OP ED: Three Moves Before Checkmate

By Tom Wilbur

There is absolutely no reason for me to believe that our current City Manager and City Commission fully grasp the magnitude of what it will take to fix Salina’s water system. Ben Windholz and I have called this an emergency, that requires urgency. I see deliberation,discussion, studies, explanations, historical reviews and more time passing. It’s not just about the hardware here, it’s about every facet of this discussion.

Time is something Salina cannot afford to waste. This isn’t a problem that appeared yesterday. It has been building beneath our feet for decades. Aging water mains don’t get younger. Corrosion doesn’t reverse itself. Failing infrastructure doesn’t heal. Chemicals destroying copper pipes don’t fix themselves. And every year we postpone major replacement work; we push the problemand the enormous bill, onto the next generation. This is going to require an enormous investment over many years. I’ve run some models that might be as much as a billion dollars, in complete replacement and overhaul of our water system.

So before we start talking about checkmate, Salina needs to make three serious moves.

Move One: Admit the magnitude of the problem

Like anyone facing a fundamental problem, the first step is acknowledging exactly what we aredealing with. We cannot ignore it and try to pacify it. We cannot sweep it under the rug. We cannot minimize it because the numbers are uncomfortable. And we certainly cannot convince ourselves that replacing a few blocks of water line every year constitutes a solution to a systemwide infrastructure problem. The results of the water we deliver to all of the people in Salina, demonstrate how poorly we are performing. We can’t say, like Commissioner Norris has said, “we really don’t have an emergency here”. We can’t repeat the mantra of our utilities director that says 1% per year of pipe replacement is a norm.

We need to determine, with engineering evidence, exactly what we have underground: the age, material, condition, capacity and failure history of our mains; the condition of valves, hydrants and service connections; and which parts of the system present the greatest risks. Lead pipes. Asbestos cement. Lead solder. Corrosions. Black hydrants. Fire implications.

Then put the entire picture in front of the citizens of Salina. The good, the bad and the enormously expensive. Once we understand the real scope, we need to take massive action. Trent Davis said st the meeting Monday, “we have to treat it like a mortgage.” True, Trent, but we haven’t been making full monthly payments on our water obligation to ourselves and our kids for decades. And that’s where we have failed.

Move Two: Bring in new water leadership

Salina needs a Utilities Director with the credentials, experience and demonstrated ability to lead a major municipal water-system rehabilitation. In my view, Martha Tasker should not lead the next chapter. This is about the 20th time I’ve brought it up. Your City Manager thinks she’s the best ever. He also said the animal shelter was doing great. 

This isn’t about personalities. Martha is a nice person. It is about the magnitude of the assignment.

We need someone whose singular purpose and singular focus is building and executing a comprehensive 15-year water infrastructure plan for Salina. Period.

Recruit nationally if necessary. Find someone who has managed large-scale water-main replacement programs, understands treatment and distribution systems, knows state and federal funding programs, understands municipal finance, and can coordinate engineers, contractors and City personnel.

Give that person measurable objectives. Five-year milestones. Annual replacement targets. A capital schedule. A financing strategy. A grant writing team. The right people in the right spots.

And require public accountability for the results.

Move Three: Create independent oversight

If Salina is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming decades, no City Manager, department head or five-member City Commission should be expected to oversee something this complicated alone.

We need a reputable Water Infrastructure Oversight Board.

Put experienced people at the table: engineers, financial professionals, construction experts, utility professionals, business leaders, and citizens.

Their responsibility should be straightforward: oversee the long-term plan, monitor expenditures, review engineering and construction performance, track progress against published milestones and report directly to the public.

Every major contract should be transparent. Every major change order should be explained.Every year’s progress should be measured. Every dollar should be accounted for.

And every citizen should be able to see whether Salina is ahead of schedule, on schedule or falling behind. This isn’t a one-year project.

It isn’t something that can be solved with another study, another singular consultant presentation or another promise that a plan is coming.

It is a generational infrastructure project.

Fifteen years from now, today’s City Commissioners may be long gone. Today’s City Manager may be long gone. Department heads will change. Administrations will change. I will probably be dead. But the people of Salina will still be paying for, and depending upon, the decisions we make right now. It’s not a time for pontificating. It requires movement. 

That’s why the plan cannot belong to one person or one administration, or elected officials.

It has to belong to every resident of Salina. We own this town.

Three moves:

1)Acknowledge the magnitude of the problem.2)Bring in qualified new water leadership.3)Establish serious independent oversight of the money and the work.

Then we can begin talking about checkmate. Because the goal isn’t winning an argument at City Hall.

The objective is building a water system capable of serving Salina for the next 50 years.

P.S. We need similar structural oversight of Salina’s groundwater contamination issue. A serious review of the performance of our City Manager, which is past due. And an immediate end to taxpayer funds being used for the fantasy river project. We can’t afford to waste our resources there.

Tom Wilbur is a lifetime resident of Salina, and has been a leader in business, and a voice for multiple non-profit organizations, for decades. He was one of the founding investors in Salina311.