By Annika Doberenz
The Wykoff City Council met per their usual schedule at 7 p.m. on July 8, the second Monday of the month, and after the meeting was called to order, it began with the Pledge of Allegiance.
One of the most major issues brought up at the meeting was that of the recent malfunctions of the wastewater plant. Several integral parts have stopped working, and the result is that those parts now need to be replaced as soon as possible. Rick Whitney, who is contracted with the city and in charge of the plant, explained the situation to the council.
“We’ve had a few issues out at the wastewater plant, and most notably, on Saturday, we had a power outage. We lost two blowers and an influent and an effluent meter. I suspect it was due to the automatic transfer switch, which is supposed to smoothly transfer power from the generator to the plant or line power from line energy to the plant… What the blowers do is provide oxygen to the wastewater plant so that the plugs are happy and we’re meeting our nitrogen and ammonia limits.”
Recognizing the severity of this issue, the council promptly moved to not only replace the broken parts as soon as possible, but also to make sure that there are preventative measures enacted in the future to ensure that something of this magnitude does not occur again.
On a similar note, Mike Lund informed the council of issues that have cropped up concerning the foundation of the fire department. “From what I can see, I would say that the northwest corner of the building is sinking,” Lund said in his report. “You can see the concrete has cracked and it’s opening up inside more and more.”
Whether this is happening because of the recent downpours is unknown at this point in time, but there are also potential issues concerning the situation of the water and sewer lines that run behind the fire department. The probability of other systems being impacted by the building’s shifting is rather high, especially when considering that there have already been some pretty major problems with the wastewater system over the last week. However, it does not seem to be an imminent threat, and the council and others who are involved are working diligently to make sure that the situation is thoroughly taken care of.
The council chose to table the issue at this meeting, since they are expecting more conclusive information, including video footage, to arrive within the next few days. It was decided that, when the additional information does arrive, they will likely hold an emergency meeting to discuss the most efficient way of dealing with these important and time-dependent concerns.
As a more positive topic, the council was updated by member Jeff Hare on the progress being made on the new softball field. Due to the constant rain that the area has experienced over the past few months, the ground has been too soft to install the fence, but with the expected break in the precipitation, the work should soon be back on track. Although it does not look like Wykoff’s softball team will be able to play any games on the field this season, the hope is that the workers should be done at least by the end of the summer.
In addition to these matters, the council moved to accept two new hires: Matthew Gethje and Lee Novotny. Gethje will be filling the city’s now-unavailable zoning position, while also still working at Handyman M.G., the company he started. As for Novotny, he will be the city’s new prosecuting attorney.