havredailynews.com
The Havre Wastewater Treatment Facility is badly in need of repairs and upgrades. This was the verdict delivered to the City Council at Monday night’s meeting by the Water and Sewer Committee. The committee held a meeting concerning the conditions at the treatment facility on March 20 and they met again on April 12 to discuss the sewer rates and a possible increase. As a consequence of those meetings, it was recommended to the City Council that a resolution be created to raise sewer rates. Among the work already budgeted for and scheduled are the installation of a new bar screen at the head works of the plant, dropping the west aerator after the bar screen is installed and fixing the return line, cleaning out the sand, resetting the deflectors and an overall inspection. Repairs to the roof and replacing two raw sewage pumps and valves are also scheduled. Work that still needs to be done and hasn’t yet been budgeted for are upgrading the aerators from mechanical to diffused air control, replacing two other raw sewage pumps, work on the grit removal equipment and changing the return’s control from air lift pumps to variable speed pumps. Changing the pumps will offer better operation control for the plant according to the five-year plan. Also needing to be done are dropping the east aerator to do a complete inspection and cleaning and dropping the east and west clarifiers to inspect and replace worn out parts. The City of Havre will notify all water users at least 30 days before a public hearing is held on the matter. During the public comment period Roberta Beute addressed the council about issues regarding Clack’s Acres subdivision and who is responsible for installing sewer And water lines to the homes in the area. Beute said that she believed the council had a social responsibility to resolve the issues surrounding the issue. Gary Schubert requested a public hearing about the proposed location of the Sletten Cancer Center which will be built on a piece of property that home owners in the area believed had been set aside as a park. The situation could not be handled during the public comment period. The issue will be looked into and the council will contact Schubert on what is found out about the property. Lou Lucke thanked the council for getting the city web page up and running. Lucke said that having all the city ordinances on the site was good and that he looked forward to seeing the minutes of the council meetings published there as well. Geraldine Laux, one of the owners of a new home in the Self-Help Housing program introduced herself and invited the council members to come out and look at the homes that are being built. Laux said that she had come to the meeting because of conversations with Roberta Beute and wanted to find out if the same issues impacted her property, which is also in Clack’s Acres. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, May 7.
