by Matt Hughes
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| This gas line on Caney Creek outside of Wheatcroft is right in the path of any debris that floats down stream. |
The Clay city council was in session on Tuesday night. On the agenda was the future of a gas line between the city of Clay and Wheatcroft.
Last month city employee Paul Stone identified the line as a problem spot for Clay’s gas service. The line crosses a creek about four foot from the creek bed and is at risk of being struck by debris during flooding.
Stone estimated it would cost around $50,000 to do a directional bore and run the line beneath the creek. Cheaper options included elevating the pipe out of flood danger, or simply adding a shutoff valve to the existing line.
“My problem with going up and over is that you’re still in a hazardous location,” Stone told the council. “You’d still have to patrol it. If it’s underground, it’s in there and you don’t have to worry about it.”
Clay shares the line with Sturgis, in Union County. The cities would be responsible for sharing the cost of repairs 50/50. Sturgis public works employees Jeff Wilson and Chase Robertson were on hand to offer some opinions from the Sturgis council.
“We just want to do right with it,” Mayor Rick Householder told the representatives of Sturgis.
“We really didn’t get a clear response at the Sturgis meeting,” said Jeff Wilson. “We wanted to see what you guys thought and work with you to get this solved.”
Stone told the council that he had attempted to get specific estimates on their options, but that all of the contractors he spoke with wanted to see engineered drawings before they would make a quote.
“I guess the first thing we need to do is find an engineer and find out how much it will cost to get drawings,” Householder said.
Pete Brown, an independent contractor who does most of Clay’s welding work, told the council that an elevated structure would probably need to be 10 to 12 feet tall to be above flood level.
“My thinking is that you elevate it and build a bridge so that you can walk along the pipe,” he said.
“I’d like to know what the Public Service Commission would rather us do,” Householder said. “They wont tell us what to do, but I’d like to have their blessing before we do anything.”
Stone was tasked with finding an engineering firm that could come up with drawings of the job, a process that he warned could take up to two months.
In other business, the city plans to spray for mosquitoes again next week. Stone reported that after that is completed, Clay has used 55 gallons (about $1,500) of mosquito spray in 2013.
Next the council spoke about a Special Business License that was proposed earlier this year.
In May the council heard reports of a group of girls going house to house trying to sell magazines.
But according to City Clerk Jullianna Rhye, the stories they told residents were conflicting.
“One said it was for a class while another one told residents they were part of a contest,” she said.
The women, all appearing to be in their twenties, were going door to door trying to sell magazines to Clay residents. They asked for credit card information and insisted on coming into the house, even if the home owner wasn’t interested in buying anything.
Rhye contacted the Clay Police Department and the Webster County Sheriff’s Department, and sent word to the young women that their presence was requested at the city building.
By the time law enforcement officers arrived in Clay, the group of women had left town.
Since then the council has been working to develop a license or permit that would allow the city to track such vendors. The license is not aimed at hindering normal business, only the occasional out-of-town vendor who goes door-to-door.
The proposed ordinance is still not to where the city wants it, so Mayor Rick Householder suggested the council meet in a special work session in October.
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