Rittman Utilities Department

Rittman Utilities Department The City of Rittman Utilities Department will be using this page to as another media to provide timely information and answer reasonable questions.

It's our intention to use this page as an alternate source of information to the people who live and work in Rittman. Info on water break areas, boil alerts, test results, sewer back ups, flooding and many others will be posted as time permits. Educational information about your Water and Sewer Plants and Water and Sewer Systems will also be posted. If you have a question about the Water and Sewer

Plants or Water and Sewer Systems please ask. We will not argue on this page. Your welcome to state a complaint but direct contact by phone or in person is the best way to handle problems.

03/31/2021

UPDATE 3/31/2021: The contractor is pouring the sidewalks at West Ohio Ave. and Maple St. ends of the alley between South Second St. and South Third St. The foreman knocked on residence doors this morning to have them move their cars to the respective streets. After pouring the concrete they will build a steel plate and stone ramp over the sidewalk at the South end Maple St. for entering and exiting later today. The Ohio Ave. end will be barricaded until it can be driven on.

03/29/2021

Update: The South end of the alley at Maple St. between South Second St. and South First St. will be closed for three days for concrete work.

03/28/2021

The Rittman Water Department is aware of the water break on North Main Street just South of the entrance to Minit Mart. Please don't call 911 or Wayne County Dispatch as it has been checked out and they cannot dig till Monday due to the proximity of a gas line that must be marked. Water will continue to run down both gutters so please be kind and don't splash water up onto sidewalks and soak walkers, slow down for traffic. Thank You.

UPDATE: Second Street Waterline Improvement Project.Pouring of concrete sidewalks, driveways and streets has begun (3/25...
03/25/2021

UPDATE: Second Street Waterline Improvement Project.

Pouring of concrete sidewalks, driveways and streets has begun (3/25/2021). To ensure the integrity of your concrete please respect the following timetable:

Sidewalks – stay off for two days to prevent scuffing of surface.
Driveways – do not drive on for 5 days. Longer for heavy loads (delivery truck, etc.).
Streets – do not drive on for 7 days. If “High Early” is used time may be shorter. Contractor will remove barricades.
These are good times for any improvement project in the future.

After concrete work is complete yard repair will begin. The contractor is responsible to make sure your grass starts growing but he has a year to address the situation and he does not have to water your repaired yard. We have handles complaints for years. People that refuse to water their yard repair struggle to get their yard looking nice in a reasonable time. People who take the time to water their yard repair when needed are much happier.

Speaking of yards. All deep digging is complete so the contractor does not need the utilities’ location flags that might be in your yard (see example picture below). Before you start mowing just pull the flags and dispose of them in the trash.

03/18/2021

The end is in sight. The contractor spent the day rough grading the sidewalks in preperation of the sidewalk subcontractor moving in on Monday (3/22/2021). All the major waterline work is done. Traffic will still be snarled for a couple of weeks because when you put two contractors and their equipment fixing sidewalk and roads together with concrete trucks thats what you get. Have patience and remember it's a construction zone - Slow Down.

Attached is a video of a water cooled, gas chain saw that cuts clay, concrete, cast iron and ductile iron pipes. The City demoed a hydrolic version over ten years ago but it only cut concrete. Maybe they shoud revisit. Much faster than "cut-off" saws. Read that as less time in a dangerous hole. Warning video is LOUD!

3/18/2021 - Concerning the second water break in three weeks on the main transmission line into town from the Rittman Wa...
03/18/2021

3/18/2021 - Concerning the second water break in three weeks on the main transmission line into town from the Rittman Water Plant in Sterling. At 9:30 AM the crew had found the 2" hole on top of the 16" line and had most of the dirt removed down to the line. Digging beside and under the line moves slower due to safety concerns but things are going well so far. A borrowed clamp from our friends at the City of Wadsworth is on site and a replacement from a company in Ashland is on the way.

Thanks to our "Backup Well #5" in town and those that follow the request to conserve no one will be without water. Mike Brow, Utilities Director, has already talked to the Ohio EPA and there will NOT be a City wide boil alert. He will just completely flush the section of line affected till he gets good chlorine numbers then reactivate the water plant.

The City of Rittman is working hard to get funding to replace this line due to at least 4 breaks in 10 years. It will be a big and expensive project but it apparently needs to be done.

In the picture below you will see about 1/8 of the water line exposed. Inside the red circle is an almost perfectly round 2" hole, hard to see with water still coming out of it. The grey pipe on the left is the suction pipe for the Jet/Vac truck that sucks up the liquified dirt that the "Earth Quake" nozzle spraying at 2500 psi creates. It's on the end of the small pipe in the upper left corner. This procedure is called "Hydro Excavating".

UPDATE: The contractor made the first of a number of disconnects or changes to the low to high system divide. This first...
03/11/2021

UPDATE: The contractor made the first of a number of disconnects or changes to the low to high system divide. This first was at West Ohio Ave. and Third St. If you remember the “blue candy cane” pipe in the tree lawn at the NE corner of this intersection, it is no more. When uncovering the line on Ohio Ave. they needed to cut and cap, they found a leak (see the video). This leak was at least 10 gallons per minute and hopefully is the leak the water plant operator was searching for.

Unfortunately, next week numerous residences will be without water for hours on Tuesday and Wednesday (tentative dates). Those that are going to be without water will get a flier at their door, at least the day before, delivered by City employees. When replacing water mains, it is almost always necessary to depressurize adjacent areas to make final connections or disconnects. The unfortunate part is that we are working on water mains and valves that are 100 years old. The valves do not work correctly so we may have to “back up” to the next valve.

The areas that may be affected are:
South Second St. from Maple St. to Diagonal St.
Greenbriar Ave.
Diagonal St.
North, South, East and West Park Streets
Erie St.
Ohio Ave. from Second St., East to Main St. (Both Tuesday and Wednesday)

After water pressure is restored the lines will be flush and then tested for bacteria. Safe to drink notices will then be passed out when safe (24 hours minimum). Until then then the Ohio EPA recommends a one-minute rolling boil for drinking water.

The City of Rittman thanks you for your patience in advance as we make improvements to the water system.

Update: The Second Street Waterline Replacement Project has progressed as scheduled and while the sidewalk areas still l...
03/05/2021

Update: The Second Street Waterline Replacement Project has progressed as scheduled and while the sidewalk areas still look very messy they did bring in a better broom and cleaned the streets better. All service lines to housed on the West side from Maple to Douglas are finished and from Maple to Ohio on the East side also.

Next week (they don't work Fridays) they will start on the service lines on the East side from Ohio to Douglas. These will take longer as they have to dig in the middle of the street at each one and disconnect the lead lines at the main line as this line will remain as a "Low Service" loop.

Speaking of lead lines two of the pictures below show a new (blue) plastic service line next to an old (dirty grey) lead line. The lead line connected to a galvanized line and it remains. These lead "pigtails" have to be disconnected all over town per the Ohio EPA. More streets will be disturbed each year till we get rid of all the lead "pigtails".

Speaking of galvanized lines if you have one you should consider replacing it or buy insurance for when it starts to leak (and it will). When we did the Third St. Waterline Project we only had some minor problems with leaking galvanized lines. On this project we have seen more leaks as we have more doubled the pressure to the residences as they have lived with the lowest pressure in town sense they were built.

The third picture is of a private contractor working on one of those leaking galvanized lines. His mini-track hoe slid into the ditch and Dirt Dawg (our contractor) came to his rescue.

We thank everyone for their patience and if you travel on North Second St. next week you will need even more as digging holes on both sides and in the middle will make it impassable many times during the hours of 8 to 5.

Thank you, I'm the Resident Project Representative and your past Utilities Director. If you have questions look me up on the jobsite. I'm the guy holding a clipboard and not doing any work.

A little information for future City construction projects or private projects South of Ohio Ave. These pictures are of ...
02/24/2021

A little information for future City construction projects or private projects South of Ohio Ave. These pictures are of a piece of lead shielded communication cable. It is approximately ¾” to 7/8” in diameter, has approximately 100 very small wires wrapped in pink paper inside the lead shield and is usually found about 6” deep at the front edge of the sidewalks. It is possibly an old communications system for Morton Salt as the telephone companies say they have never used anything like that. If you or your contractor were to put in a new driveway approach you might hit this in front of the sidewalk. Don’t worry just get it out of the way safety as it contains lead. Just thought you should know.

The waterline contractor is nearing completion of the installation of the main waterlines. Next week he will start conne...
02/24/2021

The waterline contractor is nearing completion of the installation of the main waterlines. Next week he will start connecting services to the new waterline on South and North Second St. Each residence will have their water shut off individually and connected to the new line with a new curb valve installed. Your water should be off for about an hour and there is no need to boil your water. If you are not home at the time of the transfer, we will attempt to run water from your outside faucet to clear up any rusty water. If we cannot do that you may come home to some rusty water. Run you bath faucet till it clears. There are 44 taps to transfer so it will take two weeks or more to complete this phase.

I know to many that it looks like a war zone with all the dirt in the snow and on the street. Very happy to report there has been but a couple of complaints. The contractor will spend tomorrow (2/25/2021) cleaning up. Thank you all for your patience.

Update: The contractor has turned the corner at Maple St. The new line will tie into the existing water line on East Par...
02/10/2021

Update: The contractor has turned the corner at Maple St. The new line will tie into the existing water line on East Park St. When the main waterline is completed they will fill, flush, disinfect and test the new line. After that individual services will be converted over to the new line. In the mean time a low pressure loop line will be installed under the North sidewalk on Maple St. from South First St. to South Second St. A high pressure loop line will be run under the South sidewalk on West Ohio Ave. from Third St to Second St.

The closing of Ohio Ave. at Second St. for the waterline construction went well and Ohio Ave. will be open to traffic by...
02/08/2021

The closing of Ohio Ave. at Second St. for the waterline construction went well and Ohio Ave. will be open to traffic by 1 pm. It will be a stone crossing now but the contractor my bring in some cold patch asphalt to smooth it out. Thanks to all for your patience.

Address

30 North Main Street
Rittman, OH
44270

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 3pm
Tuesday 7am - 3pm
Wednesday 7am - 3pm
Thursday 7am - 3pm
Friday 7am - 3pm

Telephone

+13309252062

Website

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