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City
Of Darlington Public Works
The City Of Darlington Public Works Department
takes care of Streets, Water & Sewer also, brush &
trees. Streets: The City maintains 15.73 miles of streets,10.27
miles of sidewalk, 24.2 miles of curb and gutter.
Maintaining the streets means snowplowing in the winter
along with clearing city parking lots. We don’t plow
the state and county roads that pass through Darlington,
as the County takes care of them. We do clean up the parking
areas and help merchants with the sidewalks after snowstorms
on the main street.
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Chuck Keister |
Sometimes we have jobs that overlap, like when a tree falls
down we take care of clearing the street and removing the
tree.
Along with snowplowing we also: Paint the road markings, put
up traffic control signs as they change, fall down or get
hit by cars. Fix pot holesRepair sidewalks, repairing curb
and gutterStreet sweep.
Water: The City has about 19.35 miles
of water line. Because of the lay of the land, it operates
in three different pressure zones with two water towers. Booster
pumps can and do move water from one tower to the other if
one is getting used faster then the other, if a need arises
such as fire on one end of town. There are pressures reducing
stations throughout the city so that pressure doesn’t
get to low or too high in some areas. The pressure reducing
stations help to maintain three zones of pressure. Here are
some facts about our water system:
- We have two wells that are over 800 feet deep
- One well pumps at 300 gallons per minute the other
at 550 gallons per minute.
- Miles of pipe: 19.35
- Number of Fire Hydrants:178
- Pressure reducing stations: 5
- Booster pumps: 2
- Tower capacity: 300,000 gallons each (two towers)
- Daily use: We pump about 260,000 gallons of water a
day into the system
- Chemicals added: Fluoride and chlorine
Rich Weiderholt
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This is a pressure reducing station that helps to keep the
water at the right pressure.
A lot of time has to be spent maintaining the system. This
means checking the water usage daily and regulating chemical
feed. We have to repair leaks in the system. A lot of time
that means repairing the road we had to dig up to get at the
water line. Water mains have to be flushed, Pressure reducing
stations have to be operated and maintained, Hydrants and
valves have to be repaired and operated.
Sewer: Very few city sewer systems
get much respect. It is a very necessary city service. We
have 16 mile of sewer in the city. It reaches out to 99 %
of our residences. We are very lucky that we have only two
lift stations to get the water to the sewer plant. Our system
is very old however and tree roots and old clay pipe let in
a lot of water and at times of heavy rain and snowmelt it
overloads the system. We are working at fixing the sewers
to prevent this as much as possible. Our treatment plant is
very modern and works very well. It removes 99% of the pollutants
before the treated water gets to the Pecatonica.
The treatment plant is a complex biological treatment system.
It requires a lot of laboratory works and process control
knowledge to operate it efficiently.
| Below is a picture of Dennis
McPhail left and Scott Kissel in the laboratory.
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Our City Public works employees work mostly in their own areas:
- Rich Weiderholt on water
- Dennis McPhail and Scott Kissel on Wastewater
- Denny McGuire and Chuck Keister on Street and Roads
but helping out on water when needed.
- Gary Loken is our Mechanic. He also cuts a lot of grass
and weeds with the sickle mower in the summer when he
has time between other maintenance and breakdowns.
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Gary keeps everything running. No department
is without his help. |
Mary Polkinghorn answer’s the phone, does water and
sewer billing, keeps the accounts straight, deals with customer
problems. She is like the hub that knows
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