The regular meeting of the New Franklin City Council on Monday April 11 was dominated by discussion of imminent problems with the city’s water and sewer systems. 

Mayor Robbey Harvey emphasized to the council members once again that there are leaks somewhere in the city’s water lines that are roughly doubling the city’s consumption of water, and is above the allotment use for the city. In addition to this, many of the city’s fire hydrants need replacement. 

“The last two months of the year, we’ll make up for that,” he told council members. “So we’ll get two bills like we did last year, for November and December, if we don’t get these leaks under control.” 

He once again emphasized to the council that for what the city will pay for that overage due to leaks, they could pay for free water for every citizen of New Franklin for the year. “I’ve got Missouri Rural Water coming in with listening devices, and he’s been here four times now,” Harvey said. Several leaks have been found and repaired, “But there’s still a major loss somewhere. I mean, we’re talking a couple million gallons.”

The leaks are extremely difficult to locate in part due to the fact that the town sits on sand, Harvey elaborated. Any leaks immediately filter into the sand instead of pooling near the surface. 

Harvey said he suspects an old steel line that likely has no resident hookups to be the possible culprit. Investigating the line will involve installing valves and shutting off its supply to see whether this solves the problem. 

However, Harvey told the council there’s a small chance there’s at least one resident connected to the line and they want to be sure they don’t inadvertently cut off a citizen’s supply. 

The city is facing problems at the other end of the water spectrum, too - its lagoons are currently beyond capacity for treated water, and there are few options for offloading it. 

The city has an arrangement with a local farmer to take some of the treated material for use as fertilizer, but it’s difficult for one user to offload the supply, and such use is limited by the Department of Natural Resources. 

The city does not own land that could be used for this purpose. 

In addition to this, the incoming lines are backing up due to residents flushing “flushable” wipes. The wipes get into the impeller pump and grinder system and cause it to stop working. It must be manually cleared. 

“We’re basically up to our necks in crap,” Harvey said.

The board voted unanimously to seek bid qualifications for an engineer to address the city’s sewer and water needs. 

The board also voted unanimously to provisionally order fire hydrant equipment, subject to approval at next month’s meeting. 

New board members elected on April 5 were not sworn in at the April 11 meeting because certified election results were not yet available, according to New Franklin City Clerk/Administrator Melissa Crowley. 

Rick Newell, Sylvia Durban and Rachael Brown-Hammers were certified write-in candidates in Ward I. Newell received eight votes, Durban received six and Brown-Hammers four votes for a seat open for a partial term, previously held by Seth Newell who vacated the position.

Brown-Hammers received 15 votes for a seat open for a full two-year term for Ward I. 

Lesley Lyons ran unopposed to finish out her term in Ward II.

Robbey Harvey will continue as Mayor of New Franklin. 

Crowley said that it is likely council members will be sworn in at the next regular city council meeting, or a special meeting could be held. 

The New Franklin city council meets regularly at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of the month. Meetings are open to the public.