Local plumbers will meet with the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority this morning to try to resolve a dispute on how much plumbers are paid to fix sewer lines in Hamilton County.
Cleveland Grimes, executive director of the WWTA, said the Plumbing Committee will meet at 9 a.m. in the Development Resource Center at 1250 Market St. Grimes said the discussion will focus on the cost of services plumbers provide under the Private Service Lateral Program, a program to test and repair sewer lines.
Gene Shipley, a Soddy-Daisy commissioner and owner of Shipley Plumbing, is part of the committee and said it will focus primarily on money.
“They’ve got us working for less money than what it’s worth,” Shipley said. “We’re interested in seeing if we’re going to be able to get the price of this work up in order for it to continue.”
Shipley said WWTA pays plumbers different prices depending on the nature of the job they are doing at the time; for example, he said, WWTA pays plumbers $14.68 per foot of pipe installed. He said all of the WWTA payments for various services the plumbers provide are outdated.
WWTA officials said they may hire a general contractor to help test and repair sewer lines so the authority can meet its quota of 300 lines a month.