Hopkins looks at waste water service

At the July 3 Hopkins City Council meeting, Chris Gutschow, director of business development for People Service, Inc., Omaha, NE, talked about the water and waste water services his company provides to 70 municipalities in the Midwest.

The company charges a flat monthly fee and tailors its services to the needs of the city. People Service can do only water/waste water management or expand the role to include other maintenance services in the city.

He stated that the company currently has 10 to 15 employees within an hour radius of Hopkins and that the company has 160 to 170 employees total.

Hopkins currently has a part-time maintenance position open for which only one application was received. The city is going to continue to advertise the position.

While Chief Operator Jack Baldwin was in St. Louis the previous week, Alderman Alan Thompson helped with the water treatment. Also, a sewer pump malfunctioned and former employee Nathan Baldwin worked six hours to repair it. The council approved paying him $30 per hour for the assistance.

Discussion was held on repairing or replacing an old blue pick-up truck which has not been operational. It was pulled to a service shop where it was determined its plastic timing gear was busted, in addition to the known clutch problem. The council directed Baldwin to get estimates on the cost of repair and to see what was available through Ford or Chevy fleets. It will be discussed further at the August meeting.

The council passed ordinance #457: A Lead Ban in Public and Private Drinking Water Plumbing. The purpose of the ordinance is to ban the use of lead materials in the public drinking water system and private plumbing connected to the system and to protect city residents from lead contamination.

Resolution #104 was passed turning the streets over to the Hopkins Community Club for the purposes of the Hopkins Picnic from midnight, Wednesday, July 5 to midnight, Sunday, July 9.