Leaky Water Tank Flunks Another City Inspection

Indian Trail residents will have to wait a bit longer for their long-awaited new water tank.

After twice partially filling and then draining the 4.6 million-gallon tank, the contractor told the city all leaks were sealed and the tank needed only a final inspection before it could be operational.

But after the tank was filled for the third time, another leak was detected. It was large enough to stick a finger through, said George Miller, a design engineer with the city water department.

The contractor, Northwest Lining of Kent, Wash., brought in a diver last week. The diver found the leak near a soldered seam. The contractor requested that the city drain the tank again.

City officials started that process last Thursday and said it may take a week.

The tank is needed to relieve water-pressure problems in the neighborhood and accommodate future growth.

Miller has accused Northwest Lining of poor workmanship. Miller said he was told the contractor, anticipating a fairly routine job, assigned its more skilled workers to other jobs.

Now the firm is paying for it with time and money.

“Poor workmanship is where we started out,” Miller said. “When you come back and try and correct it, it’s hard work.

“It’s easier to come in with your A team in the first place instead of your Z team.”

Miller said the city has no plans to file a claim as long as the problems are fixed and the tank is delivered to the city.

“We’re not beating war drums at this point,” he said. “The contractor isn’t running and saying, ‘It’s not my problem.”’

All’s clear on Colton, Standard

Two North Spokane streets were cited in a recent traffic meeting as being poorly designed for their listed function - serving those who live along them.

Both Colton and Standard streets are long, wide and straight. That’s not a problem for an airport runway, but it’s not ideal for residential streets.

Drivers tend to use such streets as shortcuts instead of turning onto arterials.

Traffic engineers said the trend in newer developments now is to make residential streets narrower and more curvy. If drivers can’t see more than eight or 10 houses ahead, they are more inclined to slow down or find another way.

“You’ve got local roads in this town you can land airplanes on,” said Todd Whipple of Inland Pacific Engineering, a firm that conducts traffic studies for Spokane developers.

Welcome back, Americorps

There is relief at the Northeast Community Center that the center’s five Americorps/Vista workers are back on the job.

With their $700 a month salary, it’s hard to believe they are federal government workers. Still, they were furloughed for two weeks along with State Department diplomats and Justice Department lawyers.

The five workers get a portion of their college loans relieved in exchange for their full-time job in northeast Spokane.

They are involved in a variety of projects from developing a free computer network to administering the Leadership Institute, a course that provides neighborhood leaders with the skills to take a larger role in their community.

One of the workers, Brian Magee, has been instrumental in starting a Friday night youth activities program at Shaw Middle School.

Community center Director Bill Dillon said the center has used Americorps workers for almost 20 years to do the kinds of projects that will sustain the community.

“The answers aren’t about giving people things but helping them find the resources for themselves and their neighbors,” said Dillon.

It’s for that reason that Dillon and others in the social service arena are warily watching what happens to the program in Washington, D.C. He worries that the program will be cut by a budget-minded Congress.

, DataTimes