Century Approves $28K Parts Purchase To Fix Sewage Plant, Restore Capacity

October 24, 2019

Century has approved the purchase of over $28,000 in parts to repair a broken process that diminished the capacity of the town’s wastewater treatment facility by one-third.

In September, the town council approved up to $36,000 to make an emergency purchase to repair a clarifier — a device that removes solids from sewage passing through the plant.

The manufacturer of the equipment, Evoqua, provided a total price of $28,684 for the materials necessary to repair the clarifier. The equipment will be installed by town staff.

Interim City Manager Buz Eddy said the clarifier was last rebuilt 19 years ago. He described it as a geared device that has simply worn out and dropped the plant’s capacity by one-third.

There are three clarifiers at the wastewater plant, with the other two last rebuilt in 2007 and 2017. The town will fund the repair using capital outlay money in the upcoming fiscal year that begins October 1.

Century also recently approved $9,500 to remove excessive to remove excessive biosolids/sludge from the wastewater plant, and $1,800 to have a company evaluate effluent filters that need repair.

Pictured above: A nonworking clarifier in the Century Wastewater Treatment Facility. Pictured below: One of the other two functioning clarifiers at the facility. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

10 Responses to “Century Approves $28K Parts Purchase To Fix Sewage Plant, Restore Capacity”

  1. Wayne on October 25th, 2019 8:57 am

    Where is the money that was supposed to fund this running of the facility go to in all these years?
    Oh, I forgot……This is Century

  2. gj on October 24th, 2019 1:48 pm

    They had the money but it all went to support the Gas fund and General Fund

  3. David on October 24th, 2019 1:03 pm

    Having town staff install the parts is a good move. Bidding out the entire fix (parts + labor) would have likely been a significantly higher cost.

  4. Bob C. on October 24th, 2019 12:22 pm

    @ ensley boy

    Capital Outlay money comes from taxes and other incomes to governments.
    The Annual Budgeting process determine how much available funding will go toward Capital Outlay.
    Funds in Capital Outlay are used for maintenance of facilities, in this case repair to the sewage system. Also normal upkeep such as painting, building, new structures, etc.
    Good planning prepares for ongoing maintenance by setting a calendar which may be over several years with a specific expenditure in mind. That would include replacing trucks, vehicles, computers, and such. Also, long term projects such as repairing the 1/3 of the sewage system each 3 or 4 years on a rotating basis to keep all functioning properly.

  5. Rasheed Jackson on October 24th, 2019 10:55 am

    The sewage plant should have been self supporting and any repairs needed should have been funded from the fees collected from the users. All equipment will fail and will wear out with time. The city should have had a maintenance plan set up and funded to cover the cost of repairs and replacement of equipment.
    Poor planning produces ill fruit!!

  6. Chris on October 24th, 2019 10:42 am

    Sludge is kinda like waste that just wont move out of the way. Seems to be an ongoing problem in Century.

  7. Oversight on October 24th, 2019 10:16 am

    ensley boy… Government money or “outlay money” comes from taxes, taxes, ever more and more glorious taxes!

  8. Bob on October 24th, 2019 8:34 am

    To bad these repairs can’t get rid of the crap in the Mayor’s office and city council!!!

  9. Wayne J on October 24th, 2019 8:25 am

    Our sewer system was built to take care of a small town with little room for growth. When you do a trade out like loosing the school sewerage and then replacing with new housing is the best that can happen in keeping with the size of the system. Again, some room for growth. The system must be kept operating as designed. As there are too many back ups especially in heavy rains mostly because too many manholes are in ditches and other low places that need to be addressed and corrected. Century how has a good man over the sewer system and see some of these problems. Work with him Century to get the system up and running replacing some of the Yahoos you had in the past.

  10. ensley boy on October 24th, 2019 7:33 am

    Where does capital outlay money come from?