The Cleveland Town Board gave the green light to its engineering firm to start to begin planning for a replacement sewer pump station Monday.
The current sewer pump station in question is located off Fiber Acres Road, and is roughly 30 years old.
“The steel parts of it have just gotten rusted away,” said Mike Koser, branch manager of Withers and Ravenel’s Greensboro office.
The firm serves as Cleveland’s town engineer.
“It’s not something you can repair,” he said.
Most sewer systems use gravity to move sewage along to a waste treatment center, Koser explained.
Sometimes that can’t be done, however.”
“In a place like Cleveland, where you’ve got valleys and low areas and high areas.”
In those places, sewage is gathered at one low spot and is pumped up to a place where it can be put back on the right track to the waste treatment center.
The current sewer pump station is located partially below ground, but the new station, which will be built adjacent to the current one, will be fully above ground – adding an additional six feet of height.
Koser said the pump serves nearly two-thirds of the town.
The town has $30,000 pre-budgeted for the project, and the board voted unanimously to move forward with the planning process.
In addition, the town is reworking its fats, oils and grease ordinance, which affects food-handling establishments such as restaurants and grocery stores.
There are roughly 10 such businesses in Cleveland.
Commissioner Gerald Osborne said these businesses produce a great deal of grease and oil, and the ordinance outlines how that waste is to be discarded.
“We certainly don’t want it going into our creeks and environment,” he said.
When that grease and oil goes down drains, it’s supposed to go through a filtration system that allows the oils and fats to separate out so they can be pumped out and discarded.
Osborne said the ordinance “wasn’t being managed properly,” and that he hopes the updates will allow the town to deal with its business owners in a more fair way.
In other news, the Cleveland Town Board:
• Approved minutes for their June 9 meeting
• Set a public hearing for Daimler Trucks’ request to build two canopies
• Discussed improvement recommendations for the town’s park, including updates for the second shelter and immediate cleanup needs