By Kalin Krohe
Panhandle Post
The Alliance City Council met on Tuesday evening to discuss some new updates and purchases for city services.
Council members all agreed that upgrading the City of Alliance sewer lift stations will be a benefit to the community. The City will be upgrading the lift stations by using a supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA). This will cost $40,000.
“It’s basically sensors that we put in. In fact we have SCADA on our sewer and water systems. The idea is to monitor what’s going on and make sure all the equipment is working properly. That saves us if there is a malfunction because we can get at it right away and fix it. It also gives our personnel an opportunity to remotely monitor those systems,” said Alliance City Manager Rick Kuckkahn during his post-meeting interview with KCOW Radio.
Along with approving an update to the lift stations, the city will be purchasing a 2020 Freightliner chassis refuse truck. The refuse truck will cost $206,213.27
“Every year the council approves a capital improvements program and part of that is vehicle replacement,” said Kuckkahn. “Those trucks are out pretty much everyday picking up refuse and it’s rough on the equipment so we have to periodically replace them. It’s necessary and fortunately the community supports this service.”
In other business, council members heard a request of resident Scott Bolinger. Mr. Bolinger discussed that council look at changing potential language to the city’s current regulations and municipal code regarding unarmed sports.
“Those are the martial arts kind of events and he wants the staff to take a look at if we’re in line with state regulations,” said Kuckkahn.
Council approved an ordinance on first reading for the Charter Communications cable franchise. This will modify the franchise regulations for cable television systems.
At the Nov. 6 meeting, council spoke about looking into the potential for developing solar farms in Alliance and adding solar power to the city electric power profile. Council continued to talk about this at Tuesday’s meeting and will participate in a statewide request for proposal (RFP).
During discussion on the proposal Alliance Mayor Mike Dafney said, “I’m not on board quite yet with it, but I’m willing to go along with the RFP.”
You can listen to the recorded meeting audio of city council below.