Silverhill moving forward with water system improvements

By John Underwood / john@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 11/23/21

SILVERHILL — The Silverhill Town Council took several actions at its Monday, Nov. 15 meeting to move forward with improvements to the town’s water system.

First, the council passed a …

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Silverhill moving forward with water system improvements

Posted

SILVERHILL — The Silverhill Town Council took several actions at its Monday, Nov. 15 meeting to move forward with improvements to the town’s water system.

First, the council passed a resolution to hire Civil Southeast for professional engineering services to complete the town’s water meter conversion project.

At its Nov. 1 meeting, the council met with Alan Killen with Civil Southeast and agreed to move forward with plans to purchase radio-controlled water meters from the city of Robertsdale.

The city of Robertsdale has recently replaced its radio-controlled meters with a digital system and voted at its Sept. 7 council meeting to surplus the meters. The city offered to sell the meters to the town of Silverhill at a cost of $10,000.

At its Sept. 20 meeting, officials said the town has been replacing meters as needed and have already replaced about 200 of the town’s 1,050 meters, leaving the town needing to replace about 850 meters.

The city of Robertsdale voted to surplus about 18,000 meters. Silverhill Superintendent of Utilities Scottie Smith stated in September that he requested that any used meters that come from Robertsdale be no more than two years old, which would still leave the town enough meters to replace existing meters with enough left over for replacements.

With the purchase of meters from Robertsdale, the total cost to install the meters is estimated at $130,000, Mayor Jared Lyles said in a previous interview. The total cost to purchase new meters would have run the town about $444,000.

The town plans to use Rescue Plan Act money to complete the project. The project is expected to be completed sometime within the next year.

The town has received approximately $136,000 in Rescue Plan Act money and is set to receive another $136,000 by the summer of 2022.

Lyles was not present for the Nov. 15 meeting, which was presided over by Mayor Pro-Tem Steve Brooks. All other council members were present and voted unanimously to approve the measure.

In other business Nov. 15, the council voted on a resolution to adopt requirements to apply for a grant with the U.S. Economic Development Administration for the construction of a new water tower on property in the town’s corporate limits.

In July the council approved a petition for annexation of property located on Alabama 104 on which the town plans to construct a water tower.

The council also approved requests for qualifications for grant writing management services and for engineering services for the project at the Nov. 15 meeting.

Also on Monday, Nov. 15 the council:

  • Adopted a resolution updating the pay scale to reflect cost of living raises for town employees.
  • Approved employee longevity checks for town employees.
  • Set a date for Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. to discuss the 2021-22 budget.