Does water run uphill in Hennessey?

“No, the water isn’t running uphill (on Mitchell Road),” was Hennessey Mayor Clif Vogt’s answer to a Times & Free Press reporter’s first question in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.

His answer was in response to Vice Mayor Harold Shaw’s comments at last week’s trustee meeting about the town’s finished drainage project on Mitchell Road.

Shaw had said it looked as if the drainage water had to run uphill at 3rd Street to make it flow into the 4th Street ditch.

He also told trustees he was “sober” when he looked at it the first time and it was a few inches too high to work correctly.

Then he laughed and said he thought it was about the same height when he looked at it again after he’d been drinking.

“There is a little belly (on 3rd Street) that holds some water,” Vogt said after he examined it along with others Monday afternoon.

“But the new drainage system on Mitchell Road is working fine.”

Vogt made that comment after his meeting with Cowan Group Engineering’s project engineer and Marsau Enterprise Construction’s contractor at that work site.

That’s also when the mayor and town staffers shared complaints from homeowners that more work needed to be done on replacing driveways and sodding in areas.

Vogt said the contractor said they’d get that work completed.

$32,411.50 Water line Change Order

That group also went over a planned “punch list” meeting on the Dunlap Street waterline project.

The mayor said he’d learned from the engineer and contractor on that Monday about some “communication” issues about a change order on that project.

“The construction crew apparently got the change order early,” said the mayor, “and were already onsite to finish it, so I’m unsure if someone on our staff gave the go-ahead or not.”

When town trustees had met Thursday, Sept. 14, they questioned a $32,411.50 change order because it was the first time they knew about it.

They tabled action until they had more information.

“Our engineering firm doesn’t have us up-to-date on this,” said Trustee David Jones during that Sept. 14 board meeting.

“We’ve always approved these before the work was done,” said Trustee Bert Gritz.

“Legally, a change order has to be approved prior to the work being done,” said Tiffany Tillman, town administrator, and in agreement was Northern Oklahoma Development Authority Grant Specialist Jennifer Firgard.

Vogt found out at the Monday meeting that about $11,000 was for a new fire hydrant and valve which trustees had approved in June.

It’s located at the northwest corner of West Fifth and Dunlap streets.

Back in June when Gritz was asked why it was needed there, he said one of the streets would be hard for firefighters to get to a fire hydrant.

Also, there was another hydrant in that area “that was not one of the best,” he said.

Change Order Reasons “The water line that is shown in historic records that runs east on 7th was never found,” Bryan Schwegal, Cowan’s project manager, wrote in a Sept. 12 email to Tillman and Firgard.

“Hennessey field personnel gave the go-ahead to do some additional potholing to try and locate the line. It appears it was never installed,” wrote the engineer.

“From that, there is the potholing cost, the additional pipe and fittings to tie the new waterline into a nearby main line and repairing the pavement.

“In addition,” wrote Schwegal, “there were two service connections that were further offsite that weren’t picked up in the survey to add an additional fire hydrant.”

Current Grant Doesn’t Cover Cost

Since the work was done with a Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) grant through NODA, Gritz asked Firgard if it would be a problem if they tabled action.

“As long as the approval is before Oct. 31 (when the project must be closed out),” Firgard said. “This money is coming out of your pocket (it’s not covered in the grant).”

Then Firgard told the board there’d be a “punch list” meeting at the site Monday at 1 p.m. to get some answers and the mayor attended.