Hopkins water tower fixed, other work to commence

At the March 7 Hopkins City Council meeting, Chief Operator Chris Bird announced he had adjusted the maintenance schedule for Maguire Iron, Inc., Sioux Falls, SD.

The Hopkins water tower will have the interior wet renovation and steel work done this September instead of in 2023. This will increase the payment to Maguire from $5,000 to $30,417, the agreed upon contract price. He also noted Maguire Iron had fixed the water tower leak.

Alderman Randy Beason said it had been over 10 years since the tower had been cleaned out and checked. He would like to see more upkeep and preventive maintenance done on the tower.

September was chosen for the work because the tower will need to be shut down for several days while repair work is done. April was the other month Maguire Iron could work on the project. However, the city doesn’t want to cut off water to River Valley Ag during the planting and spraying season.

Haynes Equipment Company, Inc., Olathe, KS, will install the water treatment plant control panel this month which may result in the water being turned off for a short period of time.

Dennis Porter of Porter Trash Service, Maryville, attended the meeting to answer questions on his trash service and to present a new one-year contract. On missed stops, Porter said he has experienced turnover in drivers, but each time he’s been notified, he has sent the truck back out.

Residents should have their trash out to the curb by 7 am on pick-up days.

With gas prices and labor costs rising, Porter has raised his monthly rate per resident from $9.65 to $15.65 per month. The city will raise the rate to residents to $16.65 per month. A letter will be sent.

There will be a $5 per item charge for large items including furniture and appliances. Porter Trash will not accept tires or construction waste. Discussion was held on having a city-wide cleanup. No date was set.

The lien against the Hopkins American Legion property on Barnard Street has been removed with the payment being received by the city. The other three Barnard Street properties still have liens.

Letters have been sent to the owner of properties on Third Street which are collapsing. No response has been received.

The hard drive crashed on the city’s main computer and the files were unrecoverable. A new computer for $1,322 was purchased from MTE, Maryville. City Clerk Teddy Phipps had backups which allowed him to restore information that was only 2-4 weeks behind. He was then able to manually enter the loss information. The software will now be backed up to the cloud.

The mileage reimbursement was changed from 32¢ per mile to 50¢ per mile.

Discussion was held on applying for a Rickard Trust grant for cemetery flags. Roger Florea of the Hopkins American Legion had contacted Beason to run the grant through the city.