Greencastle residents had to boil their water due to an error at the water treatment plant and the local option income tax took effect this month.
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Mayor Sue Murray addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: A couple weeks ago the city experienced a water boil order which led to some confusion as to why, could you clear that up a little more?
Murray: It led to a lot of confusion. People were concerned that it was something that was planned with the transitions of the plant and trust me, on a Friday afternoon on family weekend you don't all of a sudden decide to put a boil order on when you know you've got thousands of extra people coming on campus.
What happened was we were putting in a chlorine feed at our water treatment plant and that's required. So we are working feverishly to get that feed put in because we have to do pre and post chlorination in order to meet restrictions. The company that was putting in that chlorine feed had put it in on a Wednesday and tested it out and it worked fine. The company came back to adjust and work on a second feed. When they switched over, they found there was a problem with the vacuum pump. And unfortunately due to human error, the person did not put it back on the properly functioning feed, they left it on the malfunctioning feed and by the time the water treatment plant was up and testing the next morning, the chlorine levels had dropped.
Had they dropped to a dangerous level? No, not really, but they dropped enough that IDEM had to be called and they said to be absolutely on the safe side, issue a boil order for the water under the consumption of your residents and keep that in place until we have two negative tests from you and by the way, those tests can only be taken every 18 hours.
Hren: Do you feel the city did a good job of getting the information out to the public?
Murray: We got it out immediately. We had a little problem with the reverse 9-1-1 in full disclosure because they have two ways of doing it. They can either record or use a recorded message and they chose to use the recorded message and it was garbled. So the second time when it was lifted they made sure it was crisp, clear, concise new taping that was done of the message.
Hren: Vine Street reconstruction is in its final phase and almost done I see?
Murray: Substantial completion, we're looking at before you and I talk again. So it's a great relief to everyone. We're going to be doing asphalt pouring next week. And we're waiting for final approval from the Department of Transportation for our decorative pavers, those are going in next week. Trees are going up. Lights are going up. So the long summer of Vine Street construction is almost over.
