Water services discussed in strategic plan meeting

Residents of the village and surrounding areas gathered last week to discuss the expansion, safety and efficiency of the water system that serves about 7,000 customers in western Clark County.

The brainstorming session on Tuesday ended with six recommendations to be presented to council as part of the second iteration of the 1996 Enon Strategic Plan, a guide for the village over the next decade and beyond.

The ESP Chapter Two committee will recommend the following to council:

• Create a priority system to loop 31 existing water main lines that currently dead-end at stubs to help equalize water pressure, mitigate brown water for some residents and increase system efficiency.

• Install a new digital, remote meter-reading system to decrease the man hours currently used to read meters by hand and be able to detect and isolate leaks in the main lines and at residences.

• Initiate action to develop a fifth well on the same land as Well 4.

• Pass an ordinance requiring the Wellhead Protection Committee, which has been on hiatus since 2009, to meet a minimum number of times per years, create a documentation procedure and present to council its proceedings.

• Create a vulnerability and security assessment of the total water infrastructure including personnel, treatment, storage and distribution.

• Elevate the the regional status of the system and develop awareness of it to increase quality of life and drinking water safety.

Recommendations from the ESP’s police protection, growth and annexation and water services brainstorming sessions will likely be presented to council at the second meeting in September, according to Councilman Jerry Crane. They’re among nine topics set to be completed later this year.

The next topic will be emergency planning. The date and time for that meeting was not set.

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