The Hawthorne City Commission heard various updates for ongoing projects and gave direction for new ones during a regular meeting on Tuesday, including an emergency purchase for wastewater treatment plant repairs, a new veterans monument and a multipurpose center.  

City Manager Robert Thompson said the wastewater repair came up that afternoon after the parts shut down due to a foreign object inside.  

Not wanting to risk ruining the entire multimillion-dollar facility, the City Commission approved nearly $30,000 from its general fund for the repairs: $20,000 to pump out 80,000 gallons of material, and up to $10,000 for a specialist to retrieve the object and fix the damaged areas.  

The commission declared the repairs an emergency so that it could work around putting out a Request for Proposal, as required by Hawthorne’s new purchasing policy, which the commission also approved on Tuesday. 

Mayor Jacquelyn Randall said the budget accounted for using the surplus of over $100,000 already generated by the enterprise for payments like this one and that it would continue to fund itself in the long run. 

“Am I happy about paying that out? No. I’ll say it the Christian way, I’m not,” Randall said. “But I don’t think we have a choice because of the efforts that we’ve been able to move, and I have to believe that the efficiency that waits on the other side will render or will cure this small investment.” 

Commissioner Tommie Howard said this isn’t the city’s first time dealing with foreign objects in the sewer system. He said a disgruntled former city employee put mop heads and handles into the sewer system and that rags had also been found inside before. 

Thompson said while they can’t keep people from putting things into the sewer, they can make the system more robust so it can respond when that does happen.  

He said 90 days ago, staff spray-painted every manhole in the city to determine if they’ve been opened. Since they haven’t, he said the objects must be getting in another way. 

“Once we identify what is in the bottom of our system, if it is rags, if it’s something else, then I will mitigate a strategy to determine how to prevent that going forward,” Thompson said.  

Thompson also presented the commission with three potential ways of bringing a veteran’s memorial to Hawthorne. Out of the ideas for a photo wall or plaque listing veteran names in the city hall, or an outdoor monument with flags, the commission favored the latter. 

Thompson suggested putting something like a granite monument outside the new community resource center once it’s built and adding flags to it.  

Commissioner Randy Martin said if the city is going to do flags, it should make the effort to do them right. 

“The way that I was taught when you have a flag is certain ways you’ve got to fold them, if there’s rainwater, they’re considered to be dead,” he said. “And so that can be costly because, you know, if you do it, you should do it right.” 

Thompson said construction for the resource center, which crews broke ground on this month, is at 15%, with concrete pouring starting within the next week. He also said a large old tree on the property will remain and get shored up by an arborist.  

“It just goes in alignment with our messaging that we want economic development, but we’re also great stewards of the environment that we serve,” Randall said.  

The commission also approved Thompson’s evaluation as city manager, determined a qualifying period of noon on April 13 through noon on April 22 for the city’s June 9 election, and passed an ordinance giving guidelines aiming to make mobile homes more secure and “appealing” for maintaining the value of properties around them. 

The commission reviewed multiple designs for a new multipurpose center, with renderings varying in the number of buildings, fields and green spaces. It said it will narrow down its decision after more community input is weighed in.