By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
Looking at putting a large-scale water softener into place to remove radium and strontium, from the municipal water supply, the City of Burlington Common Council approved a consulting agreement with Doug Snyder of Baxter and Woodman Tuesday night.
The contract with the city is for the firm to submit treatment plans for Well No. 11 to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The city needs to put a plan into place in order to bring the well back into use this year.
The council also discussed entering into a design contract with Baxter and Woodman for the water softener system. That contract, not to exceed $78,000, is set to be voted on June 7.
Other council news
The council discussed several items that will also be on the June 7 voting agenda, including continuing with Zarek Insurance to provide insurance to the city, an airport hangar lease with the Burlington Development Group, and financing with Ehlers and Associates to apply for a loan from the Safe Drinking Water Fund to cover the cost of the Well No. 11 improvements.
The city also discussed replacing a squad car for the police department – a replacement that was delayed last year in order to see how long the vehicle could last.
The planned replacement cost is $29,641 through Miller Motors, but the department recently had to perform about $2,000 in repairs to the current squad car.
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Wasn’t the previous public works director working on solving this issue over a year ago, then the PW supervisor that was recently let go was spearheading the solution to this years old issue. Just hire a consultant for more than what it costs to have your employees complete the required work or documents. Another great decision (not) on the use of tax payer funds by the indecisive city administrator.
Js, City staff has been working on addressing the radium regulations per the DNR for a few years. As city staff was working on a solution that would address the radium, it came to staff attention that the DNR was preparing to pass new regulation standards regarding Strontium. City staff at the direction of City Council held off on addressing the radium to see if a more fiscally responsible solution could be found that addressed BOTH regulations. Not all solutions will remedy both. I think you would agree that a solution that would address both and save money would actually indeed be an appropriate use of tax payer funds. There are absolutely times when it is necessary to hire outside consultants whose expertise can assist City Staff. The strontium and radium are just two pieces of a larger puzzle that Baxter and Woodman will be addressing. There have been multiple public meetings regarding this (all minutes for these meetings can be found online at http://www.burlington-wi.gov) and there will continue to be. I encourage you to come to the next meeting that we discuss this at (all agendas and packets are posted on the city’s website prior to the meetings). Meetings are the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month at 6:30. Make your list of questions and come ask them, I’m confident that once you have all the accurate information you will agree that the best interest of the people of Burlington, both as taxpayers and water consumers, are being met.