By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent

Maintaining the culinary water supply in good working order is a high priority for cities but it takes money to make certain that goal is reached.
Therefore, in the future, Mona will plan $20,000 from the yearly budget to go into a culinary water updating program that will be on-going.
"We used to put $20,000 into the water department every year to make sure we had money for repairs and updates," said Allen Pay, city water master. "We have not done that for the last several years."
Currently, he said, money was going to be needed to make a needed water tank repair.
"Water does bring in money," he said. "It is nice to have money set aside for a project each year."
In the past, the old lead and oakum connections and the cast iron pipe was replaced, a bit at a time, to make the city water system reliable and less likely to break because of deterioration.
The old construction method was durable, but over time the lead separated from the oakum and the water line joints began to weaken. Essentially, oakum is a blend of fibers that are coated with tar and can be used to fill in small cracks in various types of structures.
As for the lead, though it has been used in numerous consumer products, lead is a toxic metal now known to be harmful to human health if ingested. One important source of lead exposure is through water from the corrosion of plumbing.
"We also used the money which was set aside in the budget for improvements on the springs, built stations and lined the water tanks," he said.
The repair work on the tanks did not work and something else needed to be tried.
Everd Squire, Director of Finances, said he had not been aware that money should be budgeted for on-going upkeep for the water system of the city. It would not be difficult to add that item to the budget each year, he said.
The $20,000 budget addition was easily accomplished prior to the budget being approved by the council in its final form.
Mona's fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30 of the following year.