Clifton Forge Public Works Dept. Report For May, 2016 By Earl LaBonte, Public Works Director   Clifton Forge, VA (June 24, 2016) - May has ended: summer has arrived. There were so many May showers that resulted in a lot of May flowers and runaway lawn growth. Some would call it abnormal weather. During this month we experienced several water main (Verge Street, Gardner Street) and service line issues (Clay Street, Loop Street, and Pine Street). Water issues included defective water valves, broken mains and service lines and dirty (muddy) water calls. The requirement to mark Miss Utility tickets continues to remain high as do calls to check resident meters due to perceived high water usage. We also replace another fire hydrant in the intersection of Kensington and Lees Streets. Additionally we removed the hydrant at Frasier Hill / Old Verge Street at the request of the fire department. Due to concerns about lower water revenues from the county we had the large meters that measure water sold to the county tested. The meter on the east side of town passed the test ing process, however the meters on the west end of town failed. Both the town administration and the county were notified of the failure. We are working to have the meters on the west side of town repaired or replaced and then we will monitor to determine if there was a billing discrepancy. The sewer crew has worked diligently to clear the backlog of sewer lateral clean out installations, shrinking the installed list from 69 to only 4. The crew also cleaned many sewer mains town wide to include Lee, Linden, all of Hamilton, Benton and parts of Jefferson Avenue. The final report for the Administrative Order concerning I & I has been completed and submitted to Virginia Department of Environment Quality for their consideration to close our consent order. Working design for water main replacement on Church Street from Roxbury to Commercial Avenue to include pal1s of McCormick and Pine Streets is in the works. Design work continue for the Route 60 pump station elimination - reroute sewer to Cliftondale pump station. This project has presented many unique challenges and wiII require coordination with both the County and the Virginia Department of Transportation. The replacement street light pole arrived finally in Clifton Forge and was installed. Besides working on normal street signs we were required to install pet waste signs at all town parks. There was an upsurge of pet droppings at all parks and the council requested advisory signs be installed to enable enforcement of the town ordnance concerning pets. Park and recreational area signs were installed to assist residents and visitors locate our various parks and recreational fields. The signs for Mathews Park were also replaced as they had been removed by persons unknown. They were replaced when the other park signs were received. We were requested to move additional equipment from the Library to their storage area in the A Street School. The Skate Park was reopened for public usage following a lockdown of the park due to vandalism. The park was cleaned up, the grind bar reinstalled. The park is now open according to the approved schedule. It is locked at 9:30 in the evening and unlocked for use in the morning. The new restroom facility at Linden Park was also a victim of vandalism, the partition was torn off the wall in the men's restroom. There were no sanitary sewer overflows in May. The paving contractor returned and milled and paved Ridgeway Street from Owens Pharmacy to Main Street and Main Street from the intersection of Ridgeway to Cary Street. After the pavers were finished our pavement marking contractor came in and installed all associated pavement markings for this area. There was significant damage that prevented public usage on Girard Street when a private swimming pool collapsed. This flooded the street and eroding a private retaining wall. That wall collapsed into the roadway. Public Works secured the roadway, move the debris out of the road and cleared the road so the general public could use the road safety. There were no burials in May. We have filled our open Skilled Laborer position: Lawrence Wright was hired. All currently authorized positions in Public Works are now filled.

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