Pleasanton approves $345K bond to fix failing lake pumps amid ongoing water emergency

PLEASANTON, Kan. — The Pleasanton City Council approved $345,000 in new bond debt to repair failing lake pumps and a dilapidated roof at the water plant — the city's only source of water.

The 10-year loan will raise water rates by almost $9 per month for its 550 city connections. The city is also pursuing grant funding for a long-term solution.

Richard Smith, with Letts Van Kirk Municipal Pumps & Equipment, and his team connected a temporary fix to keep the city's water online. At the same time, the council worked toward a permanent solution.

Al Miller/KSHB

"Water is the essence of life; you have to have water to live. If this doesn't get fixed, it could get pretty bad here," Smith said.

Smith said the permanent solution would be to install two brand-new submersible pumps and upgrade the control panel to run both pumps simultaneously if needed. He estimated the cost of working within the existing structure at $100,000 to $150,000 minimum, while a full pump system replacement could run around $250,000.

Al Miller/KSHB

"We have this temporary solution. We'll get 'em going, but it's time to rebuild," Smith said.

The city has maintained its water emergency declaration, prohibiting all outside water usage. During a city council meeting, residents and officials debated options while an engineer acknowledged the reactive nature of the situation.

"We've been reacting to a lot of things," the engineer said.

Al Miller/KSHB

Smith said buying water from another community was not the preferred path forward.

"That gets down to wasting more money and putting it into another community, buying water for them, instead of just making a solution here and letting these people provide for themselves," Smith said.

Pleasanton resident Carolyn Daulton said she hopes the council follows through.

Al Miller/KSHB

"I'm hoping that they do something," Daulton said.

Fellow resident Krista Roberts said the decision, while costly, was necessary.

"It's gotta be done, we need what we need, and I guess that's our only solution," Roberts said.

Al Miller/KSHB

Smith said the infrastructure challenges facing Pleasanton are not unique.

"The infrastructure is aging under us, the infrastructure needs to be looked at constantly, the pumps need to be looked at constantly, we need to get waste out of these towns, we need to get freshwater into these towns," Smith said.

The city expects the new pumps could be online within a month.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

—