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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Managing Editor

The Jemison City Council received its annual water and sewer management report from Living Waters during its April 5 meeting.

Tyler McKeller of Living Waters, who manages the system for the city, said the report was essentially a score card of compliance with Alabama Department of Environmental Management regulations.

The lower the score the better.

For 2020, the city’s system received a 48.

McKeller explained that most of the points accrued were because of the age of the system overall. However, there were two sanitary sewer overflows that added to the score. McKeller said one of these was because the power was out after a recent storm and the water had already been treated, but it was still counted against them.

Monitoring technology has since been put in place to catch issues even earlier. Three of the company’s employees live in Jemison, giving them a quick response time to any issues.

There were no phosphorus issues putting the system out of compliance this year.

Mayor Eddie Reed said the company has done “an awesome job” for the city.

Councilman Rex Bittle also expressed thanks for all the company had done to keep the systems in good shape.

One of the lift stations in the system was starting to have issues because of age, but McKeller said they are trying to use chemicals to treat the system, which could potentially fix the issue. If the chemicals solve the problem it would save the city an estimated $80,000.

Living Waters has taken over the permit for the city this year, but the City Council will continue to receive a copy of the report.

The council approved accepting the report, which will be sent to ADEM.

The council also approved a retail liquor license for off-premise consumption for AKSH doing business as Dev Food Mart Package Store and an agreement for the League of Municipalities to work with the state to have any fees owed to Jemison that are 60 days past due be taken out of the person’s state tax refund if they are getting one.

City Clerk Vicki Potts said the person would also be charged a $25 fee, which would pay for the service.