City of Sherman to spend $400,000 towards initial water plan

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - The City of Sherman is taking action to make sure backup power to generate drinking water is available in case of an emergency like February’s winter storm.

They also approved a study to look into the wastewater treatment plant at the city council meeting Monday night.

Sherman City Manager Robby Hefton says the historic winter storm exposed a weakness in the water system.

They wanted to make sure the widespread outages never happen again.

“And I really want to go back to the people of Sherman and say we’ve done what we have to do to make sure that this never happens again,” said Sherman City Council Member Josh Stevenson.

February’s winter storm left people all over Texoma without water for several days, and in Sherman, it boiled down to the main water treatment plant and it’s backup source losing power. Both were included on the list of rolling blackouts.

At Monday’s meeting, Hefton said the city needs to rely on their own power, and not the state’s power grid or companies like ONCOR.

“Making sure that we have a good plan in place is our first step in the road map to actually improving these systems and making sure that they are as reliable as we can possibly make them,” Hefton said.

That’s why they voted to hire the engineering company, Parkhill, Smith & Cooper, Inc, DBA Parkhill, to design an emergency backup power system for the main facility and Lake Texoma water pump station.

The design will cost around $190,000 without construction costs.

Plus, they approved to pay more than $180,000 for Plummer Associates, Inc. to evaluate the wastewater treatment system, which they say is old and needs improvement.

They’ll look for maintenance problems and find out what equipment to replace.

The evaluation is expected to be complete by mid-December.

Any improvements they decide to make will cost more.

“I don’t think we want to rely on anybody, the state or anybody else, if we can rely on ourselves,” Stevenson said.

“Our evaluation isn’t simply what goes on at the City of Sherman. It’s what impact does it have to our community, and our industrial employers and other commercial employers,” Hefton said.

City council approved 120 single-family homes and 500 multi-family units at Monday’s meeting.

Stevenson says with more people moving to Sherman, the city needs upgraded infrastructure to accommodate for the growth.

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