Customer Notification of Excess Flow Valve (EFV) Installation

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Note: This notification is being delivered to fulfill a requirement as part of a rulemaking passed down from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Association that takes effect on April 14, 2017. This is not a Mandatory requirement.

Customer Notification of Excess Flow Valve (EFV) Installation

Dear Valued Customer,
You may request that the City of Orange City install an excess flow valve (EFV) on the gas line to your property. EFVs are mechanical shut-off devices that a utility can install in the gas pipe running from the gas main to the gas meter at your property (the “service line”). An EFV is designed to stop the gas flow if the service line is broken, for example, by an excavation accident. Stopping the gas flow from a broken service line significantly reduces the risk of natural gas fire, explosion, personal injury and/or property damage.

If you notify us that you want an EFV, we will contact you to set up a mutually agreeable date when we will install an EFV on your service line.

1. Potential advantages & disadvantages of Excess Flow Valves (EFVs).

a. An EFV is designed to shut off the gas flow if the service line is severed between the gas main and the meter set.

b. What an EFV won’t do?

– An EFV is NOT designed to close if a leak occurs beyond the gas meter on house piping or appliances. An EFV also may not close if the leak on the service line is small.

c. Possibility of EFV activation (closure) if the customer adds load.

– If you add, for example, more gas appliances, a pool heater, emergency generator, etc., the additional gas flow may cause the EFV to close.

2. EFV Installation and Replacement Costs

a. Installation Cost

i. You will be billed for the cost of installing the EFV. The average installation cost is typically $700-$1200. Not included in the estimated cost are cement or asphalt streets, landscaping and other utilities; the actual installation cost will depend on the difficulty of installation. We will inform you of the actual cost before you make the final decision that you want an EFV.

b. Replacement Cost

i. You will be billed for the cost of installing the EFV. The average installation cost is typically $700-$1200. Not included in the estimated cost are cement or asphalt streets, landscaping and other utilities; the actual installation cost will depend on the difficulty of installation. We will inform you of the actual cost before you make the final decision that you want an EFV.

c. What might trigger a need to replace the EFV?

i. Customer adds load: EFV replacement may be necessary if you add additional gas appliances, such as a pool heater or emergency generator that exceeds the capacity of the EFV.
ii. EFV fails closed/open: EFV replacement may be necessary if the EFV malfunctions (sticks open or closed).
iii. Probability of failure based on industry experience: Industry experience is that EFVs rarely malfunction.

3. If a service-line customer requests EFV installation and the load does not exceed 1,000 SCFH and the conditions listed below are not present, the operator must install an EFV at a mutually agreeable date.

a. The service line does not operate at a pressure of 10 psig or greater throughout the year;
b. The operator has prior experience with contaminants in the gas stream that could interfere with the EFV’s operation or cause loss of service to a customer;
c. An EFV could interfere with necessary operation or maintenance activities, such as blowing liquids from the line; or
d. An EFV meeting the performance standards in § 192.381 is not commercially available to the operator
IMPORTANT NOTE: EFVs cannot be installed on some service lines due to high gas flow, low pressure or other factors. If you request an EFV but your service line cannot accommodate an EFV, the City of Orange City will inform you.

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Adult Winter Reading Program

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Read for a chance to win prizes! 

Join the Hot Reads for Cold Nights Adult Winter Reading Program!

Read, attend programs, and enjoy what the library has to offer. Pick up your reading log at the library and start reading. Each day that you read 15 minutes or more, mark your reading log. For every 10 days you read 15 minutes or more, you earn an entry into our prize drawing.

Win prizes like: $20 Gift Certificates, Travel Blanket, Chocolate-Filled Mug

 

Also, attend the following events during Winter Reading and earn an extra entry for each!

–Pushing the Limits Book Discussions – January 26 & February 23 at 6:30 pm

–Book Tasting– January 31 at 6:30 pm

–Who on earth is Kevin Kling?– February 9 at 6:30 pm

–Hot Drinks for Cold Nights– February 16 at 6:30 pm

4th Festive Family Fun at the Library

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Looking to have some fun with your children this holiday season? Festive Family Fun

This year marks the 4th annual Festive Family Fun event at the Orange City Public Library.  On Saturday, December 17 from 9:00am – 12:00pm there will be homemade cocoa and cookies, along with many different activities. Last year the event drew over 225 people to the library. Parents are invited to join in on the fun and accompany their children of all ages. The festivities begin at 9:00am with a guided craft time. Later on a short story time will be followed up with a cookie craft/snack. All day long there will be an “Elf on the Shelf” scavenger hunt and winter crafts around the library for you and your children to put together. The morning concludes with a delightful performance at 11:00 with Pockets Full of Fun: Lisa Laird! Don’t forget to enter the candy guessing games and book drawings! Also, be sure to check out the handmade ornaments on our Christmas tree.

Festive Family Fun CraftGet out of the cold and enjoy a festive time with the whole family.

Come for a while or stay all day!

tulip bulb giveaway: nov. 2-4

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free tulip bulbs

Color your part of the community vibrant with FREE tulip bulbs complements of the Orange City Parks and Recreation Department. Tulip bulbs are distributed on a first come, first serve basis while supplies last. First come, first serve.

Where: Downtown Bandshell

When: 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Wednesday, November 2
Thursday, November 3
Friday, November 4

For more information contact: Mitch at (712)707-4885 or prdir@orangecityiowa.com

free e-recycling program october 28th and 29th

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Tired of that old electronic equipment piling up? The cities of Orange City and Alton are co-sponsoring a free e-recycling program that will accept computer monitors, CPU’s, keyboards, printers and mouse(s), smaller batteries, and TVs. Sorry, car batteries and light bulbs are not allowed.

Where to Drop Off: Orange City Street Dept. (809 Concord Place S.E.)
When to Drop Off: Friday, October 28th, from 4:00 – 7:00 pm and Saturday, October 29th, from 9:00 am – 12:00 noon

Sponsored by:
the City of Orange City and the City of Alton

Household Hazardous Materials Recycle Event-September 21

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Orange City and Alton household residents (sorry no businesses) will again have an opportunity to safely discard those household hazardous materials (HHM). The Cities of Orange City, Alton, and the NW IA Area Landfill will co-sponsor a HHM Recycling event.

Date: Wednesday, September 21st
Time: Between the hours of 4:00pm and 6:00pm
Place: Orange City Street Department Building
(Just just south of Ace Hardware. 809 Concord Place SE.)

Accepted items: degreaser, waxes/polishes, solvents, lacquers/thinners, caustic cleaners, stain removers, pesticides/herbicides, and oil based paints. (latex paints will be assessed a $1/gal. fee).

Go to http://www.nwialandfill.com/hhm for a complete list of acceptable/unacceptable items.

Orange City Fire Department to break ground for fire station expansion

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The Orange City Fire Department will break ground for its fire station expansion on Friday, August 19 at 10 a.m.

The Orange City Fire Station will be expanded by approximately 12,000 square feet, and 3,840 square feet of the current station will be remodeled. The Orange City community passed a $2,700,000 bond issuance with a vote on March 1, 2016 with an 83.7% approval, that will fund a portion of the estimated $3,150,000 cost to expand the current fire station.  The remaining cost will be funded by the City of Orange City and fundraising efforts of the Orange City Fire Department.

The current fire station, built in 1973, lacks adequate training and work space and has limited storage.  The station no longer meets national health and safety codes, has a lack of ventilation, and firefighters risk injury by pulling their gear on next to moving trucks. An increase in population growth, new hazards and technological advances also contribute to the need for an expanded station.

The public is invited to join the ground breaking at the Orange City Fire Station, located at 202 Albany Avenue SE.

More information on the expansion can be found on the Friends of the Orange City Fire Department’s website, www.friendsoftheocfd.com, or Facebook page.

arts on central planned for august 24

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Arts on Central, a celebration of the visual and performing arts, will return to downtown Orange City Wednesday, Aug. 24.

Now in its second year, the free interactive arts fair concludes the weekly summer series Onstage Orange City, sponsored by Orange City Arts. Streets will be blocked off starting at 4:3pm, and local artists will entertain on the street and in businesses. The evening will include music, poetry, visual arts, puppetry, chalk art, dance, children’s activities and a live mannequin contest.
Artwork on display will range from paintings to quilts to woodworking, with some items for sale. There will be demonstrations of such artistic techniques as painting with beeswax, using alcohol inks, and working with watercolors. Those interested may also create their own art with the help of artists who specialize in tie-dye, stencils or block printing on fabric.IMG_1079 arts on central Pam Harp medium
Musical performances will include vocal ensembles; guitar, violin, ukelele and string bass players; and Usual Suspects, an acoustic blues and rock group from Orange City. There will also be a strolling ventriloquist, a balloon artist clown, and demonstrations by dancers from Just for Kix and Elite Dance and Tumbling.
Among the activities for children are face painting, a story walk
in Windmill Park, kite-making, magnet poetry and a scavenger hunt. Kids can also paint a t-shirt, create mini sculptures with marshmallows and toothpicks, build large structures, and experiment with baking soda and vinegar or bubbles to make artwork.

Popular last year, according to Janine Calsbeek, director of Orange City Arts, was The Cube — a huge plywood structure in the middle of the street — which kids and adults filled with their artistic touches. It’ll be back. Also a big hit were live mannequins. This year the mannequins will be “on” for two 15-minute sessions each, from 5:30-6:30pm. Eight businesses will host live mannequins in their store fronts, and people can vote for their favorites with donaIMG_1106 arts on central people 2015 mediumtions big and small—with all proceeds going to Orange City Arts and ATLAS.

Businesses have donated prizes for drawings that will be held throughout the evening. And food vendors will be on hand, selling pizza, burritos, tacos, gelato, skewers, stroopwaffles and more. College students can purchase poffertjes for half price. Local merchants are giving free hotdogs with toppings, “Thanks with Franks.”

The 2016 Arts on Central will feature dozens of new artists and activities, said Calsbeek: a kid water fight (note: bring a change of clothes), a full-face face painting station, and the opportunity to create artwork on tiles with alcohol inks. Also new is Thrift Wars, where contestants have one hour to transform thrift store castoffs into works of art–while others watch!

The Windmill in the downtown park is the center for information, maps and signing up for prizes, said Calsbeek.
Arts on Central will move to Windmill Park at 7:30pm, when Omaha Street Percussion takes the stage. Inspired by Broadway hits like STOMP and the Blue Man Group, the seven-member ensemble provides a visually appealing, highly energetic form of drumming using unorthodox “instruments” like pots and pans, buckets and trash cans.
Arts on Central is supported by the Old Factory Coffee Shop, Northwestern Bank and local merchants in conjunction with Orange City Arts. Rain locations for Arts on Central are downtown businesses and City Hall. Windmill Park is located at 200 Central Avenue NW. For more information, see orangecityarts.net or contact ocArts@orangecityiowa.com or 712-707-4885.

World War II Resistance Drama returns

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Local group to perform readers theater rendition of “Things We Couldn’t Say”

Orange City, IA, June 9, 2016– A story that thrilled local audiences two decades ago will return to the Knight Center at Unity Christian High, Orange City, when a group of local actors will perform the readers theater version of Things We Couldn’t Say.

The story of Diet Eman, a Holocaust survivor and resistance fighter in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, is basically a love story set against the great human tragedy of World War II. A quarter century ago Ms. Eman sought the services of Alton writer James Schaap to help her write her story. Things We Couldn’t Say has thousands of beloved readers around the world and has been published in several versions and languages.

When the book was published in 1994, Schaap wrote the script, and the play was performed locally and nationally. Ms. Eman visited many area schools back then to tell her story of intrigue and danger, of courage and faith.

Janie Van Dyke, who is directing the performance, was herself part of some of those performances twenty years ago. Van Dyke, who teaches English at Unity, chose to do Things We Couldn’t Say as an experiment because she knew the script could be done without major costuming requirements or elaborate stage design.

“The story is so powerful,” Van Dyke says, “that we still have trouble not getting emotional just reading through it.” She has her own designs on a summer theater program at the Knight Center. “I felt it was important for this first attempt to do something really good and relatively easy to produce.”

James Schaap plays a minor role in the production, introducing the story before Diet Eman (Leanne Bonnekroy) begins to tell it. Soon, Diet’s own younger self (Teresa Ter Haar) appears, along with Hein Sietsma (Jason Alons), the resistance fighter she’d planned to marry. Greg Steggerda and Tom Hydeen play Nazi officials and guards.

Van Dyke is not the only member of the cast to return to the script. Teresa Ter Haar, who teaches theater at Dordt, was a member of the first cast back in 1994, when she was a senior at Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan. “It’s quite amazing how much more I feel the story today, now that I’m older,” she says.

Performances are scheduled at 7:30, for Friday, June 24, and Saturday, June 25, at the Knight Center. General admission is $5.00. The intensity of the Eman story makes it wise not to take small children.

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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Janie Van Dyke at 712 441 3228 or email at jvandyke@unity.pvt.k12.ia.us; alternatively, you may contact James Schaap at 712 441 1125 or email at jschaap@dordt.edu.

 

psa: time to move sump pump hoses

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Is your sump pump running in your basement? Do you know where it discharges your excess water?
If your pump hose is connected to your drain line, you are contributing to a major problem! With the
infiltration of rainwater during large downpours or wet seasons, sewer lines may become overloaded
and cause backups in basements or overflow at lift stations & the wastewater treatment plant. City ordinances
only allow sump pumps to drain into sanitary sewers from October 15 – April 15.

Remember to reconnect pumps to an outdoor outlet.

For more information, contact the City of Orange City at 712-707-4885.

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