By Matt Clevenger
For Miami Valley Today
WEST MILTON — The village of West Milton will begin conducting annual backflow preventer inspections on residential and commercial properties, checking for water or sewage leaks that could contaminate the village’s water system.
“This is something that you have to test on an annual basis,” municipal manager Jeff Sheridan said. “If there is a backflow issue it can contaminate our entire system, so it’s really important to have a backflow preventer.“
“The county has been doing the testing,” Sheridan said, “We’re going to take it over, and test the appropriate businesses and structures here in West Milton.”
Council members discussed the new backflow preventer program during a workshop meeting on Tuesday, May 25. Approximately 60-80 commercial and residential properties throughout the village will need to have backflow preventers inspected.
“There are some residential,” Sheridan said. “It has to do with the size of the structure; mainly it’s if there’s a sprinkler system or it’s a larger commercial enterprise.”
“One of our issues is the county wasn’t testing everybody they should,” he said. “It’s much easier for us to know who needs to be tested.”
Property owners will pay a fee for testing, and the program is intended to pay for itself. “They pay an inspection fee that normally just covers the staff time,” Sheridan said. “We’ll figure that out; we’ll probably start it at $20-25, and see how many hours it takes.”
Council members also discussed the possibility of combining the annual backflow preventer inspections with regular Fire Department inspections. “We’re going to be starting the program,” he said. “Our staff has got it all set up; we will be doing this in-house moving forward.”
In other business, council members also discussed two resolutions that will be introduced for a vote during the next village council meeting. One of the upcoming resolutions would authorize the purchase of water meters, and additional toters for the village’s trash collection program. The other resolution would authorize changes to the village’s contract for the Ludlow Falls sewer project.
“We’re down under one hundred 96-gallon toters,” service director Ben Herron said, “and the lead time is about eight or nine months.”
“It would probably be in our best interests to just get maybe 200 coming, to cover anybody who needs to switch and Stillwater Crossings,” he said. “We won’t be paying for this until next year; I’m guessing if we order now, maybe early next January or February.”
The toters cost $61.30 each, plus shipping, and 200 of them will cost the village a total of $13,967.91. “Our goal was to try and have around 150-200 of each to cover changes in the future,” Herron said. “We’re doing good on the 48-gallon; I think we have at least a couple hundred of those.”
The new water meters will include 12 5/8-inch residential meters, and commercial water meters that will be used for Stillwater Crossings. The residential meters will cost $3,816.30; the commercial meters will cost $22,893.68.
“We only stock the minimum amount,” Herron said, “but now that it’s taking so long, we wanted to order some 5/8” meters, which are standard residential, plus we want to get all our meters in stock for all the commercial at Stillwater Crossings.”
Council members also discussed an upcoming resolution to increase the amount of a contract for installing forced-main lines for the Ludlow Falls sewer project. “We had two change orders; one that deducts $109,079.54 and the second increases the project by $207,355,” Sheridan said.
The contractor had originally planned on drilling to install the main line, but was forced to switch to an open-cutting method due to excessive rock in the project area.
“What they’ve done is take out the lower-cost directional drilling,” Sheridan said. “They hoped they could do that; and replaced it with the open cutting which you can see is about twice as expensive.”
Council members also heard an update on a new program to add decorative flower pots at different locations throughout downtown West Milton. Council plans to order ten of the decorative planters, which will be paid for by the West Milton Rotary Club. “That’s exciting,” council member Sarah Copp said. “I think it will be about two to three weeks.”
“I met with the Rotary,” Copp said. “They graciously offered to buy those. They’re looking to help any way they can.”
Council members’ next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, June 8 at the West Milton municipal building.
