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HARRISON TOWNSHIP — The future of Harrison Township’s public services management was a key focus at the July 24 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
With David Axtell, current public services director, set to leave the post on Aug. 11, the board promoted Justin Murphy from his current water and sewer supervisor position. In order to fill the post Murphy will vacate once Axtell leaves, the board then promoted Jeffery Ryan, water and sewer foreman, to become the new water and sewer supervisor. Since Ryan’s promotion will leave his position open, the board then approved putting out a call to hire a new water and sewer foreman.
According to Township Supervisor Ken Verkest, the promotion of Murphy to public services director follows the township’s normal succession procedures, while Ryan’s promotion occurs because he is the only township employee within the same bargaining unit with the right qualifications and expertise for the position.
“The building official doesn’t have the qualifications to move over (to water and sewer),” Verkest said. “This kind of bumping process has been done in the past and there’s kind of a logical progression that we’ve seen in the past.”
Murphy will begin his director position with a salary just shy of $97,110, while Ryan’s starting salary will be about $83,710. Ryan’s recent salary in the foreman position was about $81,250.
Water meter reading equipment purchase
Changes may be coming to the Water and Sewer Department, but that does not mean business has slowed down. Water and sewer staff have been dealing with premature failures to water meter reading equipment without support from the manufacture and, after searching around for a new supplier, came to the board seeking approval for the purchase of about 9,800 new Master Meter units from Core & Main for $3.1 million with an annual service cost of $20,324.
The Master Meter system is expected to last 30 years, although some sending unit failures are expected during the system’s lifetime. All of the water meters in the township will need to be replaced, which the board estimates will take place over the course of a year with help from subcontractors. The method of how payment will work is seen as encouraging the timely completion of the township-wide replacement.
“If they don’t install a meter and sell us a meter, they don’t have anything to invoice,” Verkest said. “It isn’t like they’re saying, ‘We’re going to charge you $2 million up front and then $10 a meter. (They’re saying) we’re charging $0 up front, and we’re billing as we install.’”
Installation will not require access inside most buildings.
“We give (installers) access to our curb stop, so they will not touch anyone’s plumbing inside the home,” Axtell said. “We will avoid that at all costs to avoid negative consequences, but the issue becomes there are very few — and I say very few, I mean out of all the homes in the township, we have 10 or so that we do not know the exact location … of that curb stop, but if that’s the case, we will look at that inside plumbing or they have the ability to come in and freeze things to stop so that we do not disturb the indoor plumbing.”
The board’s approval instructs the supervisor, clerk and treasurer to investigate payment assistance avenues to help lower the township’s direct cost to replace its meter system.
Tax tribunal representation
The board approved hiring the services of the Hallahan and Associates P.C. law firm to argue the township’s case before the State Tax Commission regarding the property classification of marijuana growers.
The township has worked with Hallahan and Associates before and the firm is currently representing other municipalities in the same matter.
