Dr. Tom Largen and Jamie Behrends, Kala Clark and Wendy Moyer of Southwest Iowa Home Health appeared at the Hamburg City Council meeting in May to try to convince the Council to consider adding fluoride to the City’s water.
The group explained that none of the cities in Fremont County currently have fluoride in their water other than a small amount that occurs naturally and is nowhere near the recommended amount for protection from tooth decay. Largen said they planned to go to every town in the County and ask them to consider adding fluoride to their water.
Taking the group by surprise, the Council told them they were all for adding fluoride to Hamburg’s water…BUT…. The Council had done some research and discovered that fluoride has to be kept in a separate room with heat and venting at the water plant, and that room would have to be built on at an estimated cost of $30,000 that the City just didn’t have. The Council did say they would look into grants and if Largen and the ladies could find a grant to cover the cost of the additional room, they’d be happy to revisit the issue.
Continuing with the topic of water, Dennis Chitwood of Alliance Water Resources, the managing company for Atchison County Wholesale Water Commission, advised the Council that with the assistance of the DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers and others, they were doing a comprehensive study regarding the feasability and cost of transporting water to other communities from their Rock Port facility. Chitwood asked if Hamburg was interested in the study continuing in their direction – at no cost to Hamburg – to see if Hamburg could become a future customer.
After some discussion the Council agreed that they would be interested in the feasability and information, since the study wouldn’t cost Hamburg anything or obligate them in any way. Council members talked about the fact that a new water plant for Hamburg would cost an estimated $6.5 million, and that during extreme drought or heavy summer usage, the Hamburg plant currently runs at 100 percent capacity…
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