Athens council deadlocks on study to analyze water problems

By Michael V. Hannigan/HCNow

The City of Athens has had problems with low pressure in its water system for 10 or more years, a situation current City Council members say they learned about less than a year ago.

The revelation came during the City Council’s regular meeting Monday night as a shorthanded council (Joe Whatley absent) was unable to come to a consensus on how to move forward on the issue.

Director of Development Amy Williams told the council the low pressure problems were “along State Highway 31 from the Royal Mountain Standpipe to Loop 7, then along Loop 7 near the TxDOT facility, and also northeast along Highway 31 outside of the loop.”

“There are concerns that some of these pressures have the potential of nearing the TCEQ boil water notice level,” she said.

TCEQ requires a boil water notice to be issued when water pressure drops below 20 psi because it constitutes an immediate health risk.

“The staff is recommending that we hire KSA Engineers to conduct a study and a report phase to provide recommendations to remedy this issue,” Williams told the council. Cost for the study is $13,000.

The council split 2-2.

Mayor Jerry Don Vaught and Councilman Tres Winn agreed with the need for the study in order to find the best way to fix the water system.

Vaught said, “I feel like a study is going to give us the best information to take care of this … to go whichever route we need to go for the citizens of Athens to make sure the job is done correctly.”

Winn said, “How do we know we couldn’t have gotten it done cheaper if we don’t do a study? Because if everybody just walks in here and says, ‘Oh, yeah, I can fix it. You’ve got low water pressure. Well they don’t know what’s wrong with it, they just know they can fix it.”

Councilmen Monte Montgomery and Charles Elliott were against spending the money for a study and argued against studies in general. Both men argued that engineers should know what to do to fix the problem without a study.

“Amy I have a little bit of a problem with studies,” said Montgomery. “On this situation you have a study, we know what the problem is, it is low water pressure…. Why aren’t we just hiring an engineer to fix it? … Why do we need a study?”

Elliott said, “I, as one councilman, fully intend to see this fixed as soon as possible. But I don’t intend to vote for starting a dangerous precedent that every time we have some little problem we’re going to hire an engineering firm to do a study. And this is not a little problem, but it is somewhere from a $500,000 problem to a million dollar problem. But pretty soon you’ll be wanting a study for a $10,000 problem. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to start that precedent and me be on this council.”

The council debated the issue, sometimes contentiously, for more than 30 minutes before voting.

An item to consider a second study ($11,000) for a separate part of the water-sewer system that also needs repairs was tabled because of the obvious deadlock.

A special meeting to revisit the issue has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 29, at the Athens Partnership Center.

“Due to the critical nature of the low pressure issue that was discussed at Monday’s regular council meeting, a decision must be made on how to move forward and remedy the problem,” said Vaught. “Therefore, for the best interest of the citizens affected by this low pressure, I and the city manager feel compelled to call a special session to come up with a solution.”