Extending water line outside Kingston city limits will be costly
During Kingston’s regular board of alderman meeting on June 1, David Bethel, Water/Sewer Superintendent, produced some figures regarding the proposed water line running down HH Highway. Bethel reported that there will be approximately six miles of pipe, mostly 4” and 3” in diameter. Calculating at peak flow hours at 12 gallons per minute per connection, the pressure at the end of the line would be 32.37 lbs. Bethel said that normal pressure is about 70. The cost will be over $300,000, and with 17 additional connections, they are looking at $19,000 per connection. Fleming mentioned that Hamilton raised their water usage rate outside their city limits to 2-1/2 times.
The board discussed the possibility of grant money for the expense. Bethel said another option would be to use the city’s bonding capacity of $250,000 to run the line. Currently, a connection fee of $1,200 is charged for citizens in Kingston to hook on to the city water line.
Mayor Chris Kipp gave a $250 check to the board that was donated by Caseys in Polo to help with the building of a fence around the ball field in the city’s park. Caseys name will appear on the fence as a sponsor of the project.
Alderman Ron Fleming asked the council when he would receive payment for the work that his construction company did in building the city hall. Fleming needed to pay his workers, and said that if he had known the city wasn’t going to pay in a timely manner, he would have personally paid them from his own account. The board looked at various city accounts from which to draw the funds. Alderman Brad Campbell said he would talk to the city’s secretary, Shorty Miller, to see where they could release money to pay for the construction.
Water/Sewer Superintendent David Bethel produced a revised ordinance regarding how bills were calculated for water usage. The ordinance clarified that water usage was billed by rounding to the nearest 100th gallon. The board voted and approved the ordinance.
Debby Leeper came in while the meeting was in progress with a check to the council from the ball program account. Per Debby’s request, the city will now take over that account and use it as needed.
Bethel brought two water meters to the meeting for the board to look at. He had installed six new iPERL meters for three months. Using a five-month average with the old meters, the city was billing for an average of 13,100 gallons. During the last three months since they had been using the new iPERL meters, they have been billing for 20,000 gallons, indicating that the old-style meters were not reading the total flow. Over the past five months before the new meters were installed, the city billed for 41,700 gallons. This month, Bethel said, they billed for 46,700 taking the average water loss from 26% to 23%. The cost of the Neptunes is $75 each vs. the iPERL at $125 per meter with an average life of ten years.
Bethel said that the city received free LED lights for the new city hall from a LED replacement program offered by Ameren Missouri. There will be a charge for fluorescent bulb replacements but the cost will be reduced.
The county ambulance district is getting a new ambulance and they will be receiving it two months earlier than expected. Bethel said they have asked if they could store it in the MoDOT building until they build on to their ambulance barn. The county will then have three ambulances; one will be used as a backup unit. The board gave their approval.
