New members and water leak occupy Schell City council

Schell City city clerk Erin Lee swears in mayor David McCubbin, who has been serving as mayor pro tem since former mayor Tom Haddix resigned last year.

Gabe Franklin/Daily Mail

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A major water leak was the major topic of discussion during Wednesday’s Schell City council meeting, however, that had to await the swearing in of new and returning council members.

David McCubbin was sworn in for a one-year term as mayor, filling the remainder of Tom Haddix’s term.

Returning councilwoman Vickey McKinney was sworn in for a two-year term representing the north ward and Broc Koshko was sworn in for a two-year term representing the south ward. Koshko served on the council previously, leaving the council in early 2016.

Eldon Craig, who was out of town, was unable to attend the meeting. He will be sworn in at the May 3 meeting and will represent the north ward filling the remaining one year of Quentin Goodman’s term.

“It really bothered him to not be able to be here,” Lee said

The seat vacated by McCubbin’s accession to mayor Wednesday evening remains open.

McCubbin nominated McKinney as mayor pro tem and she accepted.

McKinney said she was willing to vote for herself if McCubbin thinks it necessary to not wait for more council members to be present.

“I feel it would probably be beneficial,” McCubbin said, explaining that an ongoing family issue may prevent him from attending the next meeting.

“If it benefits the town, I’m good for it,” Koshko said.

The council voted unanimously to accept the nomination of McKinney as mayor pro tem.

Following miscellaneous business, discussion turned to a major water leak that occurred on April 4 at Hickory and First streets, where three water mains connected.

“We don’t know yet,” Lee said in response to a Jim Goodman’s question on how much water the city lost. “This next water bill will probably be extremely high,”

Lee explained the city’s main water meters from Consolidated Public Water Supply District No. 1 had been read the week before.

“That water leak happened late at night and I wasn’t notified — no one was notified until early the next morning,” Lee said. “As soon as I called Terry [Smith], he came straight into town and stopped at the main connection and shut it off.”

That was at 5 a.m.

“The people that didn’t have water at midnight should have called someone.” Lee said. “Five hours of the entire town’s water going straight into the ground.”

Lee said the leak was isolated and water service restored to most of the town by about 9 a.m. Smith was assisted by employees from CPWSD No. 1.

“The state demands you have a boil advisory if you lose water pressure,” Lee said.

Lee, the city’s licensed water system operator, issued the boil advisory the morning of the leak. The water was tested that afternoon and the boil advisory was not extended.

• Lee said an employee from CenturyLink got stuck in the mud in the alley on Oak Street between Third Street and Fourth Street two weeks ago following several days of rain and had to have his vehicle pulled out.

“The culvert wasn’t in that great a shape anyway, but he’s basically dug out half of that alley,” Lee said.

Lee said the CenturyLink employee told the resident there that he would come back and fix it but it has yet to be fixed.

The council asked Lee to contact CenturyLink and inquire about repairs to the culvert and alleyway.

In other business,

• Lee said city hall would be closed June 12-16.

• The next community event planning meeting will be 7 p.m., May 15, at the Community Building.

• Jim Goodman said 15 loads of base rock had been purchased and applied where needed to the city streets.