November 2011
57th Edition
GREETINGS FROM THE MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
I hope this finds you healthy, happy and enjoying the onset of fall. The afternoons are still warming up, but the morning’s feel like fall is here. Hopefully we will get to enjoy the beautiful fall colors for awhile longer. The wind has been taking the leaves off the trees around my house before they have even had a chance to change. Even without the color, it is still one of my favorite times of the year. I’ll take a crisp evening walk with the smell of a wood fire in the air anytime. But we all know what is coming next, WINTER! We missed the big snow last year; however we really do need a couple good snows this winter to help with recharging of the wells and streams.
No matter what awaits us weather wise, you know that the Town Maintenance crew is gearing up for winter. VDOT has checked our equipment for plowing the streets and we plan to once again attempt to get things back to normal as quickly as possible when snow does come. Please remember that even though the Town Crew tries to help as much as possible with sidewalk snow removal, the sidewalk in front of your home or business is actually your responsibility. So if you are able, get out there and enjoy some fresh air and exercise, or consider hiring one of our young local snow shovelers to help you out.
But before we rush right into winter and snow we need to enjoy all the sights and smells of the fall. As for sights, nothing is more beautiful than the fall colors in the Shenandoah Valley. And just like the coming of winter, we all know what those lovely colors are leading up to; raking leaves. The Town’s leaf vacuum has probably already started making its rounds as you are reading this. Please contact the Town Office at 984-8521 when you have your leaves out to the street for pickup and we will schedule the truck to come by. This is always a popular service every year.
The Edinburg Architectural Review Board, (the ARB), is about to take on its first real challenge. A letter is being sent to the County Building Official to request the inspection of a property in the Historic District. This property is suffering from neglect and is starting to show signs of “Demolition by Neglect”.
§ 175-86 of the Town Code states: “No contributing building or structure within any Historic District shall be allowed to deteriorate due to neglect to the extent that decay, deterioration or defects may, in the opinion of the ARB, result in irreparable deterioration of any exterior appurtenance or architectural feature, loss of integrity or produce a detrimental effect upon the character of the District as a whole or upon life and character of the structure itself.” There are a number of historic buildings in Town that are showing signs of neglect and will eventually be looked at by the ARB. At this point the Board has chosen a home on Main Street that they feel needs some immediate attention before structural damage occurs. Taking steps to protect a historic building is something that the ARB does not take lightly. They hope that all property owners will remember that the purpose of the Historic District Ordinance and Guidelines is to maintain the architectural integrity of Edinburg’s Historic Resources.
Over the past year or two we have been dealing with a number of equipment problems at the Town’s water and waste water treatment plants. In the case of the waste water plant we are dealing with an aging facility. It is hard to imagine that almost 25 years have passed since the Town did the upgrades at the waste water plant. Over the years we have always had various pumps, and blowers break down but recently time has begun to take its toll. The repairs have become more expensive and are of the type that require outside assistance to correct. A recent repair to bearings on one of the Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) units cost $15,000 and took almost a month and half to complete. Daily maintenance and lubrication only goes so far and eventually the years of 24/7 use catches up with us. Hopefully things will return to normal for a while as we move into the next 20 year cycle at the plant.
Problems at the water plant can’t be blamed on time. Here we are dealing with technology and as we all know; technology is a wonderful thing when it works. And it is a real pain when it doesn’t. We can’t seem to make it through an entire week without some part of one of the four membrane filter units failing. A membrane will leak, an actuator valve will fail or a monitor screen will go dark and you can’t see what is going on. Of course all of the high tech stuff has high prices attached to repairing it. In most cases the parts are only available from one supplier so comparison bidding is out of the question. And if you need a technician to come on site the charge is $2,500 just to get them here. They will let you know what it will actually cost for them to do the repair once they determine what is wrong. Thankfully our contract operator and our maintenance department are getting good at doing many of the repairs themselves. But when we really get hit with one thing after another it impacts our day to day operation. And sometimes it makes us overlook the simplest of things.
Overlooking something simple caused us to get in trouble with the Department of Health, Office of Drinking Water. We failed to list our Chlorine Residual on a water sample that was submitted on September 12, 2011. The chlorine residual is constantly measured and the level is always available to be reported. Our problem was we failed to write it on the report. In the past the Health Department would catch an oversight such as this and simply contact a community’s water system to get the information. The EPA has told the State that this is no longer permissible and must result in the water system receiving a “Notice of Violation”, which we did. The Notice requires that we notify water consumers that prescribed monitoring was not performed. The notice must be sent out by September 21, 2012. Council has chosen to include this notice in this Newsletter to save additional postage cost.
NOTICE TO CONSUMERS OF THE TOWN OF EDINBURG WATERWORKS
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
Monitoring Requirements Not Met For Town of Edinburg
We have been advised by state health officials of a failure to perform required monitoring in accordance with the Commonwealth of Virginia/State Board of Health Waterworks Regulations.
We are required to monitor your drinking water for specific contaminants on a regular basis and measure and report free chlorine residuals. Results of regular monitoring are an indicator of whether or not our drinking water meets health standards. During September 2011 compliance period we did not measure and report the free chlorine residual concentration with our routine coliform bacteria sample collected on September 12, 2011.
What This Means: There is nothing you need to do at this time. We are required to measure and report free chlorine residual with each coliform bacteria sample. We did not do the required reporting for September 12, 2011sample. There was no coliform present in the September 12, 2011 sample.
Steps We Are Taking: We will collect our routine sample during October 2011 in accordance with our approved Bacteriological Sample Siting Plan and will include the chlorine residual reading and sampler’s name.
For more information, please contact Mayor, Daniel J. Harshman at 540-984-8521 or PO Box 85, Edinburg, Virginia 22824.
Please share this information with all other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting the notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
This Notice is being sent to you by the Town of Edinburg
State Water System ID# 21713000 Distributed: November 1, 2011
That is the end of the official notification and will I now return you to our normal Newsletter information. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was wishing everyone Happy New Year. And now Christmas and the Holiday Season are right around the corner. Regrettably as this holiday season approaches we are also saying goodbye to a long time Edinburg Business. The Edinburg Village Shop is closing its doors at the end of November. We hate to see them go but understand what a struggle it is for all of the smaller businesses in these tough economic times. To Cynthia and all of the staff at the Village Shop; thank you for all the years of serving the community and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Cynthia remains involved with the Chamber of Commerce and has been helping to plan the holiday events for this year. The Christmas Parade will take place Saturday, December 3rd at 5:00 PM. Line up begins at 4 PM. Santa will be on hand for the parade and plans to be at the Tree Lighting Ceremony. After the Parade, follow everyone to the tallest living Christmas tree in the County. Then after the Tree Lighting, head down to the annual Creekside Campground Bonfire for hot apple cider and cookies and a little more quality time with Santa.
Friday, December 9th will begin the Christmas Parlor Tours this year. Tours are planned Friday and Saturday from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Anyone who went on the Tour last year can tell you about all the wonderful sights there were, and this year will be even better. Tickets can be purchased at the Town Office, Village Shop (until 11/30), Edward Jones, Wightman Insurance and the Edinburg Mill. Tickets at the Mill will be available the nights of the Parlor Tours.
With the world situation continuing to be in jeopardy, many families are separated again this year. Please keep them all in your thoughts and prayers, and join in our hope that they will all soon be safely back together again. On behalf of the Town Council and Staff, I wish you and yours the very best of this Holiday Season. Have a Great Thanksgiving, the Merriest of Holidays and the Happiest of New Years!
Your Mayor, Dan Harshman
