Lift station improvements authorized, new council member sworn in

The Greenfield City Council approved lift station improvements on 4th Street and swore in a new member at its Tuesday, Nov. 15 meeting.

Sewer

Steve Van Dyke of Fox Engineering spoke to city council to detail the 4th Street lift station improvements.

“The highlights would be your current pump station has a pretty small 4-inch force main pipe, and we’re probably going to upsize that to 6-inch. We talked with [Public Works Director] Lee [Wright] and some of the guys at a meeting a couple weeks ago, and we’re going to look at three different places we can run that pipe. One would be where it goes right now, another one would be to the alley just south of there, and the third would be to run all the way down 4th Street to a manhole,” Van Dyke said.

He said the current pumps process 100 gallons per minute, but the bigger pipes will be able to do more.

“With the 6-inch pumps, we’ll easily be able to double that to do 200 gallons a minute, and then if there’s development out there somewhere down the road you could go up to 400 gallons a minute pretty easily,” he said.

Van Dyke also said he would let the city review those options and do cost comparisons. Some additional improvements include modernizing the controls and other outdated features of the sewer.

“The pump setter in there is getting closer to 40 years old, the structure had been there for quite a bit longer. I’m guessing the first main is probably, whatever original is, it could be 80 years old, they’ve been having some leaks in that,” he said.

Council member Brian Fox asked Van Dyke if he was going to install chopper pumps.

“They’re not really chopper pumps, but they are designed to handle 3-inch solid, so they can handle a pretty big chunk before they get plugged,” he said.

Also as part of the meeting, Jonathan Christensen was sworn into his new position on the council. He takes over for Jeff Clayton, who will rejoin the council in a new seat at the beginning of 2022.

In other city business, the council:

• Approved a street closure on W. Iowa Street 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11 for an auction in front of Jungmann’s Law Office.

• Approved a new liquor license for Olive Branch due to owner change.

• Approved the fiscal year 2021 urban renewal report.

• Set a public hearing of Dec. 6 for Ordinance No. 430, which will change the process of obtaining a permit for peddlers, solicitors and transient merchants, and will allow the council to change the permit fees.

• Hams and $25 in Greenbucks were approved for full-time city employees and $25 in Greenbucks for part-time employees for Christmas.