Monday evening, members of the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety were updated by department heads and acted on requests. 

Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson informed members of the OCRA Community Development Block Grant award of $700,000 for the rehabilitation of the city’s west elevated water storage tank and upgrade to a couple of water mains. This project will improve water quality for residents and enhance firefighting capabilities throughout the city.

Davidson was granted permission to apply for a $10,000 grant through the Indiana Finance Authority.  He said the funds would be used to, “assist the city in determining some of the unknowns in the water service line program.”  The superintendent said there is no matching fund requirement.  Davidson has set a goal of October 16 to have the inventory completed.

Mayor Listenberger asked if the grant funds would be used to help identify lines that need to be changed and Davidson said, “There are certain ones that are extremely difficult to get to.  We can’t even get the hydro-excavator to it.  What we are hoping to do is use some modeling through their assistance to get patterns throughout the various neighborhoods when they were installed and allow that since we don’t know what’s going into the home which would allow us to assume the lines are not lead.”       

City Engineer, Dan Sellers gave a brief update on the road improvement project for Commerce Street, Pioneer Drive, and Gary Drive off U.S. 31 near Love’s Truck Stop.  He said the project is funded by the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission and a pre-construction meeting was scheduled for Tuesday.  Sellers anticipated getting details on the timing of the project.

Fire Chief Steve Holm was approved by the Board of Public Works & Safety to offer conditional employment during Monday’s meeting. 

Holm told members all three candidates were really good and did well on the interview process and testing last week. 

One candidate was the most qualified with per certifications. John Kauffman has been a firefighter and a paramedic for just over 4 years and currently works for the Goshen Fire Department.  The chief said this will be a lateral transfer and Kauffman is in the police/fire pension already and plans to relocate to Plymouth.