Fontana Dam – A local municipality is again searching for a new utilities director and water treatment plant operator.
Jason Duke was dismissed from the position Aug. 24, following a domestic incident that ended with the arrest of his wife earlier in August. The incident followed his own arrest in June.
Town of Fontana Dam Mayor Rob Hardy emphasized at the Sept. 15 council meeting that Duke’s termination was the decision of the Fontana Village Resort, not the town.
“We’re generally in agreement with it,” Hardy said. “We didn’t want to deal with the situation as it was anymore.”
Long Creek Water Plant Operator Carrie Stewart is overseeing Fontana Dam’s plant on an interim basis.
Hardy said he didn’t think the town needed to set a deadline for finding a new water operator right away.
“We’re going to need to work out where we want to place ads and what our schedule is for the process of looking,” Hardy said.
Town Clerk Zelerie Rogers said she had looked to see what the market for water plant operators currently looked like.
“I will tell you that the list-serve is filled with people needing workers, ORCs, wastewater plant operators,” Rogers said. “There is a lot out there.”
The board also floated the possibility of finding an employee in another role and training them to operate the plant.
“The thing about it though is that you’ve first got to spend six months in the water industry,” Rogers said. “You’ve got to go down there and work with somebody.
“It doesn’t say how many hours: it just says six months.”
As the town searches for someone to operate its current water plant, the demolition of its former plant is nearly complete.
A crew from Brandenburg Demolition has nearly finished demolishing the former plant, as has been discussed for several months.
Hardy said processing the sludge left in the old plant had been somewhat difficult.
“Basically, it kind of constipated the plant,” Hardy said. “We’re trying to work through that.”
The property where the plant was located reverted back to the Tennessee Valley Authority.
“We’re not going to have access to it, but we could potentially ask them, because there is a slab still there,” Hardy said. “We could potentially put something like a storage building there, but I’m almost of the opinion that putting a building down there, it’s all on its own.
“I don’t see any reason to do anything down there. I expect it to just kind of grow up.”