Brandon Foss, the city's water administrator, told the council the city is continuing a free lead service-line replacement program for customers with galvanized or lead service lines and urged residents to check the interactive map or contact the water office to schedule replacements.

"We're getting to the point where we're getting most a lot of folks that, we got 4 or 500 that we contacted more than 3 times," Foss said, describing outreach to customers with suspected lead or galvanized services. He said the program will continue for "another 2 or 3 years" and that city technicians will verify service-line material on request.

Foss said any current city water customer with a galvanized or lead service line leading into their home is eligible, including customers in townships served by the city. He said the online map on the city's website allows residents to search their address and see whether the service line is listed as galvanized, plastic, copper or other materials. Foss also said the city has about "3 to 4,000" service-line records that are either unknown or known to need replacement and that some residents have resisted replacement for unspecified reasons.

Foss told council members the city policy is to make multiple contact attempts; if the city contacts a customer "4 times and offer this service, free of charge, we'll basically be able to say, hey, if you have a leak on your service in the in the future, the city won't be responsible to replace it." Council members asked for ward-level lists; Foss said staff can provide an Excel list and that many of the pending contacts are in the Mount Vernon Road/Hudson Avenue corridor because of upcoming 16 North project work.

The statements at the meeting were informational and intended to increase participation; no ordinance or immediate funding change was proposed during the meeting.