By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

VERSAILLES — The pressure and bacteria testing is complete at the Reed Road wellfield for the discharge mains for each new well.

Village Administrator Kyle Francis said personnel hauled the first load of raw water to the water plant with the village’s semi-tractor and tanker on Friday, March 8.

“We will haul water in this manner as needed until the new transmission main is complete and ready for service,” Francis said.

In order to substitute for current low water, the village had been hauling in water from Piqua. Due to the waterline project being at the point it is at, Francis said they will cease hauling water from Piqua. It is still advised that residents be conscious about water usage within the village to ensure over usage is at a minimum.

For the in-town raw water main contract, Brumbaugh Construction is currently working to install the eight-inch raw water main and 12-inch distribution main out and away from both sides of the jack and bore location under the CSX railroad and Indian Creak.

“Since the last update, they have installed the eight-inch raw water main from Greenlawn Ave. to N. West St. along the east side of the Midmark Complex,” Francis said.

He advised they will be looking to start installing pipe through Greenlawn Cemetery and installing the remaining directional bores under Greenlawn Ave., N. West St., and Baker Road. soon.

For the out-of=town raw water main contract, Shinn Bros. has completed all their remaining directional bore installations including the large bore under Swamp Creek at Reed and Day roads.

“They currently have a crew working around the curve on Reed Rd at Pitsenbarger and a second crew north of Pitsenbarger,” Francis said.

He advised there is a possibility that Shinn Bros. may be done with their pipe installations by the end of next week pending weather and favorable ground conditions.

“We are currently working with the Southwest Ohio EPA Office to update our Source Water Protection Plan for the Village’s existing and new water production wells,” Francis said. “We have been granted an extension to June 1, 2025 from December 31, 2024 at their recommendation for the plan to be completed.”

Updates to the plan are typically initiated when new wells or changes to an existing wellfield are made. The Ohio EPA will be conducting a sanitary survey at the Water Plant on Wednesday, March 20th. This survey takes place once every three years, and the survey also covers the Village’s distribution system, water towers, and wellfields.

On Monday, March 4th a power outage event occurred on the Village’s Circuit 7 which effected customers North and Northeast of the Village due to a Weaver Bros. feed truck leaving its auger up on the trailer. The auger came into contact and heavily damaged overhead power lines in front of the Weaver Bros. A-1 Egg Farm on SR 47 east of Versailles. “Two poles were broken as part of the damage, one phase conductor was broken, one burned down to the last strand on the aluminum conductor, and one pole had heavy cross-arm damage,” Francis said.

There was also damage done to new NK Telco lines as well. Luckily no one was injured as part of the accident.

The village had a meeting with BrightSpeed on March 14th regarding their intent to build Versailles out with a new fiber optic network.

“They are not looking to replace the existing copper phone lines that they currently use, but instead overlash new fiber optic mains onto the existing overhead copper mains,” Francis said.

In addition, BrightSpeed would install underground in areas where their lines are already underground. The fiber optic would be for data purposes only to the customer with no offering of telephone service or television.

“They are supposed to be providing us additional information regarding their layout and pole loading information,” Francis said. “A full system review will be needed in order to accommodate such a build that would be at their expense per our Pole Tariff Agreement process.”

Francis said in addition, they would be doing a complete street opening permit review for the underground installations. The Village has voiced its concerns that if BrightSpeed would be permitted to attach to the Village poles that there would need to be an agreement to remove all hanging or unused telephone drops that are scattered throughout the Village’s electric system

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].