BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer
ROOSEVELT – In recent weeks, water from the borough’s water system has come out of faucets brown.
Toby Moore, the system operator, had to ultimately work on the problem for six hours to get iron out of the system, according to Borough Councilman Robert Silverstein, who serves as chairman of the borough’s Utilities Committee.
The borough will have to pay $15,000 to replace a failing electronic panel at the water plant, according to Silverstein.
The current panel is 30-40 years old, and parts are no longer made for it. Silverstein said that the current panel does not operate properly all the time. When a major failure occurred 2 1/2 weeks ago, he said, Moore ordered the new panel.
Silverstein said Moore has been pricing new panels and stressing the need for a new one for the past two years. Moore has also completed the first of four phases to replace old, corroded piping at the water plant with PVC piping.
“It helps keep the cost down by doing one section at a time,” Silverstein said.
Divers will soon go into the water tank to explore its condition. Silverstein said the borough awarded the diving contract last week to a company from Montana that travels across the country to do such work.
Silverstein said that consultants advised the borough to shut off the water and drain the tank for inspection, but Moore and Borough Engineer Carmella Roberts determined that those suggestions were impossible because the borough has no other water sources.
Roberts said that divers may see enough damage in the tower to make those suggestions worthwhile. He also said the divers will clean any sediment they find.