The Annandale-Maple Lake-Howard Lake Wastewater Commission met Thursday night, Dec. 20, at the wastewater facility in Albion Township.
Unlike the commission’s previous meeting on Sept. 20, when only three of seven members were present, six members attended, meaning they were able to vote and pass several measures, including the purchase of a new tank at the Howard Lake facility.
Facility Operator Joe Haller of the City of Annandale proposed the purchase of a new smaller tank at Howard Lake. That facility currently has two smaller tanks – similar to what is used in Annandale and Maple Lake – and two larger tanks.
The larger tanks were installed in case of large rainfall events and are currently not in use. One of the tanks is in need of a speed control device, which would cost $20,000, Haller said.
"To replace the speed control on a pump that isn’t used is not a good use of funds, in my opinion," Haller said. "To me, it makes more sense to take one of the larger pumps out and replace it with a smaller pump.
"I would like to have a tri-pump station there. What we have is not user-friendly and is not consistent."
"Basically, what we have is two pumps running at about 50-60 percent throttle and two pumps running at basically zero percent," said commission member Dewey Gunnarson, who ran the meeting in place of absent chair Roger Millner.
Gunnarson asked if doing nothing was an option. Haller said in that scenario, if one of the tanks goes down, that creates a troublesome scenario.
"We have two similar pumps in Annandale," Haller said. "We know their history and what they can handle."
Haller said the cost of the new tank is $46,385 and said it would be ready for use by July. The measure was approved by a 5-1 vote. The lone dissenting vote came from Deb Geyen of Maple Lake.
Commision Secretary and Annandale City Administrator Kelly Hinnenkamp assured the group that the funds are available for this purchase and that it will not deplete that fund.
New budget approved
Also approved at the meeting was the 2019 proposed budget, the renewal of the commission’s insurance policy, financials and pay requests. The new insurance policy will have a 5 percent decrease in premium.
"The budget for 2019 is fairly similar to the previous year," Hinnenkamp said. "We’ve increased the operations labor expense, but we are projected to have positive cash flow and the rates are not changing."