October 3, 2016

The Enterprise City Council met for an emergency meeting on Monday, October 3, 2016 at 5:30 p.m.  Those present were Stacey Karvoski, Jenni Word, Dave Elliott; Staff Michele Young, Ronnie Neil, Joel Fish, Denine Rautenstrauch and Paul Karvoski. 

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the underground fuel tank for the heating system in the fire hall and city hall.

Absent: Mayor Lear; Councilor Coffin & Christman

Guests:  George Hill and Bruce Bliven

Michele had sent out the following email to the city council describing the issue:

“City Council and staff

I just had quite a lengthy conversation with Archie from WCGG just now and he plans on coming to tonight’s meeting.  His opinion is as follows:

The water they suctioned out was in fact in the oil tank sitting on top of heating oil.    The water in his opinion is coming from the sidewalk cap and he stated they have actually suctioned out water about 3 times that he knows of.  He does not feel we have a leaking tank.  The reason why this was found this time is they forgot to fill the tank in September, the tank was so low in oil that when we tried to light the boiler water got in the system.  If the tank had been full we would have never known it, this is 1000 gal tank

He feels we have two options:

1. Continue as we are and just keep an eye on the water buildup.  We can do this by checking it every fall before the first fill.  This would be the cheapest if we are going to go to a completely different system in the future and at that time we would have to decommission the tank.
2. Move to an above ground tank which would require us to de-commission the existing tank now.  Once you quit using an underground tank you have to decommission it.

Either way we will eventually have to decommission the underground tank as we did with the tanks at the city shops years ago and the library recently.  The soil has to be tested and what you end up doing is based on those tests.  I have taken the time to review DEQ regulations and found when we decommissioned 3 tanks at the city shops when we quit storing fuel on-site, etc.

So, I don’t know about you guys but I think we should recommend #1.  It is the cheapest way to go for now and gives us the opportunity to work on the seismic grant for our fire-hall.  If we were to get that, that would be the time to put in a more efficient heating system and decommission the underground tank.

I hope this helps for questions tonight to get us out quickly. 

Ronnie and Paul commented that the tank may be original, from about 1958.  Ronnie put a gasket on the filler lid at the sidewalk.  After discussion and recommendation from staff it was the consensus of the council member that we continue using the tank as we have.

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                                                                                                                Jenni Word, Council President

ATTEST:

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Michele R. Young, City Admin/Recorder