The City of Perryville has introduced a way to help out commercial industry. A bulk water fill station was recently installed on Toohey Drive near TG-Missouri.
Perryville Public Works Director Jeff Layton feels like this is a welcome addition to the city
“When people want to fill up tanks for their farms or we had trucks that needed to fill tanks, or even swimming pools, they were having to get a hydrant meter from the city and fill those things off a fire hydrant,” Layton said.
Layton said the fill stations are becoming “few and far between” and should help industry within the city.
“We want to provide a full service to these tankers,” he said. “We want to give people such as contractors the option to get water from us if they want, especially if they have a larger need.”
The station can fill up to 5,000 gallons of water at a time and uses a nearby water tower as a source. The station is set up with a credit card reader and works like a gas station or other stations of its kind. People just have to have a hose to hook up their trucks and tanks.
“We were having to use city employees to hook up and detach those hydrant meters,” Layton said. “The billing was having to do some paperwork as well. This should help save some labor.”
The hydrant meters were constantly used, especially during the summer.
“Every single hydrant meter that we have had was checked out during the summer, so there was quite a bit of need for this station here,” Layton said. “Sometimes contractors were waiting to get those meters from us so they could use our water. I think there is a big need here and should stop those types of people from having to wait and schedule a time to get a meter from us.”
Layton feels as if the location, right beside the new Ranken Technical building, is a perfect location for the station.
“It’s right there off Highway 51 and by a steady water source,” he said. “We just hope people enjoy it and find a good use for it.”
