“Some people will say that the glass is half empty, some will say it’s half full. A civil engineer, if he’s doing his job right, will say that glass is twice as big as it needs to be,” said engineer J.T. Grimes of Grimes Engineering in Clemmons.
Grimes concluded that, according to state regulations, the Water Lake spillway is large enough to salvage provided that the City adds two earthen (non-concrete) emergency spillways to the reservoir.
That means, so far, the city does not have to build an entirely new dam at Water Lake. But a second survey is necessary to finalize that — by testing the competency of the dam’s concrete shell and filling — before determining design and construction plans.
According to Grimes, it would cost the City approximately $100,000 to get Water Lake through all the preliminaries required to begin construction. The option to include City Lake in that survey is available, but not as urgent.
“We know that Water Lake dam is big enough, now we need to know if it is strong enough,” said Grimes.
According to Robert Brown, Hamlet Water Treatment Plant Superintendent, Water lake is the main focus right now because it provides drinking water to Hamlet, East Rockingham and Dobbins Heights. Grimes was contracted to assess the repair potential of both Water and City Lake dams last year, after North Carolina Dam Safety deemed Water Lake’s dam to be “high hazard.” Issues include seepage around the spillway, problematic tree growth, and the dam’s capacity to handle the kind of storms that come around every 50, 100 or 500 years respectively.
“There’s what they call over-topping, that’s what you have to worry about with spillways. If spillway cannot handle flow, the water has to go somewhere, and it can actually come over the top of the dam,” Brown said Wednesday.
“We don’t want people to feel like there is an imminent danger, because there’s not. If there was, we would have asked the council to make a decision last night. We are just moving forward and complying to regulations like the state wants us to do.”
He said he doesn’t want to be “shooting in the dark,” on a project like this.
“My concern and, and I know Ms. David shares this concern, is that we don’t want to spend $50 and then in five years’ time have to spend $5,000 to re-do that original repair. We don’t want to spend the citizen’s money without doing the job that needs to be done. We want to meet and exceed the state’s criteria. We aren’t quite being held to the fire (by the state yet) but we’re really close.”
Council members agreed to discuss the matter at their upcoming retreat, and to make a definite decision at the City budget meeting in March.
On a cultural note, locals Jim Graham and Gerard Morrison came to propose new cultural events that would take place in the coming months. Graham is currently spearheading an ongoing project called “Voices of the Rails” through a grant from the Cole foundation, which gathers retired railroad workers to tell their stories on film. He said railroad festival is now in the works for the first Saturday in May at the Hamlet Depot, but unlike the Seaboard festival, all vendors would be strictly railroad-related.
Morrison, who said he would like to see the City do more to honor the likes of John Coltrane and Henry Frye, is pooling resources for a John Coltrane Festival during the first week in October. The festival was one idea of many that Morrison proposed, citing a need to capitalize on the cultural roots that run through the city’s history.
The council pledged to work with both citizens, and Mayor Smart asked the men to keep them updated. Council members confirmed that Graham’s proposal will require little or no city involvement, as it will not involve street blockage; Morrison’s idea would require more planning on how to best ready key areas of the City for John Coltrane-themed tourism.
A petition from Hamlet business owners cited a need for the City to remove the trees that line Main Street, beginning at the Post Office and continuing through the downtown shopping area. Councilman Presslar said that the business owner complained that the berries that drop from the tree cause unsightly stains and hazardous walking conditions on the sidewalk.
Four out of five council members agreed that the trees may be removed providing that the Small Town Main Street group provides a solution for their replacement. Councilman Jesse McQueen was the only one to cast a vote in the negative, saying that he didn’t see where there would be much of a difference if they “waited a week.” Other council members said that would require waiting until the next council meeting, which would be too long.
“I’m just speaking on behalf of the business owners. They’re the ones who pay the taxes, and they’re the ones who keep downtown viable.” said Councilman Pat Preslar, who had added that just about all of the downtown business owners had signed the petition.
“They (business owners) are saying ‘How can we do what we’re supposed to do when you all aren’t doing what you’re supposed to do?’” said City Manager Marchell Adams David.
The Main Street group is scheduled to meet this Tuesday night. Sidewalks will be pressure-washed upon removal of the trees.
“We’ve already been working with them (small Town Main Street) on designing a streetscape, so this is nothing new,” said David.
Other matters of business included the renewal of Fire Department contracts between Hamlet and both Richmond County and Dobbins Heights; and the agreement to advertise delinquent taxes in the Richmond county Daily Journal on Wednesday, March 18.
Post a Comment
