Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Newport Utilities institutes RE-MIN
The Newport Utilities board, meeting Tuesday, gave it's approval to a plan to install a RE-Min system, aimed at stabilizing the water the system supplies to the community, and save distribution lines through reduced corrosion. The process involves a process which utilizes lime, resulting in "calcium fortified, balanced, clear and stable water," according to Curtis Atkins of the Water Department. The first phase of the project has a price tag of $246,000, but Atkins said the process will decrease the prospect that the local system will find itself in the situation facing the system in Flint, Michigan which found high concentrations of lead in it's water supply. Currently the local system has lead levels "lower than detection levels," he said. John Knight of the IT Department updated the board on the possibility of the utility offering fiber/broadband to it's customers. He said work is about to begin on Phase II to determine the cost of providing the service and the cost of content. Knight also updated the board on the current status of restrictions to the area of service. The FCC had earlier held that utilities may offer Internet services to areas outside of their service area, even if states prohibit such expanded service. But Knight said a ruling last week by the US Supreme Court,stopped such expansion. Chattanooga Utility wanted to expand into an adjoining county, and the FCC had overriden restrictions put in place by the state legislature. But last week's high court ruling held that the FCC did not have jurisdiction to override state rules when there was no FCC mandate for that specific service. Knight said the ruling does not affect the local utility's efforts to provide broadband to it's customers. General Manager Glenn Ray reported that work continues toward a plan to put a stand-alone wastewater treatment facility in Hartford. "A private property owner has agreed to allow us to survey the footprint of what it would take to put the plant in place on their private property. We have completed that survey, and now we are trying to determine if it would be the right thing to purchase the property or get a long term lease." Ray says he expects an application for the plant operation will be submitted to the state by the end of this year.


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