City to name water task force this week

Brandon residents are having their tap water checked.

Two homeowners addressed the city council Monday night with reports stating the level of total dissolved solids in their drinking water was above the EPA’s recommended limit. 

“I got concerned when I started seeing higher levels,” said Daniel Guimont, whose report from the state showed the sample from his kitchen sink on Oct. 17 had 602 mg/L of total dissolved solids. The EPA recommends 500 mg/L.

“I personally am not OK with that. I want people to be aware,” said Guimont, adding that he would receive a radium level report from the state this week and share it with the city.    

Brandon’s water quality is one topic the new water needs task force will take up.

“Our water problem – there’s a lot to look at. You could go at this 100 different ways,” said alderman Don Wells, who’s chairing the volunteer committee.

Since the city’s announcement of a task force to take an in-depth look at Brandon’s water needs and make recommendations to the city council, Wells said he received 24 emails from residents interested in serving on the committee. Wells narrowed the names down to a “list of randomly picked citizens based on where they live,” composed of residents, engineers, city staff members and others “with a high level of interest,” and would be emailing the list of 10 to 14 task force members to council members and city staff following Monday night’s meeting. 

Tim Wakefield is perhaps the resident with the highest level of interest in Brandon water. Wakefield led the charge for the city’s Oct. 9 public water meeting, which drew 75 residents, several of whom indicated interest in looking at firms other than Stockwell Engineering, which works as a consultant on a non-contractual basis.  

Wakefield asked that Stockwell not be included on the task force. 

“We need to have an ability to have an open, honest discussion about what that committee looks like,” he said. “It seems like it would be having the fox in the hen house.”

Wells said Stockwell deserved a spot on the task force to defend itself. Alderman Jon McInerney said the firm would have only one voice – not any louder than anyone’s else’s. Wakefield said he would not serve on the committee if Stockwell Engineers has a representative on it.

Both Wells and McInerney said the task force needed to identify a timeline by which to have its objectives completed. Objectives would be put forth at every meeting, Wells said. Both men said they didn’t want to see the task force last many months, especially if the recommendations the committee brought back to the council were not approved by Stockwell, McInerney said. 

“That’s my biggest fear,” he said. “I know we’re up against a hard timeline.”

Wakefield also asked the city council to pass a motion to defer all work on water projects until after the task force has made its recommendations – specifically, that the city not move forward on purchasing the land earmarked for one of two 1.25 million-gallon water towers tentatively planned. 

“We’re purchasing land we may or may not need,” Wakefield said. 

On Oct. 27, the city won a court case in which a conditional use permit was granted to build the tower on that land. Landowner Dr. Benjamin Aaker has indicated he will not appeal Judge Lawrence Long’s decision. 

“On June 5, the council voted on that, and I signed the contract,” Mayor Larry Beesley told Wakefield. “But we have not lifted a shovel of dirt and we won’t until Mr. Wells and his committee are done.”

City attorney Lisa Marso said the city has a legally binding purchase order, a closing date of March 1, 2018, but no money has exchanged hands. 

McInerney said the worst-case scenario would be for the city to sell the land in a few years and take a $5,000 loss. The alternative to buying that land, he said, was a piece of property farther east and $500,000 more. 

The names of the water task force members will be made public this week.

While the council did not need to approve the list because the members were volunteers, Marso said, the council did need to make a motion to authorize the formation of a voluntary water task force. 

They did so before retiring to executive session.

The city council’s next meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 20, in the council chambers.

The water task force will meet at council chambers on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, with the time yet to be determined. Meetings are open to the public.