Officials find laughs amid the headaches
By Barb Pert Templeton
The Safe Drinking Water Project in Marine City is creating lots of issues from water main breaks, to discolored water and even incidents of water shooting out of the toilet bowls at area homes.
As construction continues on the project, that began in February, updates are posted on the city’s website and Facebook page along with bulletins noting any water outages or water main breaks.
City Manager Micheal Reaves was given the okay to handle the day-to-day issues with the project and that includes hiring contractors to come in and fix issues that come up.
At a June 5 Marine City Commission meeting Reaves said one firm that has been working on the project is Michigan Pipe Services. He noted that he’d been paying them at a daily rate because he didn’t want to assign 14 or 28 days at a time in an attempt to keep the number down.
The daily rate, $2,731, is for eight hours of labor and that includes mobilization, and safety fees, he said.
Marine City Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick told the commission she had two neighbors call her to report water shooting out of their toilets.
“We used them continually and their work has been outstanding,” Reaves added.
Speaking of water problems, Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick said she got a call from two neighbors who had water shooting up through their toilets and she asked Reaves if those incidents were covered. Reaves said the homeowners have insurance but at the same time it’s not their fault either so if they submit a claim to the city, he can look into it.
“It wasn’t serious, they both took care of it but I just wondered in case it’s something major,” Hendrick said, noting that it was odd because these neighbors’ homes were in the middle of two separate blocks and their immediate neighbors weren’t impacted.
“If it’s something major, they’re insured but we would look at it,” Reaves said. “I apologize to the city residents that this has occurred but we have massive infrastructure issues facing this community. I’ve given one estimate of $60 to $100 million dollars’ worth of infrastructure issues that we are dealing with and we are dealing with failing waste water treatment facilities.”
“If any of our residents are having these involuntary bidets, who do they contact to submit a claim? Should they contact the city offices first?”
Marine City Commissioner Sean O’Brien.
Reaves said a facilities study is nearly done and he’s got some plans he’s working on for next year.
“If any of our residents are having these involuntary bidets, how do they contact to submit a claim? Should they contact the city offices first?” Commissioner Sean O’Brien asked.
Reaves replied that actually they should call him directly and they can look into the situation and try to determine the cause.
“We don’t have any Taco Bells close to our city so I’m not sure what would cause that,” Reaves joked. “But we’ll see if we can figure it out.”
“The one poor gal, she blamed her son until she figured it out, the poor kid, it wasn’t his fault,” Hendrick laughed.
“Some people pay extra for that service,” City Attorney Robert Davis joked.
After the discussion the commission approved a contract with Michigan Pipe Services at a daily rate of $2,731.
