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City manager reports progress on water projects but acknowledges reporting lapse on environmental notice
Summary
City Manager Whitehead told the Truth or Consequences commission that the Whiskey One water project is ready to go to bid and crews have repaired dozens of leaks, but acknowledged the city failed to timely report progress to the environment department on two compliance items — there was no boil order and tests continue to pass.
City Manager Whitehead told the Truth or Consequences City Commission on Jan. 16 that the city is making significant progress on water infrastructure but that a public-notice error caused unnecessary alarm for some residents.
Whitehead said crews have repaired 65 water leaks between Oct. 22 and late November; late in November the city brought in a contractor who repaired 16 leaks while the city team addressed 49. He said the city is down to about 16 active leaks at the time of the meeting and is working to prioritize repairs by severity. "The water team shows up every day and they work," Whitehead said.
On larger projects, he said the Whiskey One project — described as the city’s most significant water-system upgrade in years, potentially adding pressure relief valves — is nearly ready to go to bid. He described Folk Street construction as progressing well and said crews expect to begin placing sidewalks soon.
Whitehead also addressed a notice the environment department required the city to send. He said the main problem was a failure to timely report that most of the required corrective work had been completed: "If the water department would have sent the letter in timely saying we fixed 18 of the 20 issues and here's our plan to finish the last two, we would have been compliant." He emphasized there was no boil order and that routine system tests are passing.
Why it matters: The repairs and major projects affect system reliability and planned capital work that has required temporary disruptions. The reporting lapse had communications consequences for residents who read the notice and were alarmed by the presentation of the issues.
Commissioners asked for more precise public communication; one commissioner said the agency notice ‘‘alarmed everybody on the front page’’ and recommended clearer outreach. Whitehead said staff would coordinate to improve future public notices and internal reporting.
Next steps: Whitehead said the Whiskey One project may move to bid and that staff will continue leak repairs and follow up on the two remaining environment-department items; he offered to answer commission questions about the leak list and public notice procedures.
