Sparta Board Of Aldermen Approves Water System Upgrades

Sparta’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen approves upgrades for city-wide water systems, including sludge cleaner

The board met Thursday to discuss proposals for a new city-wide water-delivery hydraulics system, treatment plant flocculator, and sludge cleaner for the flocculator. Public Works Director Dillard Quick said that the current hydraulics system for the city was not powerful enough to allow any expansion, and that a new study is needed to proceed with upgrades.

“In a new neighborhood we gotta have this hydraulics study or nobody can, basically without the hydraulics study we can’t expand our system,” Quick said. “So this is something that’s vital to growth for the city.”

Quick also said the flocculator, the machine which pulls waste particles from untreated water, at the Sparta water treatment plant is on the verge of failing. A dual-system upgrade was unanimously approved that allows the plant to continue to function if one flocculator fails.  Quick’s request to purchase a machine to clean the resulting sludge from the flocculation system’s process was also approved.

In other news, Mayor Jerry Lowery took part of the meeting to hand “Life-Saver Awards” to Sparta officers J.T King, Justin Cunningham, and Austin Edwards. Lowery said they received the award for the incident in which they saved drowning kayakers by tying together dog leashes to create a rope.

“One good thing happened from that, we realized that with the water and the cliffs we have in this area, we outfitted all our police cars with ropes,” Lowery said. “So they have access to that instead of having to tie together dog leashes.”

At the end of the meeting, four people approached the stand to voice their discontent with city ordinances that limited the mobility and business options for food-truck operators in Sparta. Food truck owner Christy Bridges said the ordinances requiring them to set up within a certain number of feet of an established brick-and-mortar business and to notify the city when they move limited them greatly.

“We would have more mobile food trucks in Sparta if these ordinances were not in place or if they were not so severe,” Bridges said. “And we do have some cities surrounding us that don’t have these same ordinances.”