By Chris Hagan
Review Staff Writer
At Monday’s Lake Orion Village Council meeting Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett spoke for more than an hour addressing and defending the fire department’s handling of a house fire on Sheron Street in November.
His presentation was prompted after an inquiry was sent to both Barnett and Fire Chief Robert Smith in December by the village.
Barnett’s presentation brought up the Sheron Street fire, which caused about $750,000 in damage, but also addressed the village’s struggling water main system and several options the township is examining in regards to the customers on that system.
‘The options that exist for us today and I’ll be honest with you, they’re not nice,? Barnett said. ‘We had attorneys advise us on what our options are and if you watch our board meetings and listen to the comments of our board members, we feel it’s egregious the number of communications that have taken place over the years that nothing has been done.?
The first option presented to the village was to have to township terminate the contract with the village and the township’s DPW would begin to take over the village water system. According to Barnett this would very costly and would require a written consent from the village.
Another option, which was a recommendation from an engineer, is to remove the hydrants completely where problems exist.
‘Sounds totally counter intuitive and backwards but the problem is there might be a safe drinking water issue. The fire department gets on scene thinking they have working fire hydrants. There’s cause for concern,? Barnett said.
Neither option was supported or entertained by Village Manager Darwin McClary sighting that removal of the fire hydrants would undermine all the work that was done to establish where problems exist and where repairs have been made.
The last option presented by Barnett appeared to have the least amount of push back by the village. The plan would be to extend township water mains to non-village residents that are being served by the village water system. The area being examined currently by the township DPW is the possibility of connecting the John Winter Subdivision to the township water system.
That subdivision consists of Summer, Glanworth, Goldengate, Markdale and Parkview streets. Though they are all in the township, the residents are supplied with water by the village and currently they have fire hydrant pressures in the single digits. Just as in the other two options, the village would have to agree to release the subdivision to the township.
Currently, the township supplies the village through two mains; one at Buckhorn Lake and the other by the Kroger parking lot on Lapeer Road. Pressure from the township comes into the village system near Buckhorn Lake at 92 psi while the northern main supplies the village at 86 psi. Once it hits the village system it gets regulated down to 56 psi and from there is whittled down to zero in several areas.
No motion or decision was made or entertained by the village on any of the options presented by Barnett. The village is in the midst of conducting a water reliability study which is mandated by the state. According to McClary, the village DPW has completed their checks on the hydrants and they’re working to check issues with valves in the water mains.
‘We’re going to find out what the issues are and exactly the problems are because it seems it kind of comes and goes,? Council President Ken Van Portfliet said. ‘We’re talking daily about this. DPW has been reinforced, communication has really increased and with [township] help and us there, we’ll get this taken care of.?