Video of the meeting in its entirety can be seen below the ordinance.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website describes flushing as “an important maintenance technique to remove stagnant water, restore disinfectant residual, remove loose deposits, and scour pipe surfaces.” 

Council member Ivory Curry asked Nelson to explain what was happening with the water system. “My phone is ringing off the hook,” Curry said. “Mine is too,” Council member Carolyn Todd said. 

Nelson was asked why notice of the flushing had not come out sooner. He said an overnight fire had used the water system for three or four hours and “stirred up” the water system. “We really didn’t have any time to make plans,” Nelson said. 

Council member Susie Meeks reported seeing brown-tinted water at her residence not long before Monday night’s meeting. She said a water employee had serviced her pipes and her water was clear just before he left, but before long her water was brown again. Meanwhile, two neighboring homes have clear water. 

Curry said he had a call from a resident on the west side of town. “It had been cleared up for three or four days, and then they got more.” He encouraged updates be provided so that chicken farmers could know when to change their water filters. 

Bruce Bean, City Hall Office Manager, presiding over the meeting in Mayor Terry Oliver’s absence said an update would be provided Tuesday. 

Asked if the problem related to old, rusty pipes, Nelson provided a short master-class on the Prescott water system. “The water supply for the city of Prescott can be supplied through six-inch pipe to supply everything that we do. But regulations require that we have a certain amount of storage in our system to provide water in case there's a failure on account of the equipment. So they have to make the pipe bigger. So then water slows down a little bit. 

“There's also regulations that require fire protection in the city that make the pipe bigger, but it also slows down water flow. And then your engineers want to plant for the future, so that you have enough size in your system to grow, that makes the pipe bigger, so that slows down the water flow, so things settle out over time in that water line. 

“When you flush it, it stirs it up and spreads it out in the whole system. We're working to take care of that problem, and we just haven’t had that whole system flushed out yet. We've got over 200 miles of pipe that we're having to flush out and try to clear up. And we're working on that.  We're trying. There’s just a few of us.” 

Nelson said because the water system in the city is 130 years old, care has to be taken so that the flushing water does not blow out pipes. The different pipes used in the system include the most up-to-date kinesic and polyethylene pipe but ranges back to cast iron pipes used back in the 1890s. 

Bean and Nelson agreed that if citizens find their water is still discolored, they should call the city offices at 870-887-2210, leaving their names and addresses so that water employees can come and inspect.

In other business, the council voted 5-2 in favor of an amendment to a 2022 ordinance so that owners of dogs and cats “running at large” can be fined $50 for a first offense and $100 for the next offenses.  Discussion concerned whether the amendment should include language that allowed for city police to issue warnings the first time an animal is seen loose. 

City Attorney Eric Hughes said the inclusion of such language would cause the city to have to keep records of when and to whom such warnings were given and decide how long warnings applied, imposing a paperwork hardship. 

Curry moved that the amendment to the ordinance be approved as it read, without the language for the warnings, since police would still have the discretion to issue warnings. Bean said that in cases of severity police could forego the warning and impose the first fine. 

The motion passed 5-2 with Meeks and Council member Phyllis Hicks voted no. 

Mary Godwin, Director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, presented a report on several structures that had been pulled down by the city over the past couple months and ongoing efforts to contact property owners of other neglected properties, and condemn unaccounted for structures. She also described efforts to design doorknob hangers that can be placed at homes where owners were taking good care of the appearance of their properties. 

The council also passed a motion to renew a building lease to Werner Trucking for $3,000 a month over three years, only adding the provision by the city of portable bathrooms to the property and not raising the previously established rent. 

There were no citizens questions or comments.  The talk about the water flush and the discolored water took place during the time devoted to discussion or announcements by the council. 

Adjournment took place about 50 minutes after the meeting began at 6:30 p.m. at the Senior Adults Center at 419 East Main Street.