Public Works

The Belmond Public Works Department has five regular full-time employees and four part-time employees who are responsible for a multitude of services to the community. There are six departments which include: Cemetery, Parks, Sanitary Sewer, Streets, Storm Sewer and Water.

Cemetery

The duties relating to the cemetery are split between a number of employees. Two part-time workers are hired from roughly April through November to maintain the cemetery, primarily providing grounds keeping such as mowing, weed-eating, seeding and overseeing a contractor to level stones and complete minor repairs. The Deputy City Clerk in City Hall sells the lots, processes the deeds and files the paperwork with the Iowa Insurance Division. The city is currently selling lots from only the Second Memorial Addition. Public Works full-time employees dig graves and fill them in after burial. If you have any questions, contact City Hall at 641-444-3386.

Sanitary Sewers

As well as operation and maintenance of the Wastewater Treatment Plant the Sewer division maintains approximately 28 miles of sanitary sewer, and 4 lift stations throughout the City of Belmond. Catch basin and manhole repair, jetting, flushing, televised inspection of lines, and cleaning the lines are also part of this division’s tasks. 

Streets and Storm Sewers

The Public Works are to do the work in this area on a regular basis. The Street Department facilities are located at 519 2nd Avenue SE.
Street sweeping
Parking lines painting
Equipment maintenance and repair
Trimming trees overhanging the right-of-ways and removal of dead or diseased trees in the city right of way
Maintain the storm sewer collection systems
Snow removal
Signage repairs, updates and additions
Surface maintenance of streets and alleys
Assist all other divisions with maintenance issues and emergencies

Water

The city built a new water plant in 2010 and 2011 in west Belmond, on “the hill.” It is a plant capable of producing finished water at a rate of 1150 gallons per minute. It is again a lime softening plant which Belmond has had since 1911 with alum added as a coagulant aid. Chemical addition includes Co2 for pH control, chlorine gas for disinfection. Built into the new plant is water storage of 330,000 gallons of water.

This gives Belmond fire water capacity of 830,000 gallons. The plant is built with much added processing capacity to easily handle a major industrial user.

The processing includes a backwash reclaim tank. The backwash water is settled with the clear water returned to the system, and the sludge pumped to waste. The lime sludge is hauled by truck to a city owned lagoon. The lagoon has significant capacity with no need for dredging and land application of sludge anticipated by staff within the next ten years.

Water is supplied to the plant by two 700′ deep wells and has a capacity to pump 16,500,000 gallons of water per day. All of the water pumped through the plant has natural fluoridation for dental health in the raw water.

The City has two elevated storage tanks. One of the elevated tanks, known as the west tower, has a capacity of 200,000 gallons while the second elevated storage tank known as the south tower has a capacity of 300,000 gallons. The west tower was constructed in the 1960’s and the south tower in 1976. These towers have epoxy coated finish with no known issues of lead paint. Both towers are inspected annually with major repairs and painting.

The City of Belmond has a distribution system consisting of ductile iron and PVC water main. A majority of the water main is of the 4″ size, but 6″ and 8″ are present. The industrial park in the City of Belmond contains 12″ and 14″ water main. The water distribution system is maintained by the city.

The city has replaced residential and commercial water meters with radio read meters. These meters have resulted in more accurate water usage records for all users.

One employee works in this area. In addition to the work relating to the maintenance and operations of the water treatment facility and distribution system, the employee also responds to and makes appropriate marks for Iowa One Call and other locates and performs all sampling, testing and reporting requirements as directed by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency including the Annual Consumer’s Confidence Report.