Jul. 3--The work to remove the dikes in Jamestown will begin Monday, according to Reed Schwartzkopf, Jamestown city engineer. Contracts awarded Thursday give workers 30 days to remove the clay and sandbag dikes erected for flood control since March.

"Ideally we would have started in the Nickeus Park area because they were the most impacted," Schwartzkopf said. "But because of the Stutsman County Fair and the traffic it brings to that area we will start on the East Business Loop."

Workers will re-move all the dikes placed as part of the advance measures program implemented by the Army Corps of Engineers. Homeowners who built private dikes can also have material cleared if they move it to the boulevard.

"The city will be sending out press releases every day so everyone will know when work will take place at their location," he said. "People with private dikes need to move the material to the boulevard when the cleanup is taking place in their area."

Schwartzkopf cautioned residents not to create traffic hazards by piling sandbags in the street.

Homeowners looking to dispose of sandbags on their own are asked to haul them to the city garbage baler. Anyone looking to acquire sand is asked to call City Hall for information.

While the situation with the Jamestown sanitary sewer system is improved, residents are still asked to maintain the odd-even rotation for heavy water use through July 18.

This plan, implemented on May 14, is designed to lower the peak usage of the sewer system by spreading the use more evenly. Residents living in even-numbered houses are asked to do the majority of their tasks utilizing water and the sewer system on even-numbered days while people living in odd-numbered houses are asked to do their tasks on odd-numbered days.

"The odd and even really seems to be working," Schwartzkopf said. "It has eliminated the peaks we were seeing in material going through the sewer."

Currently the main lift station is handling about 5 million gallons per day. Schwartzkopf said this is still above the normal use for this time of year of about 2 million gallons but well below the 10-million gallon peak reached during the height of the high water.

"All the lift stations are back on line and pumping to the lagoon," he said. "But the lift station at the Jamestown Business Center is still seeing some high levels of infiltration so we are pumping part of the sewage above ground to another lift station."

Schwartzkopf said the request for people to plug sewer drains in the southwest part of Jamestown has been lifted but residents should still be cautious.

"If we have any sort of plugged sewer line, like happens every summer, it will back up into houses that much quicker with the ground water infiltration," he said.

Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at (701) 952-8452 or by e-mail at knorman@jamestownsun.com

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