Submitted
This is an actual picture of one of the sewer lines that is under the streets of Miller. The deteriation of the lines has become an issue for the city.
By a quick Internet search, you can see the problems facing America’s towns, cities, counties and states: aging infrastructure. Because they are not readily seen or thought about, we forget about the conveniences we enjoy. When we enter a room, flip a switch and ‘voilid="0">áid="1">’, we have light. Or during this very cold winter, like we have been having, many of us turned to electric heaters to stay comfortable in our homes. Imagine what would have happened to the electrical system had our city officials not “bit the bullet and taken the criticism” of spending money on the electrical upgrade. You turn on the tap and out comes clean, safe, good tasting water. Well, the same needs to be done on the rest of our systems. id="2">
Several issues are affecting each of these systems. Water lines are crumbling, sewers are backing up, and collapsing, poor design, and the need for growth. id="3">
Councilman Tony Rangel relayed, ”The worst thing is opening the basement door and seeing sewage at the bottom of the steps. I just do not want this to happen to anyone else.” id="4">
The sewer, water and electric systems that Miller has been using for 100 years were never designed to handle the loads that we put them under today. Think of automatic washers, dryers, garage door openers, tv’s in every room, dishwashers, all of these devices use water, sewer and electricity. These systems need to be well maintained. id="5">
Sixty-seven percent of he current water lines are asbestos cement pipes with a special lining to be used with drinking water. These pipes are deteriorating from the outside in. The inside lining is intact but is not being properly supported by the outside coating. id="6">
These pipes were the best product at the time they were installed. Unfortunately, they have passed their useful life. id="7">
James Bonebright, water superintendent, stated, “Due to the outside of the pipes eroding away, the joints of the pipes are no longer fitting properly. This is causing water loss for the city. As the city purchases all of its water from Mid Dakota, this is just money being wasted. “ id="8">
Ron Blachford, Mayor of Miller, “the council and I do not want to raise rates, but the agencies that give out the grants and loans have rules about our rates.” The agencies of the federal government need to see that the city is structuring itself for future maintenance and building of this infrastructure. id="9">
Many of the water lines in the original area of town were dug in by hand, under the city streets, that were made to handle horse and buggy travel not semi trucks. Also the town did not have nice flat streets and some streets were lowered. Unfortunately, this caused the water mains in some areas of the town to only be three feet below the surface. With the frost this year at five plus feet, many service lines have frozen. The current way of providing water to a house with a frozen water service line is to hook up a garden hose to the house next door. The customers on both sides get bills that are estimated from last year. These garden hoses need to run continuously which again cause loss of water and increase need from Mid Dakota. id="10">
These issues did not happen over night and won’t be fixed over night” stated Bonebright. “But we need to get started on fixing these and also setting money aside for future problems and maintenance.” id="11">
Another issue with the water/sewer is that homes were added in areas, that the original designers of the system, did not envision houses being built. Bonebright stated,” In one area of town, there is a 10 inch sewer pipe feeding into a four inch sewer pipe, common sense says you cannot run that way. Years ago this was allowed to happen and now we need to fix it.” id="12">
Now to problem number three, the old sewer lagoon was in the northwest area of Miller, just south of Highway 45. The EPA in the 1970’s made the city change the location of the lagoon. It is currently located on the northeast side of Miller near the dump ground. All the sewer lines were originally sloped to run to the northwest and now we are trying to run the sewers around to get back to the east. In some areas the sewer from one house will run completely around a block to exit because of these issues. id="13">
When the new elementary school was built, the sewer line was dug up and new line was placed. This new line can handle the school and future expansion. City of Miller needs to add to the current infrastructure as well. This will then aid in the expansion of the town. Blachford added, “we need to fix what we have and provide for growth” id="14">
Blachford states , “ My greatest fear is a sink hole will form in the middle of main street, this would take millions and millions to fix. We need to know the current state of the sewer lines, hopefully we can line them and save them. This would save the city of Miller a lot of money.” A new process is available for some sewer lines. It is a liner that would go inside the current line. This would save man hours, fuel for the backhoe, gravel, asphalt, The cost of rerouting state higway trafic and time the sewer was could not be used. id="15">
The airport is also in need of upgrades. The airport is quit a busy place. Doctors for the specialty outreach clinics, such as Dr Bormes and Nagelhout are now flying here, Alco Corporate fly in once a month, air ambulance, increase ag pilots usage along with regular air port traffic. The runway will need to be redone this year. The city has in place funding for the project from the FAA. This funding will cover 95% of the cost. The city will need to cover only 5%. This will be a considerable amount, but better than paying it all. id="16">
New business are also being added to the town of Miller. Theses new businesses and the expansion of current businesses, will bring new jobs and families to Miller. These families need homes and a town that has a great working infrastructure. id="17">
“We are here because we want Miller to be a great town. We all live here and call Miller home. Whether it is the council or the people who work for the city., we are public servants and everyday we do the best we can for Miller. Those of us here, really care and are here to make Miller a better place. Many of them could go into private industry and make much more money, but they stay.” Blachford added. id="18">
Rangel stated, “If people have questions or want more information, come up to city hall or to the city counsel meeting. We want to be open to the people.” id="19">
Bonbright ended the interview with this quote, “My wife, my daughter, grandson and I live here. It’s a good place to live and raise a family. I want Miller to be a viable town well into future.”id="20">