Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Infrastructure Utilities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Versailles outlines $1.2 million street reconstruction bid, wastewater study and electric repairs after storm damage
Summary
Village Administrator Francis told council staff will pursue an OPWC grant for a W. Wood Street reconstruction estimated at $1.2 million; the village also reported a wastewater plant RFQ visit, clarified waterline progress, and described storm-related electric outages and a semi-truck pole strike.
Village Administrator Francis reported a slate of infrastructure and utility updates to the Versailles Village Council on July 24, saying staff will pursue outside funding and undertake studies and repairs to maintain service and support future growth.
Francis said the village is working with Access Engineering Solutions to submit an Ohio Public Works Commission application for reconstruction of W. Wood St. between S. West St. and Columbia St., including remaining portions of Columbia and Pearl streets. The scope would include replacement of sanitary sewer, water, storm sewer, concrete curbs, sidewalks and roadway at an estimated cost of $1.2 million.
On water and wastewater, Francis reported that all water service and water main work west of Washington St. for the N. Central Waterline Improvement Project is complete on the west side and crews are conducting trench patching and lawn restorations as the project progresses; east-side work continues and full road closures will likely be needed to make several service connections. Plant operators drained and cleaned the water plant clarifier July 20, which staff said improved the plant’s ability to take roughly 2.5 times more raw well water by removing calcium carbonate buildup. Representatives from Jacobs Engineering visited the wastewater treatment plant July 23 in advance of a planned Request for Qualifications for an engineering study budgeted in the 2024 CIP to plan future expansion and improve treatment processes to meet OEPA requirements.
Francis also described recent electric system incidents. A July 10 thunderstorm produced a lightning strike that blew line fuses and knocked down a street light pole; on July 11 a fault on Electric Circuit #5 traced to two failing pothead connections at an E. Water St. substation riser required reconfiguration to Circuit #8 until repairs and hardware replacements were completed, with the circuit back to normal operation around July 16. Also on July 11 a semi-truck knocked down a village power pole on Jamison Road and damaged several overhead and below-ground communication cables; mutual aid from New Bremen was required and power restorations continued through that evening.
Francis said electrical engineers from GPD Group assisted with programming a new recloser and are performing a coordination study and capacitor-bank sizing intended to improve fault response and reduce outage spread across circuits. Separately, the village plans to purchase 244 residential AMI electric meters from Core & Main at a cost of $49,863.84 to replace out-of-town meters and stop customer self-reading.
Fiscal Officer Kathy Ording told the council the village received a $167,580 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to pay for the pool filtration system and the General Fund advance has been repaid; she also distributed June financial reports and said that income tax collections after June were $241,890.90 lower than June 2023.
Next steps noted in the minutes include pursuing the OPWC funding application, issuing the RFQ for wastewater engineering services and continuing electric-system coordination work with consultants. The minutes do not record public comment on these items.
