The Hennessey Utility Authority board approved using $388,000 for the phase two replacement of “membrane equipment” at the town’s Reverse Osmosis (water filtration system) plant located north of town.

The board took that action at its Dec. 9 meeting after members first approved using funds “coming from the original RO replacement loan” on that project.

The funding comes from “left over” loan money in the construction account, Town Administrator Tiffany Rowen told board members before they first voted unanimously to use “funds left in that account” and then in a separate agenda item voted to approve a contract for the work.

“We needed to expend those funds before we get finalized by the IRS,” she said, so the town sent out for bids.

They only got one bid at the Oct. 29 bid opening, Rowen said.

“It was Worth Hydrochem (in Norman) who did the first one,” she said. “Also...it’s actually lower than the first one, too.

“It’ll still give us a little bit of money left,” she added. “We’re looking at a generator, and then also we’ll be able to use some of it on other work that we’ve done and already paid for out-of-pocket. We’ll be able to claim some of that on there, too, so we can expend it all.”

DEQ Permit

The board also approved by a 5-0 vote a motion for the “Chairman of the authority” to sign a DEQ permit application “to irrigate from the wastewater lagoons to the tank field.”

Council Person Reports

Trustee David Jones said to Jared Harrison, town attorney, “You said you were going to engage the state audit team a couple of meetings ago and see if you can find out where we’re at, where we’re going.”

Harrison said, “I’m reaching out to the DA’s office on that. I’ve still not heard anything back from them, but I’ll reach out to some other folks.”

Jones then asked Rowen: “Have they (State Auditor’s Office) billed us for any more hours?”

Rowen said no more billing had occurred.

“I’ve been watching,” she said. “And every month they’ve been coming out with another forensic audit. I’m hoping that we’re getting closer.”

At the Meeting

All Utilities Authority members were present: Mayor Randy Bohnstedt, Vice Mayor John Peach, Bert Gritz, Harold Shaw and Jones. Also present was Town Treasurer Kelley Vaverka.

Staff at the meeting were Rowen, Public Works Director Alyssa Kubat, Acting Town Clerk Katie Walters, Fire Chief Brandon Scott and Harrison.

In the audience were District 2 County Commissioner Mike Sparks, homeowners Richard and Denise Shimanek, Samantha Dowell, Dr. David Matousek, and Trent Williams with MES Safety.

The Utilities Board met after the board of trustees meeting in which Michael Booze was hired to represent the town of Hennessey in its objection to state permit applications for a waste management plant near the town, but Booze left after that meeting.

That was the headline on the front page of the June 12, 2003 Hennessey Clipper

On June 4, 2003, the Town of Hennessey received a letter from the state Department of Environmental Quality giving the drinking water in Hennessey its seal of approval, according to the news story by Bill Walter.

Laxman Godhania, president of the MGR engineering company of Edmond and the town’s engineer, told the town board the plant is up and running, all bugs are out and it’s producing good water.

The board voted 4-0 to approve a final payment of $76,508 to Haynes Equipment Co. which built and installed the reverse osmosis equipment in the plant.

High Nitrate Issues

There had been problems with high nitrates in the water since the 1980s, according to news stories back then in The Hennessey Clipper.

The DEQ issued a consent order in February 2000 that required the town to solve the problem of high nitrate levels in the town’s drinking water.

It allowed time for studying possible solutions (other wells, buying water from another source or building a reverse osmosis treatment plant), site selection and purchase, engineering and construction.

The town board decided on a full reverse osmosis filtration system which would remove many other chemicals in the town’s drinking water and probably meet any new standards that might be required in the future.

Town Gets Loan from State Water Board

“The $1.4 million water treatment plant was financed with a 2.3% interest loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board,” according to Walter’s front page story in the June 12, 2003, Clipper.

It was built on land purchased southeast of town.

As part of the solution the town had earlier purchased a large-volume filtration unit and installed it at the police station to provide free no-nitrate water on a 24-hour-a-day basis. They quit providing the filtered water at the police department June 30, 2003.

Drill Water Wells

The board accepted a permit from the Oklahoma Department of Water Quality to drill a new well expected to produce 150 gallons per minute.

The town’s existing No. 3 well had collapsed, the board was told, and needed to replace it.

The board voted 4-0 to approve spending not more than $25,000 to have Eubank Water Well Drilling, Inc. of Fairview to plug the old well and drill a new well within 25 feet of the old one.

Godhania said he had been able to talk DEQ officials out of requiring a test well prior to drilling the new well. He said it would have cost about $7,000 for a test well.

Board Members in 2003

Terry Berkenbile was mayor and other trustees were Will Waldrop, Wes Hardin and Gritz.