Public Works reports new brine system, water-main repair and winter-storm response

Colin Belzer, deputy city manager, updated the Hays City Commission on Public Works activities and the city’s response to the winter storm. Belzer said a new brine production system installed as part of the 2025 budget replaced a 20-year-old unit and can produce between 5,000 and 6,000 gallons per hour compared with 1,000 gallons per hour for the old system. The new unit is automated and reduced a previously half-day, two-person clean-out process to about 20 minutes with a single employee.

Belzer reported a water-main break near 11th and Main in December; city crews repaired the line and repoured concrete and brick surface treatments. The city provided staff assistance to pour the front approach for a Kansas Highway Patrol hangar at the airport as a cost-saving measure.

Public Works operated 24-hour shifts during the only snow event of the winter and reported the following resource use for that response: 41,000 gallons of salt brine (equated in the presentation to 41 tons of salt), 50 cubic yards of sand, 145 tons of salt for sand-salt mixes, more than 550 gallons of fuel, and roughly 237 overtime hours recorded for Public Works alone. Belzer said other departments also logged additional hours in the event.

Staff also reported ongoing projects: continued work on the 13th Street reconstruction (north box extension, storm piping and inlet installation), replacement of approximately half of 14 hydrants scheduled for the year, and completion of geotechnical drilling at R9 Ranch to support water infrastructure design. No formal commission action on these items was taken at the Jan. 23 meeting.