WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (11/14/12) - The Webster County Water District held their regular monthly meeting Thursday in Dixon.

After approval of old minutes and payment vouchers, Webster County Water District Superintendent Paul Lashbrook presented the board with the Operations Report for the month of October.

For the month a total of 27,248,600 gallons of water were produced, almost 4 million fewer gallons than the same period last year. The average daily production was 878,987 with a total of 267.8 hours ran in October.

“Water usage is down,” said Lashbrook. “I don’t know if people are getting more cognizant and trying to save on it or whatever. There’s no big deal. We looked at a lot of different things, and we’re not the only one who is down. Big cities, towns, usage is down all over.”

Water District Assistant Superintendent Robert Schindley reported on several repairs that had been made to water lines throughout the district. Many of these were caused from increased water flow and velocity after ditches had been cleaned out.

“Some of these have been repaired before, in the last year of two,” Lashbrook added.

Starting in December crews will be working to clear Deer Creek. Lashbrook said that he had already talked to Mike Andrews and planned to speak with S & S Salvage and Yates, the companies that will be doing the work.

“Yes its getting off the fields quicker, but its shooting down and washing lines out,” he said. “A lot of the time we put concrete on (the lines) and its undermining the concrete.”

Webster County Water District Chairman Jimmy Frederick said that the district was in the process of billing people who had cut into lines after failing to check their location.

Jay Hoffman from Wet or Dry Tank Inspection, the district’s tank consultant, reported on the Dixon tank rehab project.

“Ten days of good weather and the Dixon tank can be ready,” Hoffman reported.

Hoffman also reported on an estimate for a sign the commission was looking at painting on the water tank. When the letters are painted they will be between four and six feet high and read: Webster Co. Water Dist., Dixon, Kentucky.

The commission voted to proceed with the new sign.

With that completed, the commission moved to the next item on the agenda. Superintendent Lashbrook reported that he had budgeted for the last three years to purchase GPS equipment for locating and marking water lines.

Some existing lines have marking wire on them, which allows workers to locate them. The new device would allow workers to mark them on the GPS, so that the next time they need to find that line the device will take them right to it. It can even display the depth of the line.

“It has been in the budget the last few years, but other stuff has come up and I didn’t want to spend the money,” Lashbrook said. “But this unit is a demo. They’ve knocked some off the price because they have used it. Its $13,585. They will come in and train our people on that product.”

A motion was made and passed to approve the purchase, even though the item was already budgeted.

The final item on the agenda was “On Call Pay” for water district employees.

“We pay $20 a day from Friday after work until Monday,” Lashbrook said, for employees to be on call. If called to work employees are guaranteed two hours worth of pay. “I think we might be out of compliance. I don’t know, but I want to talk to some more people.”

He reported that Campbell County pays its employees $0.90 an hour from the end of work on Friday until the start of work on Monday. If they are called in they are paid overtime for the hours worked.

“I’d like to do a little research and bring something back to the board in December,” he said.

“I think $20 a day on call, $40 on a weekend, taking a guy out of going somewhere with his family...it's worth more than that,” Chairman Frederick said.

Paul Lashbrook said he would speak with County Attorney and some other departments about the situation. This was tabled until after the investigation.

With nothing else on the agenda, the commission adjourned.

Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor

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