Council hears request for sewer fix

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Nevada Daily Mail

Mary Harms, 1405 W. Wight St., told the city council that she saw in the newspaper that water and sewer rates were on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting and that made it seem to be a good time to come to the council with a problem her daughter has with sewers.

Harms told the council that her daughter lives in the last house on Prewitt Street that is in the city limits. The house is located quite a distance from a city sewer main that is up-hill from the house. Her daughter's house, and several other houses in that area ,have grinder pumps in manholes in the front yard, which pumps the ground sewage uphill to the sewer main. In fact, her daughter's yard has two manholes with grinder pumps in them.

These pumps and the lines they feed sometimes stop up and either floods the yard or house with untreated sewer.

"Her house has flooded twice in the last two years," Harms told the council.

Harms said that she helped clean up the sewage.

"It was not a pretty sight," she said.

"It's pretty devastating to disinfect and clean woodwork," she said.

Harms said she has been told that the sewer line is not the city's and it is her daughter's responsibility to fix it.

"She is paying the same for sewer as everyone else in town and is not getting the same service," Harms said.

"I know it won't happen today, but sometime when you have the money you can run a new sewer line.

"I had a property on the other side of town with grinder pumps with the same problem and they did fix it," Jayne Novak said.

"It hasn't flooded in three years," Novak said.

In other business the council:

* Voted 5-0 to approve the re-appointment of Jim Liley to his second and final three-year term on the Nevada Planning Commission.

* Voted 4-0, with Blake Hertzberg recusing himself because of a conflict of interest, to pass on first reading a special ordinance accepting the low bid from Hertzberg Furniture Co., for the purchase of 11 executive chairs and 60 side chairs for the new council chamber/courtroom for a total cost of $7,386.

* Held a public hearing and voted 5-0 to accept a general ordinance amending Chapter 40 of the Nevada City Code setting new rates and services charges related to the city of Nevada water. The new base rate for 1,000 gallons of water usage per month will be $14.28, an increase of $1.20 from the current rate of $12.98.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on first reading a general ordinance amending Chapter 29, relating to Sewer and Sewage disposal. The new rate will be $13.20 for the first 1,000 gallons of water, an increase of $1.20 from the current rate of $12.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on first reading a special ordinance approving a memorandum of understanding with Alliance Water Resources that will increase the contract's base amount by 2.9 percent, making the annual total $1,585,948, or $132,245.67 weekly.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on first reading a special ordinance accepting the lowest responsive bid from Roseta Construction of $1,996,880 for improvements to the city's sewer system.

* Voted 5-0 to give final approval to a special ordinance approving the issuance of about $50 million in industrial revenue bonds to finance improvements at 3M. Neither the city nor the state will be liable for the cost of the project.

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