By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
PLEASANTON – The Pleasanton city swimming pool was set to open Wednesday, July 10, following a five-day shutdown caused by a malfunctioning motor and filter. While Pleasanton City Council Member Bill Skipper said that he and park department head Mike Kershner restored the pump back to life, at the council meeting on Monday Skipper strongly suggested taking bids on a replacement soon.
Characterizing the pump as very old, he said they were able to clean existing electrical contacts and reconfigure the wiring to get the pump running again. He noted that the pump ran on three-phase power, which required a separate converter because the pool had only single-phase power coming into the building.
He said he was unsure why the three-phase motor was originally used, however, they had located a 7.5 horsepower single-phase motor that could adapt to the pool’s system. He indicated it would be more efficient because it would eliminate the three-phase converter, which operates as a second motor for the pump.
By Monday the pump was working again, however Skipper said that because of the breakdown, chlorine levels were too high in the water and the pool needed some time for the chlorine to dissipate.
“Right now the dinosaur lives,” Skipper said of the aging pump.
He said that two estimates for a new pump were between $6,000 and $7,000. He said it would take about six days to receive the pump after it was ordered.
Included in the discussion about the pool’s downtime was whether to compensate the pool staff for the time they were unable to work during the shutdown.
Council Member Aaron Portman made a motion to guarantee the staff normal pay for another two weeks until the next council meeting.
However, City Attorney Jacklyn Paletta suggested the council give city Administrator Becky Hegwald authority to put otherwise idled staff to work doing other chores around the pool including cleaning and painting.
City Fire Chief Rob Dent asked the council to close the dam at East Lake to fishing. He said that recently a man climbed over the guard rail, fell and was unable to get back up. First responder crews members were able to get him up, however, Dent said he was concerned that people fishing on the dam would be near the control station for the city’s water supply.
He said that allowing people to get close to that building was both a security and liability issue.
In discussion about his suggestion later in the meeting, the council reached a consensus to post signs prohibiting fishing too close to the building but not making the whole dam off limits. However, the attorney suggested that there was some liability involved in letting people fish there.
She suggested posting signs that people could fish from the dam at their own risk.
The council also broke with the practice of requiring people who wanted to speak during council meetings to sign up by noon on the Fridays before the meeting on Mondays. Portman made a motion to allow people to sign up until 5:59 p.m. before the 6 p.m. meeting to speak, and the council unanimously approved the measure.
In other business, the council:
Approved the city administrator to take bids on a lot at the intersection of 12th and Palm streets.
Accepted the resignation of Officer Ivan Squire as a full-time police officer and approved hiring him as a part-time officer. That leaves Police Chief Tristan Snyder as the city’s only full-time officer with three part-time officers. In a separate interview, Hegwald said that the city has been looking for additional full-time officers, but so far there has been little interest. She also said that the city was looking at joining the Kansas Police and Fireman's Retirement System, which had better benefits for police and fire personnel than the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) and would help the city’s recruiting efforts.
Renewed a mutual aid agreement between the city fire department and Linn County Rural Fire.
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