By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
A new week marked a new venue for the Wellington City Council, as the body convened for its biweekly council meeting. The meeting was an occasion for both celebration and education as the council announced the winners of its Easter coloring competition and heard from Jones & DeMille engineering regarding the city’s water service line investigation and replacement project.
Serving as Mayor Pro Tem for the meeting, Kathy Hascall introduced the grand-prize winners of the coloring contest: Indie Pihyavit, Tasia Young, Hudson Scow, Gwen Unsworth and Sadie Larsen.
“These guys entered our Easter coloring contests, and these are our grand prize winners,” explained Hascall. “We had 13 contestants in all, and friends of Wellington picked our grand prize winners. Thank you so much!”
Later in the meeting, the council heard from Josh Graves, a project engineer with Jones & DeMille, regarding a project the firm has partnered with the Wellington Water Company to complete.
The project in question aims to identify pipe materials within the city and, if they are lead, copper or galvanized steel, replace them with approved materials, creating a safer connection between the mainline and residences. To test this, contractors create a pothole by digging down and vacuuming out dirt to reveal the pipe below.
“They’ll get down to the service lines once they get there. We’ll be able to look down there. We’ll be able to see if it’s galvanized steel, copper or lead. If it’s any one of those things, we’re going to make a note of it,” explained Graves.
Graves assured homeowners that, following both the pothole and the pipe installation, the property and landscape would be restored.
Graves went on to explain that the program was completely opt-in, meaning no residents would be forced to participate if they didn’t want to. Wellington residents who would like to participate in the program can visit wellingtonserviceline.com.
