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Water and sewer improvements were the talk of the Thorsby Town Council meeting on Oct. 16.

Calvin Cassady, engineer with The Cassady Company, was on hand to discuss the town’s future plan and what it would mostly likely entail.

The plan would include improvements to wells No. 6 and 7 and the treatment building associated with those wells.

“There’s a lot of things that we need to improve electrically,” Cassady said. “It’s just old and needs to be upgraded.”

Well No. 6 went into service in 1993 and pumps 700 gallons of water per minute.

A water meter upgrade will also take place, which would use a remote read system to replace the remaining old-read meters in the town.

Unlike the old-read system that requires meters to be physically checked, the remote system uses a frequency and will allow meters to be checked from the road just by driving by.

According to Cassady, being able to remotely read meters will save time and manpower.

“They are your cash registers in your system,” Cassady said.

One of the final major improvements mentioned was to the town’s sewer lagoon, which has been in service since 1985.

The lagoon is a hydraulically-controlled release lagoon with a flow of 165,000 gallons per day.

There are roughly about 300 Thorsby residents using the town’s sewer.

Some of the sewer lagoon’s major problems include old age, sludge buildup and duck weed.

According to Cassady, lagoons typically have 3 to 5 feet of water, but due to the sludge there is only about 2 feet of water.

He suggested two to four floating aerators be placed in the lagoon to essentially circulate, which should help break up the sludge and also kill nutrients that the duckweed feeds on.

Installation of the aerators will be bid out before a final decision is made.

Once the aerators are installed, the town should see something of a solution within a year, Cassady said. Thorsby can apply for possible help funding the project through the ADEM State Revolving Fund Program.

The estimated total amount for all the projects is $855,000. The council approved to get a short-term loan.

In other news from the meeting:

• A mediation date has been set for Nov. 8 at 9:30 a.m. in Birmingham. The mediation will pertain to a lawsuit involving the City of Jemison suing the Town of Thorsby over a dispute of a water contract between the municipalities.
• The minutes were approved from the Oct. 2 council meeting.
• It was approved to pay the bills and transfer the funds.