The contract with Hydro Management Systems was signed Tuesday.
“Our number one concern is water quality,” said Town Manager Carol Cleetwood.
Worries about having enough staff to meet state standards, coupled with rising chemical and shipping costs, led town commissioners to sign with the 24-year-old company.
“The state mandates we have an operator on duty whenever the plant is operating,” Cleetwood said. “With only three (trained) operators in Carthage and producing right now 200,000 gallons a day, we are OK. But if one should be sick, and one on vacation, we could have a problem. We couldn’t start the plant.”
The Carthage water treatment plant currently produces drinking water 12 hours a day. That is expected to change as the town adds more and more new residences.
“When Little River is fully developed, and two new subdivisions are finished, we may have to run it 24 hours a day,” she said. “In five years, when Little River is fully developed, that will add 1,100 residences. Ron Jackson is building 150 single family homes and 50 townhouses right next door.
“Another development is expected to add 100 houses on Union Church Road within two years.”
That is a lot of water down the pipe.
“Partners in Progress is trying to help Carthage attract employers for all these new people,” she said. “We are making plans for the future.”
Town commissioners, concerned about the effect such a contract could have on loyal employees, negotiated a special provision in the contract.
“The board made it a stipulation that our employees, our three water plant operators, be offered equivalent pay and benefits with the new firm,” Cleetwood said. “Right now, John Whitlock is what is called the operator in responsible charge, or ORC.”
Having an ORC is a state requirement. Under the new deal, Hydro Management will take that responsibility. Instead of an eight-hour shift for an ORC at the plant site, two 12-hour shifts for plant operators will handle all Carthage water production.
“We can do it with two,” Cleetwood said. “When we lost the superintendent’s position, the plant was running with two operators. We had another employee, Donald Dowdy, who got his water plant certification. When he got that, John Whitlock became ORC and took over many duties formerly done by a superintendent.”
Now those duties will be handled at Hydro Management’s Clemmons office.
“They have people in their home office to do the book work, reports and all that Whitlock has been doing,” Cleetwood said. “They have run the Southern Pines plant for about 15 years.”
Whitlock and the others will be offered new jobs by Hydro Management.
“They are actually going to get better benefits,” she said. “There are only going to be two openings here. One will be in Southern Pines, probably.”
Carthage hopes to save money down the road, though immediate cost of operations will be much the same as with the town running the plant.
“Eventually it will be less,” Cleetwood said. “They get discounts on repairs, buy chemicals in bulk. It will probably end up costing less.” The depth of staff available with the new company means Carthage will not have to fear a lack of certified workers forcing even a temporary plant closure.
Hydro Management’s Gary Stainback met with Whitlock and the plant operators Tuesday to talk about their future.
“We operate Taylortown and Southern Pines,” he said. “We do wastewater treatment for Robbins. We also operate Ramseur’s water and waste systems.”
“As a private company, our total business is operating water and wastewater facilities. That is our entire focus. Whether we are working for an industry or a municipality, we can offer economies of scale. We get better prices on analytical work, chemicals, laboratory reagents. We feel like there are benefits there.
“We have a strong local presence not only in North Carolina, but particularly in Moore County to help us with staffing as needs require.”
Based on a study of the times the Carthage plant is actually producing water, the company decided the Carthage plant can run with an online staff of only two operators, according to Stainback. While the company operates other plants, this one is unique.
“If you look at micro filtration and reverse osmosis, which are roughly similar, we have several,” he said. “We don’t have any other operations like this one. The town of Carthage has a state of the art system.”
