CITY CORNER  by Mayor Brent Hinckley

     Before I start writing about some other issues, I want to remind our residents that there will be a Special meeting of the City Commission today, Wednesday, May 31 at 5:30 at the Eckert Civic Center. The agenda includes a closed discussion with a municipal attorney about subdivision issues with particular importance to the Tyler subdivision on the west side of town, and then there will be an agenda item to allow any action that might result from that consultation.  There will also be a presentation of the past year's audit, and a discussion and consideration of the proposed senior residential housing development on Hwy 29 across from Ranck St.  Because we have heard a number of questions and concerns from the public regarding the project, there will be an open forum question and answer opportunity to visit with representatives of the developer beginning at 3:30 in the afternoon before the meeting  so that any issues that you might have can be heard and addressed.  There are a couple of other less extensive items on the agenda, and certainly if any of these issues interest you or if you have any concerns, please make time to attend one or both of these meetings today and find out the facts about these issues before your City Commission.

     The other primary issue that I need to make the public aware of is the completion and availability of the annual Consumer Confidence Report for the City of Mason water supply.  Each year we are required to update and produce this report that gives a complete summary of the City's water quality and system, the results of recent tests regarding our water quality and our report of the steps we are taking to address any areas where some chemical or contaminate exceeds the federal standards set by EPA.  As has been the case for the past several years, the City of Mason is in full compliance on all measured issues expect the radionuclides, radium 226 & 228 as well as gross alpha measurements.  These contaminates are naturally occurring because of the granite subsurface rock that underlies all of Mason County and which our water must percolate through to recharge the aquifer.  Our numbers are coming down just a little bit from last year, but we are still above the standards and so we are working to develop plans of how to treat the water supply to remove most of the contaminates.  You should understand that this particular contamination is believed to contribute to one specific type of cancer, and the statistics indicate that within the City residents this cancer might show up once every four or five generations assuming that everyone drank a significant amount of our untreated water.   It is not a primary concern, but it is one that we are working to address and reduce.

     The City has taken several steps to deal with these issues already, such as providing the Reverse Osmosis treatment system on McKinley Avenue that provides clean water free of charge to anyone who wishes to take advantage of that facility.  We have also taken a proactive management approach to our pumping and monitoring that involves testing each well for radionuclide presence and using those wells with less contamination as much as is reasonably possible to keep up with the demands of our residents.  Finally, since the first of this year we are making specific plans to implement a treatment process to remove a significant portion of the contaminants.  This is the culmination of  several years of working to understand the issues and examine the many ways we can provide clean water, some of which were tremendously expensive and unreasonable.  We have identified a specific treatment process known as HMO filtration which based on its chemical composition attracts the radionuclides, much like a magnet with iron filings, and allows the contaminates to be rinsed off in a back-flow process that is controlled by computer selection to maximize the efficiency.  There are several manufacturers of this type of equipment and we are working with engineers, regulators and representatives of these companies to select the best for our needs and so that we can move forward with our planning and design.  This project has been under discussion for much more than the past couple of years, and it is my hope that decisions can be made in the next few months that will allow specific planning to move forward and provide the basis for our Commission to begin looking into the specific ways we can fund this project.  There are certainly several more steps in the process, and it is uncertain just how long some of those steps might take, but I hope that in the next twelve months we can make progress so that we have a firm design and know the construction costs and are ready to move towards completion.  The City is under an obligation with the TCEQ regulators that we will have the system in place and operating so that at least six months of operational data can be verified for compliance by August 2019, so if decisions are not made and action not taken we will not be able to meet that deadline.

     That is a summary of the long term projects affecting the water system, and if you would like to review a copy of the annual Consumer Confidence Report I mentioned, it can be found at http://www.mason.tx.citygove.org/MasonTX_2016AnnualWaterReport.pdf.  That web address will also be on the back of your next utility bill from the City which should be in your mail in the next couple of days.  If you would like a hard copy of the report, we have some at the front desk of the City office and if you would like us to mail a copy to you we would be glad to do that as well if you will just call the City at 347-6449 and request a copy.  If you or someone you know needs help understanding it or needs some translation assistance, please also let us know at 347-6449 and we will work to provide all the information and assistance you might need.  As for as the long-term treatment and construction process, I will continue to keep you updated and this will be discussed frequently by the City Commission, so if you want more information please feel free to contact me or your elected officials or come to the regularly scheduled monthly meetings which are generally on the third Monday of each month.  During the past years we have dealt with a number of significant issues to improve our community, but there are still more areas that need attention and decisions, and working together we can come up with the solutions that best fit our town and will make us a better place to live and work.  Keep the communication lines open with your elected officials and make sure that the information you are working with is accurate and represents the actual facts of the discussion.  This is a great hometown, and we will continue to make it better in the coming year.