New Clearmont Water Line Almost Complete

Clearmont Water Line work. New tank on top of hill, old water tower to the right.

The Clearmont Town Council meeting had several guests at the Monday night meeting. Bruce Edwards, Sheridan County Emergency Management Coordinator, spoke to the council about mutual aid agreements between the town and the county if an emergency occurs.

The Sheridan County emergency management was created to lessen the effects of disaster on the lives and property of Sheridan County through leadership, coordination and support.

The SCEM feels that an emergency response plan needs to be developed prior to any anticipated emergency, and Edwards encouraged the council to take emergency management classes in case of another emergency.

“We need to be on the front end of the notification process.” Edwards said.

Chris Thomas, Sheridan, newly appointed fire warden for the county, said that they share equipment, and the town can take advantage of that if needed, and urged them to interact more with the district.

“Thank you all for coming,” Major Rohrer said. “It has been a crazy month. We have been interested in getting water running again, that is our top priority.” He added that, thanks to Homeland Security and Coca-Cola, there is plenty of bottled water for drinking. “A lot of people already buy bottled water anyway,” he added.

Maintenance man John Kiser said the line is ready for the final connections and should be fixed Tuesday, June 22. Beginning at 7 am, the water will be shut off to the town until the repairs are complete. John Kiser, maintenance man, had this to say.

Mayor Rohrer said that residents should be prepared to be without water for the day, by having containers of water to flush toilets and such. Bottled drinking water is available at town hall.

The Clearmont Fire District Chief Arty Thomas told the council:

“If we need more we can just pump some more out of the ditch,” he added.

Kiser added he hopes the water will be flowing again by tomorrow evening.

Dave Engles, of Engineering Associates, spoke to the board about the pipe replacement, saying that the pipes were 45 years old and rusted out, and it is discouraging that pipes last longer. He also recommended that the lines under the chlorination building should be replaced as well while the town has the grant money. He said they also needed to sign an emergency service agreement between the town and WyoDak, who is doing the line replacement. Council moved to accept an agreement between them and WyoDak.

There was also a brief discussion about making sure the second well has pipe to connect it to the tank.

In other business, there was a discussion about addresses in Clearmont, and the fact that the county addresses and the addresses at the post office do not always coordinate. Council member Anna Switzer was concerned about emergency services finding the correct house should there be an emergency.

Thomas added that the GPS isn’t always accurate, and there should be a better system for finding houses in the area.

The council will look into the issue of addresses in Clearmont.

Next meeting will be July 19 at 6 p.m. at town hall.