MINSTER – At Minster Council meeting Tuesday night, Feb. 16, members heard about the plans to replace the Ohio Street water tower.

Village Administrator Don Harrrod led a discussion on CDM Smith’s Preliminary Design Report for the Ohio Street Water Tower Replacement Project.

He said CDM had created a schematic that showed the two best places to situate a new 1.25 million gallon water tank that would ensure even distribution of water pressure, controlling water age, and other considerations.

The two sites are on Seventh Street and on Fourth Street. Also discussed was the idea to approach Danone about the possibility of the yogurt company building their own water tower, since Danone consumes approximately 70% of daily water supply.

Following discussion, the matter was turned back over to the Utility Committee for further action. If approved the new tower would cost $2.3 to $2.9 million. Harrod said that since there are only a few companies who build such projects, it was anticipated it would be 3 or 4 years before the project could begin. The current tower on Ohio was built in 1949.

Village employee Travis Fishbaugh demonstrated the use of the new IFIX program to monitor the Water Treatment Plant and Waste Water Treatment Plant through the use of two tablets and four PC’s. He explained that the equipment allows continuous monitoring of the two plants and offers remote fixes in some circumstances.

In his report to council, Harrod said the January 24th village power outage was caused by a faulted switch owned by Dayton Power and Light at the north substation. Crews from the Village and Dayton Power and Light were able to bypass the switch and to restore power to the community.

He said crews will begin lowering the rise on North Hamilton Street between Fifth and Seventh streets in anticipation of future improvements to the entire section of road. Crews will remove asphalt and will be cutting the rise down about thirty inches. This work is being done to improve the safety of the street and in anticipation of future improvements to the road. Hamilton Street between Fifth and Seventh will remain closed until this spring when new asphalt can be put down.

He said the new electrical substation is now on line and in operation. Most of the north side of the village is being served off of the new substation. Crews need to switch over Nidec Minster and the Foundry to the new substation and then the old substation can begin to be dismantled. He said part of the substation houses equipment from Dayton Power and Light so will remain at the current location.

Last week, he said phase two of the solar field had passed the final state inspection. The solar site has been on line since Dec. 27 and supplies 13% of the village’s power.

In other action, council approved a second reading of a resolution authorizing the village’s participation in the Ohio Department of Administrative Services’ Cooperative Purchasing Program for 2021. In tandem with that they approved a resolution authorizing the sale of excess personal property by internet sales.

Also given final approval of an ordinance awarding a $72,000 contract Minster Concrete Coating for a poured-in-place rubber surface under the playground equipment at the Four Seasons Park.

Council gave final approval of an ordinance adopting annual appropriations of $28,200,234.13 for 2021.

Finally, council approved an agreement for engineering services with Choice One to work on plans to replace the 24 inch clay tile northwest of town at 7th and Line Street.