Community Notes: Summer heralds activities, accomplishments

By Patrick Lumley, Charles City Council member

Greetings fellow Charles Citians! I hope you are as excited as I am that summer has finally arrived!

After a slow start to spring, mixed with a lot of rain, I for one am especially glad being outside and enjoying the abundant activities this great city provides, or simply being outdoors visiting friends, neighbors and family.

The annual Party in the Park series is in full swing, the always poplar and awesome 4th of July activities are wrapped up and we are all settling back into some resemblance of normalcy along with the anticipation of showcasing our city as an overnight stop for the 49th annual RAGBRAI on the 28th of July.

A huge shout out and thank you to all the volunteers, civic organizations and businesses that continue go the extra mile making these events possible and so enjoyable by the community.

As we wrap up celebrating our 246th year of independence, I would personally like to pay respect and thank all the service men and women who have or are currently serving this great country and to the Gold Star families whose family members made the ultimate sacrifice in keeping this great country “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

The pace of the city and city business has not slowed down since budget season wrapped up, with the continued drive to keep successfully moving forward. The city staff and council cannot do this alone. Within the city and county there are well over 30 boards, commissions and committees comprising civic minded citizens that donate their time, energy, knowledge and expertise in making Charles City and Floyd County successful.

As a participant in four commissions, I share these personal observations:

• Each commission is very professional in organization, conduct and execution.

• A clear goal or set of goals and strategy are in place to be successful.

• Each community member brings a tremendous amount of pride, professionalism and passion to the table that creates a successful and positive outcome in achieving their respective goals and objectives.

A shout out and thank you to each member of the 30-plus boards, commissions and committees who stepped up and continue moving us forward.

As we begin to fully roll into summer, a tremendous amount of work and positive energy is on display every day. Here are just a few examples of successful completions or areas diligently being worked.

• Water Resource Reclamation Facility (WRRF) is operational, and the overall project is in the final stages. Why is this significant? The WRRF project included the construction of an EQ or equalization basin.

The old plant did not have a way to take care of the additional flow due to flooding conditions. The additional flow that could not be pumped into the plant for treatment would start to back up in the sewer mains and could eventually impact residents.

Most of us vividly remember the 2008 flood and the loss of the historic swinging bridge. Also of concern at the time was the capacity and time the water treatment plant could remain offline and the emergency deployment of porta-potties in the community.

With additional pumps that will pump the extra sewage flows into a large basin to hold the flood laden sewage, this should rectify that situation and we should all consider a major win for the city and residents.

• New clearwell at the water treatment plant is underway. Why is this significant? The city’s existing water treatment plant was updated, and operations started in 2010 with a capacity of 5 million gallons per day. With the existing 500,000-gallon clearwell, the updated treatment plant can only operate at approximately 70% of its design capacity.

The new project consists of the construction of a new 1 million gallon clearwell which will operate in combination with the existing clearwell. The new clearwell will allow the plant to operate more efficiently and will provide additional capacity for the city.

The current limited storage capacity has the potential of interrupting water service to users in case of a disaster or emergency use. If an elevated storage tank is damaged and placed out of service due to a natural disaster, drained during a large fire event, or if the plant must temporarily be shutdown, the city could lose the ability to continuously provide water until additional water is treated and ready for distribution.

This could have a detrimental effect to our industrial users’ operations and be an inconvenience with potential impacts to the health and safety of the city’s residential customers. We should all consider this another major win for the city, businesses and residents.

Water treatment, quality and quantity of water are essential to everyday life that most of us take for granted when we turn the faucet on, take a shower, flush the toilet or water flowers and gardens.

As the world continues to make trips around the sun, you do not have to venture far in reading or keeping up with current events to the realize water quality and quantity have been or will be major factors in communities across the United States in the years to come, and we all should be proud of the advancements the city has taken in these efforts.

Let’s enjoy summer and the fresh clean drinking water. Pay-it-forward by lending a helping hand to a neighbor or someone you do not know when you can and thank those that step up and volunteer in various capacities in the community that bring so much positive energy to our great community.