The bathrooms at the Clay County High School football stadium are open again after the school system replaced a failing sewer pump.
School Board Chairman Benji Bailey said the pump’s warning mechanism of potential failure was not working properly. The pump went out without much warning. Bailey said the pump has since been replaced.
“We were able to contact a couple of local contractors that one was able to remove the old pump and the other was able to order a new pump and replace it so we are up and running,” Bailey said.
Bailey said the cost to replace the sewer pump was an estimated $15,000. Bailey said though the cost is not astronomical it will add a hit to the school system’s fiscal year budget.
“We budget for capital outlay items which this would be considered,” Bailey said. “This one was not particularly budgeted, but we do with the age of our buildings, we do consider things that happen just like this did when we are not suspecting it. So again, $15,000 like you say that is quite a bit of money unexpectedly, but we are fortunate we had some funds budgeted that could cover this.”
Bailey said over the past several weeks the school system has had to provide portapotties for events and games. Bailey said the school board is glad to have the issue behind them.
“We were able to get it fixed before our homecoming facilities, which is always a huge crowd at our football games and for those participating in the homecoming festivities,” Bailey said. “So we were able to get it replaced before that.”
Bailey said the failed sewer pump was 20 years old. Bailey said the hope is to get another 20 years out of the new sewer pump.
