ROYAL CITY — The Royal City City Council swore in three council members at its meeting Tuesday evening, all returning after the November elections.

Hector Rodriguez, who holds Position 3, Perla Garcia, who was reelected to Position 2, and Ryan Piercy, who retained the Position 4 seat in the November election by a single vote, all raised their right hands and swore to uphold the Constitution and carry out the duties of their office. Deputy City Clerk Sherrie Rodriguez administered the oaths.

The water main replacement project is moving along slowly but surely, Public Works Director John Lasen told the council. The upgrades are underway on the west end of town, Lasen said, starting with Hemlock, Grape and Calla streets and moving on to Calla Loop, Balsam Street and Royal Avenue.

“Then there's other places throughout town (where) we've got these isolated, small pipelines that need to be replaced as well,” Lasen said. 

Some of the pipes being replaced are made from asbestos cement, Lasen said, which was common until the 1970s. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, asbestos is only harmful if the fibers are inhaled.

“You hear ‘asbestos’ and you worry about health risk, but there isn't,” Lasen said. “The only time you have a health risk with asbestos is if it's dry and what they call friable. If you drill it and it creates dust and it gets into your lungs, that can cause problems. But if it's wet, even if you ingest it, to my knowledge, you can't cause any health problems at all.”

The crews replacing the water lines will restore the roads they tear up in the course of their work, but that’s as far as they’ll go, Lasen explained.

Garcia asked if the roads would be repaired in the process of replacing pipes underneath them.

“There is an element for (repairs) to the road,” Lasen replied. “Are they going to be brand-new roads? Absolutely not. They're not going to be in much better condition than they currently are.”

“That's dirt now,” Garcia said. “Literally, that's mud. You drive through there, it’s mud.  And it's only gonna get worse, people driving it (when) it’s wet.”

“They have some (repairs) that they have to do but it's only where they actually dig,” Lasen said “And then there's gonna be some BST, bituminous surface treatment, which is what those roads were originally constructed as. That's where they just put down oil and gravel.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at [email protected].