Base charges for water, sewer and gas services will increase effective July 1, 2014.
There will be a two percent across the board rate increase for water, and the average residential monthly water bill will increase $.50.
The sewer rate will increase 3.1 percent across the board. The average residential monthly sewer bill will increase $1.23.
Natural gas will increase across the board by 2.15 percent, and the average residential monthly natural gas bill during the heating season will increase $.99.
Vince Barrios, from the Alabama Forestry Commission, instructs fourth graders from Barkley Bridge Elementary School on outdoor fire safety during an Earth Day presentation. Earth Day activities were sponsored by the Morgan County Soil and Water Conservation District on April 23rd and April 24th.
If you see a yellow sticker like the one shown above on electrical equipment, please make sure that the equipment is not blocked by vegetation. The six foot clearance requirement around HU equipment applies to landscaping, fencing, shrubbery and other obstructions.During the summer months, vegetation around transformers and meters can quickly become overgrown. When this happens, HU crews might have difficulty reading meters – or worse, be unable to safely get to a transformer during a power failure.
HU crews must have access to transformers and meters, Customer Service Manager Terri Harris says. “If your meter box is surrounded by holly bushes, now would be the time to trim them back,” she reminds. “While we try to avoid it, we can charge a restricted access fee,” Harris says.
It can be a safety issue as well, Harris explains. Crews need a minimum area of six feet to work on most electric equipment, and workers cannot work through bushes. However, she says, HU crews will only remove plants in an emergency situation.
Customers with shrubs or other vegetation blocking access are notified by letter from Electric Department Superintendent Jonathan Hampton, asking them to remove the vegetation or obstruction.
Beverly PetersonA familiar face at the customer service window for many HU customers has announced her retirement. HU Customer Service Representative Beverly Peterson’s last day at Hartselle Utilities will be August 22.
Peterson has been with HU for 14 years. She began as a cashier, and then moved into her current position. “While I have enjoyed my years here at Hartselle Utilities,” Peterson says, “I know that this is the right time for me to begin a new chapter in my life.”
Peterson says that over the years she has developed relationships with many of her customers. “I will miss my regular customers,” she says, “especially the senior citizens, many of whom I think of as friends.”
While she doesn’t have concrete plans for her retirement, Peterson says she definitely will sleep a little later in the mornings. “I’m not going to miss my alarm clock going off at 5:25 a.m.!” she laughs. “I also look forward to having time to travel and perhaps will take up a new hobby.”
Heaven Evans has been hired as the newest Cashier.Heaven Evans
Hartselle Utilities’ Wastewater Treatment Plant has begun a new project to reuse treated water in the plant’s operations.
Wastewater from throughout Hartselle is treated at the plant to meet federal and state standards. The treated wastewater is then released into Shoal Creek, which is part of the Flint River watershed. The Wastewater Treatment Plant is designed to treat 2.7 million gallons of water a day from homes, businesses and industries from the City of Hartselle; it currently discharges about 2 million gallons each day into the creek.
The plant’s chlorine feed and headworks use about 800,000 gallons of water per month. Currently, the plant purchases potable water from Decatur Utilities. Potable water is generally defined as drinking water safe enough to be consumed by humans or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm.
According to Hartselle Utilities Engineering Services Manager Glen Partlow, water used within the plant’s systems doesn’t need to meet drinking water standards, and can safely be reused from the plant’s discharge flow.
“We’ve seen rate increases from Decatur Utilities for the last three years,” explains Hartselle Utilities General Manager Bob Sittason. “By reusing the water within our own system, we will no longer have to purchase this water and save an estimated $26,000.00 per year.”
Last July, the Hartselle Utilities Board approved a plan to build the infrastructure to allow this water to be redirected from within the plant, reducing its dependence on purchased potable water.
The project will cost approximately $90,000, and Partlow expects to recover that cost within three and a half years, possibly sooner. “We were able to utilize some existing piping and buildings to save on costs,” he explains. WWTP staff will paint the reuse pipes purple, a common practice for identifying recycled water.
Major components of the WWTP, Partlow says, will keep a potable water backup system, with backflow preventions built in. “We always want to keep our potable water source in place, just in case,” he says.
Including donations received in 2014 and pledges and commitments for 2014, $65,000 more is needed to complete a second playground for the SNAP complex, shown above in an artist’s rendering. The seven-year project is the result of a county-wide coalition to create a play area for special needs children in Morgan County. The second playground is the final planned phase.The final phase of a county-wide effort to provide a playground for special needs children in Morgan County is scheduled for early 2015. Fundraising efforts are well under way for a second playground area in the John Mark
Stallings Special Needs Accessible Playground of Morgan County (SNAP).
The second playground area will feature an integrated ramped structure with numerous freestanding structures, including slides, climbers and ladders designed for various special needs, along with several different sound and play panels. “There are six senses of play,” says project manager Bob Francis, counting them off: sliding, spinning, swinging, climbing, social and tactile. “In the design of the entire complex, we’ve made a conscious effort to collectively address each one of these to provide accommodations for our special needs children.”
Francis says that throughout 2014 the group will focus entirely on fundraising and continuing education. “Beginning January 1 of this year, we needed a little over $210,000 to complete the playground. Now, based on donations and firm commitments, we are reasonably within $65,000 of having sufficient funds to complete SNAP. I don’t have any doubt we’re going to get there,” he says.
When the boundless playground was initially proposed, organizers estimated there were 1,700 special needs children in Morgan County. Recent information puts that number closer to 2,500.
Currently, the SNAP complex includes a swing area, playground, splashpad, pavilion and entryway. The entryway with a lighted clock tower and backlit LED logo houses the plaque dedicating the playground to John Mark Stallings, son of Coach Gene and Ann Stallings. John Mark, who had Down Syndrome, impacted and inspired thousands of people during his 46-year life.
In 2011, the SNAP Splashpad was recognized by Aquatics International Magazine as the best spray park of its category in the nation. SNAP has received countless other recognitions throughout the course of the project as other communities, both in and out of state, have asked for guidance in developing their own special needs playgrounds. SNAP is now viewed as a model for special needs playgrounds in the state of Alabama.
Over the past seven years, volunteers from the Hartselle Civitan, Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions clubs, along with the City of Hartselle, United Way, Hartselle Medical Center, Wal-Mart, the Volunteer Center of Morgan County, Hartselle Area Chamber of Commerce and the Morgan County Association of Volunteer Fire Departments have worked together to raise almost $640,000 in donations and in-kind services for SNAP, according to Francis. He pointed out that $12,702 of that figure came from Hartselle Utilities in in-kind donations for the infrastructure, as an example of the many ways the community has joined together to complete the playground. At last count, 418 individuals and organizations have donated money, products and services to the project.
“We planned six major elements for the SNAP playground,” Francis smiles. “We’ve completed five, and have one to go. After seven years, it’s time to finish the job.”
No donation is too small, Francis says, relating stories of a child donating a handful of coins, and a prisoner from Holman sending a check for $5.00.
To donate to the SNAP playground project, visit SnapPlayground.org/donate or send money to P.O. Box 512, Hartselle, AL 35640.
