Crews are entering their second month of rehabbing the first of two municipal water towers. Work has gone smoothly, Public Works Director and soon-to-be Interim Village Manager Johnnie Burns recently told the News, other than the large hole that had to be cut in the side of the tower to allow a lift into the structure. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
August public works projects planned, underway
- Published: August 11, 2023
With a number of ongoing and upcoming infrastructure and maintenance projects throughout the village, August is set to be a busy month for the Yellow Springs Public Works Department.
At Gaunt Park, crews entered their second month of working on the Village’s 63-foot-tall, 900,000-gallon water tower. It’s the first phase of the two-year-long project to rehab both of the municipal towers — a project previously described by Yellow Springs Water and Wastewater Superintendent Brad Ault as “routine maintenance” that entails draining each tower, sandblasting the existing coating, buffing out defects, repainting and refilling.
Public Works Director and soon-to-be Interim Village Manager Johnnie Burns told the News that the first tower will be finished by the beginning of November, and the second one will be serviced on a similar timeline beginning next summer.
Aside from the sandblasting crews needing to cut a large hole at the bottom of the first tower to allow a lift inside, Burns said the project is on schedule and going according to plan.
“Even though this tower is offline for now, we still have the north tower with 1 million gallons in it,” Burns said. “As a village, we have a daily water usage of 330,000 gallons per day — water that gets run through the towers every day — which means we have almost three days of water if something were to happen.”
“But we’re good,” he added confidently.
Across Gaunt Park, new playground equipment is scheduled to be installed sometime in the coming weeks.
Burns said the new equipment will be a significant upgrade to the existing playground, which was built in 1992. It will include four new swings of varying styles and a number of climbing ladders and structures on the main set. The new playground costs $40,135.36 in total; Greene County Parks and Trails contributed $10,000 to the Village to cover the cost.
Over in the northwest corner of Yellow Springs, Burns said the creation of the future Spring Meadows 90-home subdivision is going well. Since the official groundbreaking on June 16, construction crews have been working alongside Miamisburg-based development company DDC Management, LLC, to clear the 23-acre site and install sewer and water lines.
“It’s going fantastic over there,” Burns said. “I’d say the sewer line is 50% done and the water is 10% done. It’s a lot of work because of how deep they have to go in the ground.”
Burns also reported that DDC has successfully built the site’s lift station and installed the subdivision’s retention pond.
As reported in the News earlier this year, all 90 lots are presently “under contract for purchase” from homebuilding company Fischer Homes who intends to construct single-family residences, including two-story and ranch-style homes.
Elsewhere in the village, public works crews will be spotted throughout the month refurbishing a number of local alleys, roads and lots.
Among those are the parking lots at Ellis Park and Kieth’s Alley, both of which are scheduled to be sealcoated and restriped mid-August, Burns said. Also in the coming weeks, crews will patch holes on Limestone Street, as well as lay down new layers of asphalt in the alleys behind the Yellow Springs Community Library, adjacent to Whiteman Street and behind the Humanist Center off W. North College Street.
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