City Lifts Complete Water Ban

The that began last week has been lifted, according to a letter issued by on Monday morning:

Due to somewhat improved weather conditions, the City has removed the complete outdoor sprinkling ban and re-instituted the "even/odd" lawn sprinkling ban as defined below:

In order to conserve water, the City will restrict outside-of-building water use to an even/odd schedule. Addresses that end in an even number (0,2,4,6,8) are allowed to water outside on calendar dats that are even. Addresses that end in an odd number (1,3,5,7,9) are allowed to water outside on calendar days that are odd.

The last time the city banned all outdoor water use was in 2005, as a result of similar weather conditions. Rain came soon after, and the ban didn't last long, though Water Plant Superintendent Don Jensen said it was quite effective at the time. The total ban is the plant's last line of defense, according to Jensen.

"This is the last arrow in our quiver," Jensen said last week.

In a letter to the editor from Rotering, the mayor said that improvements to the city's water plant are long overdue. The City Council will discuss the plant at Monday's meeting.

The water treatment plant was built in 1929 with recurrent capacity and deferred maintenance issues over the last few years. Consideration of plans to upgrade the plant have been underway and the time has come to make the decision that will best meet our needs both now and for the future.  

On Monday night, July 9, 2012 at 5:25 pm at City Hall in the pre-session room, we will continue the conversation about our long-planned water treatment plant upgrade project, which includes adding capacity. Please join us. This meeting is open to the public.

For news about Highland Park in your mailbox every day, subscribe to the Patch newsletter. For more updates, like Highland Park Patch on Facebook.