City continues with water upgrades, new water tower to be painted silver
Gainesville’s new center water tower is built. City Water Specialist Jessi Price says that the city’s water loss is down slightly in November, as the city is one month into running both the east and center water districts off the east water tower while the center tower was built and can be painted and cured.
The ARPA grant that is funding the project will pay for the tower to be repainted silver and for the town name “Gainesville” to be written down the side, the same as the east and west water towers.
Price says the curing time for the paint is dependant on the weather. “But we are hoping we’ll get lucky and we’ll be able to have it painted and cured before spring so that we can use it again,” Price said. “If temperatures plummet, it’ll have to be after winter.”
Price says there is still a lot more work the city will do with the multi-million dollar grant it received last year to improve its water systems. City officials are currently waiting on easements in order to prioritize which parts of the major overhaul will be completed next.
“We have a little bit more to do in town. We’re going to try and use all of the money we have for lines to replace lines. Any of the old lines, any that have the possibility of being lead-jointed, we’re going to replace them while we have the free money - and then we’re going to work on the connections side. At 5 and 160, we’re going to have new connections that hook straight into the west side. Then we’re going to wait on a new booster station for it. That’s kind of the next step,” she said.
Goodnight said that the ARPA funds are deposited into the city’s general fund at Century Bank of the Ozarks, and then Goodnight writes a check for the total cost minus 1 percent, which is the city’s required match under the grant guidelines. She writes that check from the city’s account at Century Bank and into the account at Stockmens Bank, and so far, the interest that has been drawn from the account has been sufficient enough to cover the 1 percent match amount without any additional money coming from the account.