City crews will be working through the night tonight, as they bore a new waterline across Main Street at the Second Street intersection and install new shut-off valves. About 10 p.m. tonight, the water will be turned off for businesses on the west side of the street, as well as at a couple of residences, Public Works Director Russ Rambat said at Tuesday’s meeting of the Pratt City Commission.
Around midnight, after Club D’Est closes, the process will be repeated on the east side of the street. Rambat estimated the work would be completed about 2 or 3 a.m. on Thursday.
Crews will then move block-by-block to bore across Main Street, then across U.S. 54, before laying new water lines from First to Sixth Streets. The work is being done in advance of street resurfacing scheduled for next year.
Every effort is being made to contact and accommodate property owners, Rambat said.
Curb and gutter work on West Third should be wrapped up within two to three weeks, he said.
Commissioners approved a plan to upgrade Angood Field at Lemon Park. The Pratt Community College softball team, which uses the field extensively, will raise funds and provide the labor to remove the existing grass, Recreation Director Bruce Pinkall reported.
Approval was also given for purchasing hand-held units that will be able to read radio-compatible electric meters from a block away. As water meters are replaced on a scheduled rotation, they will be upgraded to units with radio-read capability, City Manager Dave Howard said, with the goal to eventually have all meters of that type. Data from the hand-held units would be downloaded to computers which interface with billing software. Once all meters are replaced, the whole city could be read in about three hours.
“That’s a ways off,” Howard acknowledged.
The new hand-held readers would be able to read the current meters. Current hand-helds are obsolete and parts cannot be obtained, City Clerk LuAnn Kramer reported.
Three requests for prices were sent out and two returned. Commissioners approved a bid of $21,503.74 from Municipal Supply Inc. from Nebraska, more than $8,000 cheaper than the bid submitted by a local supplier, Stanion Electric.
Howard reported that Kansas Municipal Utilities will be in Pratt on Sept. 21 to film a video on the benefits of cities owning their own utility systems, which include local control and regulation and the ability to achieve long-term city goals. Kansas has more municipal utilities than nearly any other state, according to KMU.
Approval was given for the Skyline High School after prom committee to use Lemon Park for a 5K run on Saturday. The run will begin in Lemon Park at 7:30 a.m. and end there about an hour later, Police Chief Steve Holmes said, with little infringement on park use.
Satish Morar was appointed to replace Rhonda Reynolds on the Convention and Tourism Committee. Morar is the manager of Econo Lodge.
