ourpump.com blog

A historic pump house in Victoria’s Riverside Park could be sold to investors interested in making it into a public business.

Parties from both sides declined to disclose the type of business because the deal isn’t complete, they said.

“It started out as a way to find somebody to lease it and maybe turn it into a concession stand where people can turn in canoes,” said Lewis Neitsch, a city parks commissioner. “An individual has gotten a hold of it and wants to spend a substantial amount of money down there.”

The city council authorized the staff to begin the process that could lead to sale of the property, which is in the 1200 block of Stayton Street. City Attorney Thomas Gwosdz said because it is public property, the city will take bids on it.

People have expressed interest in the property, but it’s premature to discuss details now, he said. “At this point, we don’t even know who would be bidding on something like this.”

The city council considered demolishing the building about three years ago at a price of $250,000 to $300,000. But Neitsch, who was on the council at the time, and Council Member Tom Halepaska asked the council to wait.

“I begged the council to let it sit,” Halepaska said. “They said OK and in the meantime we tried to find some uses for it.”

Neitsch said the potential investors are a local businessmen and out-of-town backers.

Halepaska said if the deal works, it will save the city the cost of demolishing the building and put an improvement on the tax roll. It also costs the city $20,000 a year to maintain the property and building.

John Johnston, the city floodplain administrator, said it appears the land is in the 100-year floodplain, but not the building. More exact measurements would be needed to confirm that, he said.

“But even with it being in this portion of the floodplain, development is allowed, especially commercial development,” he said. “Commercial developers have the opportunity to use materials that are flood resistant and make sure that if water does get in there, they can just wash it out and go right back.”

The city used the pump house as a water plant until 2001, when the city switched from well water to river water, said Lynn Short, Victoria’s public works director.

“When we were on groundwater, it was a water supply plant,” he said. “We had two water wells that pumped into it and water was treated there.”

Better for Farmer and Saves Lots of Water
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), a telecom company in India, has launched a new service that allows farmers to operate their irrigation pumps remotely using a SMS-capable cellphone. This is extremely useful because the alternative often is for the farmers to walk many miles to the pumps, often at night because the electricity supply is a bit more reliable then (and sometimes after walking for hours, they arrive to find out that the electricity is out).

The Business Standard writes:

Under the service, farmers will have to buy a Tata Indicom mobile connection and a mobile modem that will be attached to the starter of the pump set. After registration, the subscriber (farmer) will be provided with a unique code number. Using the mobile handset, the farmer can remotely switch on and switch off the pump set with the assigned code number. The farmer can also check the on/off status as well as the availability of power by a particular tone. “This service is exceptionally functional in order to save lot of time and energy in the regions that have erratic power supply,” Bhasin said.

The subscriber will be charged Rs 2,700 for the device and an additional amount for the handset that offers lifetime validity. The service comprises two handsets that will be provided with the bundled offer - one installed with the device while the other remains with the farmer. All the calls made to the pump by the Tata Indicom mobile will be free whereas the other calls will be charged as per the tariff plan given to the subscriber.

(2,700 Indian Rupees is about $60 US)

This is excellent for social and economic reasons, obvious (spending less time turning pumps on and off means there’s more time for more productive activities), but from an environmental point of view, this is also very important because this means that water can be used more efficiently, which means that India’s agricultural sector can become more drought resistant over time, and that more water from rivers will be left as drinking water for India’s massive population.