BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — The Martin County Sanitation District (MCSD) board discussed finances and infrastructure in a special session Thursday after canceling the regularly scheduled monthly meeting May 28.

Alliance Water Resources personnel were on hand and provided their monthly financial and operational reports.

One highlight was a graph that showed a reduction of past-due vendor bills from $552,150 in January to $393,355 on May 24. Of these amounts, MCSD was behind $272,822 on payments for Alliance’s management services in May, down from $431,859 in January.

“It’s another solid bump for sanitation,” Chairman Jimmy Don Kerr said. “It’s coming along.”

Alliance regional manager Erica Bogenpohl reported that a team of experts from Missouri oversaw the rehabilitation of a drain bed at the Inez sewer plant.

“That was a roaring success,” said Bogenpohl, explaining that the training the Alliance crew received while rehabbing the drain bed enabled them to successfully rehab a second drain bed without the supervision of the Missouri team. 

“You all probably saw in the paper,” Bogenpohl prefaced her announcement of the repair of a sewer leak that was running directly into Rockcastle Creek in the Beatrice Loop area of Old Route 3.

“That was the one where we were spending four to five hours a day pumping,” she explained. The repair relieves a significant burden on the crew responsible for maintaining the water and sewer systems.

The board asked Alliance about the new D1 grinder pumps the district has been using. These pumps cost roughly a third as much as the pumps normally used. According to Alliance, “they fit right in” to the system.

Bogenpohl, along with Alliance supervisor J.D. Damron, reported no issues with the new pumps.