BOWDEN - Town council has authorized staff to spend nearly $257,000 to line up to 51 manholes. The idea is to prevent runoff from leaking into them and jacking up the town's sewer bill.
Council made that decision after being alerted to the problem by Mayor Robb Stuart and interim chief administrative officer Jacqui Molyneaux.
"Public works has discovered that runoff is filtering into the town's manholes, causing our wastewater billing to record this runoff into the sewer system," Molyneux wrote in a report. "Administration would like to have the manholes lined so that the runoff will no longer incur extra charges on our wastewater billing."
"We popped a few manhole barrel lids and found out we have a significant inflow through the manholes themselves; like they're just four-foot sections with no gasket or anything," Stuart told councillors.
"So I think we should switch from cameraing the lines, which we spent a lot of money on and didn't get much back, to lining the manholes. You spray it with a polyethylene -- it's pretty proven (method)."
Coun. Wayne Milaney, who works in the construction industry, agreed.
"It's a good product," he said. "It works quite well after you do it."
In her report, Molyneaux said the town has used $23,163 of a $280,000 budget for wastewater pipeline rehabiliation, which was approved in 2017. That money had been used to camera sewer lines in an effort to find out where all the extra water was coming from. That leaves $256,837 unspent.
Molyneaux said it will cost about $5,000 to redo each manhole and about 100 have to be lined. She calculated that with the remaining money, 51 manholes could be done this year.
Council passed a motion approving the project.
"We'll get a multiple discount though, right," Coun. Kerry Kelm asked, sparking laughter. "Well," he added, "they're doing 50 of them, they should give you a discount, right?"
