T-L Photo/KAILEY CARPINO During Wednesday’s council meeting, Service Director Andy Sutak announced that the city has received the $5 million bond needed to repair and upgrade the water plant.

MARTINS FERRY — Service Director Andy Sutak announced that the city has received the $5 million bond needed to repair and upgrade its water treatment plant.

Mayor John Davies said during Wednesday’s council meeting that the money is in the water capital projects fund and designated for the project. Davies hopes to get the needed repairs done as quickly as possible.

“Time is of the essence in that water plant with the amount of decaying and deterioration of that plant,” he said.

Davies said the work will be completed under emergency measures. He said some essential parts of the plant need to be replaced, and if any of them fail, the entire water plant would need to be shut down.

Davies said that without emergency measures, the process could take over a year.

“It would have to go through the bidding process, which means that we need an engineering plan reviewed and approved and permits. Then we would have to put out the bid, accept the bid and have a pre-construction meeting, so a year from now we may get to prepare a plan. I don’t think we have a year,” he said.

Davies also said that parts will have to be ordered, which will take some time.

“This isn’t something that they have sitting on a shelf,” he said.

He noted that the filter beds are one of the major parts that need to be replaced.

“It’s just shot,” he said.

Davies said workers dumped a 5-gallon bucket into the system on Wednesday morning. He said that 5 gallons of water should have been able to pass through the system and filter in five seconds. Instead, he said it took 38 seconds for the water to pass through.

“It’s seven times slower than what it’s supposed to be. What that means to everybody, we need to pump 3 million gallons of water a day. That’s all we can pump. Our plant is designed for 5 (million),” he said. “The maximum we could do right now is 3 (million), which is OK right now, but if we lose any more production, we’re going to start starving ourselves of water.”

All members of council voted to allow Davies and Sutak to spend up to $5 million on repairs and upgrades to the plant on an emergency basis.

In other news, Wednesday’s meeting started with the swearing-in of Councilman Spencer Echemann and Councilwoman Suzanne Armstrong for this year. All other council members were sworn in last month.

President of Council Kristine Davis also said that council needed to hire a clerk. Clerk of Council Kay McFarlan said she would like to come back for this year. All members of council voted to rehire McFarlan. Davis said it was her “pleasure and relief” to announce that McFarlan would serve as clerk for 2024.

Council also voted to elect Councilman Rick Rodgers as president pro tem. All members of council, except for Rodgers who abstained, voted in favor of electing him.

Davies said the city received another 80 tons of road salt, meaning that the city has a total of 225 tons of salt on hand. He said that the salt hopefully can be stored until next year in the salt bins if it is not needed this year.

Davies also discussed issues with a property at 710 Elm Street. He said that the building caught fire over a year ago and is beyond repair.

He said the city received an insurance check of about $19,000 for the fire damage. He explained that the insurance company sends the check to the city if the property is a total loss.

Davies said the homeowner’s son said he had sold the property to someone who plans to rehabilitate the structure and asked the city for the check. Davies said he will not release the check until the new homeowner finishes the rehabilitation and the house becomes livable.

“As of today, the house is still in the other guy’s name and it’s never been sold,” Davies noted.

Davies said he talked to a local contractor who said that the building could be torn down for $19,000.

“Here’s my problem. It’s been a year. This gentleman that owns this property is not going to tear it down. It’s just not going to happen. We have cited him for high grass, unsafe structure, and he never comes to court. As a matter of fact, he never responded. His son responded, but he wasn’t too happy with our answer,” Davies explained.

He said that the property is in bad shape.

“There’s no roof. There are no windows. The only thing there is a shell with part of the roof hanging,” Davies said.

After hearing feedback from council, Davies said he plans to talk to Law Director Paul Stecker to see if the city can force the demolition of the property.

Councilman Spencer Echemann said he is the new head of the Public Relations Committee.

“I’m learning more about it and seeing how we can expand on it as far as working with others, the media people in our community and as far as answering questions and getting involved in the social aspect,” he said.

Davis said that starting in February, council meetings will be livestreamed to make them more accessible for all residents. She said there will be a link on the city of Martins Ferry website at martinsferry.org. She said some of the equipment was set up on Thursday.

Newly elected Councilman Ben Neiman said he hopes to get more residents to attend the council meetings in person as well.

Council rescheduled its next meeting for 6 p.m. Jan. 24, the fourth Wednesday of the month rather than the third, in council chambers.