The South Jacksonville Water Plant in Oxville appears to be just a few steps away from being restarted.

Public Works Director Brian English was absent from Thursday night’s council meeting but provided trustees with a written update on the status.

English’s statement said conditioning of the plant’s water tanks and some additional training for water softening plant personnel are expected to take place within the next two to three weeks.

According to Township President Dick Samples, it all depends on whether EPA testing gives the water plant the green light to restart: “Probably on the 22nd of the month, that company will come to show our water plant staff how the softener part of the water system works. We haven’t switched over or anything. I expect it will be sometime on August 25th. That’s a very tentative date. You have to condition the tanks first to put the water in, and everything goes through the EPA. If you make any changes, you send in a sample that they check. They check it at all stages. Given the softness of the water, our intention is to deliver a product as good or better than what we are getting from the City of Jacksonville now, in hopes of keeping complaints to a minimum.”

English also said in the update that a feature on the Godfrey Park Splash Pad went down last week due to a leak in the pump house. The feature is currently being repaired, but the splash pad is still operating as normal.