By Stephen Smoot
At its regular monthly meeting, the Franklin Town Council heard updates on vital infrastructure improvements.
First, a representative from the engineering firm undertaking the work discussed progress with the water treatment plant. He explained that work would pick up soon. The construction crew has worked 74 percent of the time allotted, but only completed 38 percent of the work, by the estimation of the engineers.
That said, the representative added, “There are multiple things going on at one time and that the pace of work would jump up a lot.” Delays had occurred, but nothing is outside of normal parameters.
One of the issues found by engineers and contractors was the deterioration of some internal walls. “We’ve worked with the contractor to come up with a solution,” he said, “so that nothing continues to deteriorate.”
They used a special type of Sherman Williams paint already on hand to help repair some of the damage. It has a yellow color, but also stronger protective properties.
Overall, the representative reported that “progress is moving along there very well.”
Mayor Bob Horan quipped that now that the council heard the update on “the yellow monster, do I have a motion to pay for it?”
The council approved a draw of approximately $140,000 to compensate for the work.
Council members then heard that there are three options when it comes to replacing the aging water treatment plant.
The first option was rejected out of hand. Although cost effective, it would not add the proper capacity for growth or response to potential federal regulation changes down the line. If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, started mandating that towns the size of Franklin treat for phosphorous, the first option could not adapt to achieve that.
A sense of urgency, as Horan put it, is driving decision making. Frank Wehrle, town administrator, said, “We get letters from the DEP (West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection) all the time.”
On top of that, though not mentioned in the meeting, the Town of Lumberport in Harrison County last week saw part of their sewage system fail, dumping raw sewage into a nearby creek whose waters eventually flow past Fairmont and Morgantown towards Pittsburgh.
That left two options for the town to consider that would on one hand be costly, but on the other hand create a reliable long-term solution.
The second option, a plant that resembled a large septic system, is the least costly of the two and also proactively addresses the phosphorous issue. All options would have the capacity to process 200,000 gallons a day.
The representative of the engineering firm said that the next step lay in working to locate grant funding from state and federal sources to defer as much of the cost of the new facility as possible. Only rarely does such a project get fully funded by grants, however.
The mayor and council opted to take until next session to examine the two best options and, at that point, make a decision.
