Pickering proceeds with temporary fix at sewer plant

The Pickering City Council decided to proceed with a temporary fix at the sewer plant during its regular meeting on February 4.

The vinyl liner at the sand filter trap has tears which need to be fixed. The council is going to put wooden boards around the top edge of the liner to keep it in place until spring, when more extensive repairs can be undertaken. The council approved a maximum of $100 to be used for the repair.

City Clerk Milt Sovereign discussed the necessity of promoting the renewal of the street tax levy for the city. This levy will be on the April 2 ballot and is the continuation of the already existing levy of $1 per $100 valuation of personal and real property. Without this tax levy passage, no work can be done on Pickering’s city streets.

Sovereign also stated the monthly $2.10 per sewer account the city pays to Public Water Supply District is well worth the money. The district takes care of billing, reading the meters and other necessary bookkeeping .

For November usage, paid in December by the customer and paid to the city in January, there were 69 customers with an average charge of $31.22. Four accounts were unpaid and two were written off as bad debt.

Sovereign said as long as the city can show an increase in revenues over expenses, the Missouri Department of Revenue won’t force the city to raise the sewer rates.

He also said there were no sewer pump failures during the extremely cold weather. He has four replacement pumps at his house in case of an emergency during a bad snowstorm.