Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Public Works Committee met Jan. 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

PRESENT: Alderman Cahoe, Barragree, Marcier, Miller, Muench, Anderson, Alderwomen Rohlfs and DeLahr and Mayor Allhands

GUESTS: Public Works Director Loren Grosvenor and Keith Mulholland with Robinson Engineering

Alderman Cahoe opened the meeting at 6:40 pm. There was no public comment. Public Works Supervisor Loren Grosvenor reported on the following projects:

New Well 11: The pit less adaptor is scheduled to ship 1/22 and will be installed 1/29 Well 6: There really isn’t much progress per Keith and Loren. The committee discussed the possibility of abandoning the well. Keith and Loren stated they think it would be ok to leave it for now and just do the quarterly reporting as required by the EPA until well 11 is up and going. Keith stated at some point the EPA will require the city to come up with a plan for well 6 and at that point maybe the city could abandon it.

Meter Reading Radios: 200 more radios were ordered and 100 have been received. Fire Hydrants: Still waiting on parts for the hydrant on Brown and Park

North St Watermain Extension under railroad: The project is completed and Keith and Loren will have final numbers for the next meeting

Lead Service Line Inventory Grant Approved: the survey has been sent out to the residents

Watermain Breaks: 220 N 5th, 702 N Market, 819 W Iroquois, 811 N Chicago, and at the corner of North St & Market St.

Wastewater Treatment Plant: R.A.S. 20 hp pump burned up and still waiting on Wilo to warranty it and R.A.S. pump 2 failed and also waiting on warranty information. The department also repaired contract rake arms.

Drainage Project Along Walnut St: delayed due to TPW ROA permitting Locust/Brown Street Manhole Project: Keith reported it could cost about $908,000 to do additional shoring up and repair and line the sewer or for $827,000 the city could bore and jack. After discussion the city would like to move forward getting bids to see what the actual cost would be to line the sewer and repair the line.

Kay St Storm and Sanitary Sewer: Keith hopes to have ready to bid out next month Kingdon’s Project: new 72” structure and 48” pipe has been installed and now waiting on dry ground conditions for install 2-36” structures

GIS Mapping: on going

Parks: Parts have arrived for Westside Park and will be installed before spring

Streets: Keith will have a resolution for the full council next week. Loren stated he and Keith are working on getting the heat and recycle project out for bid by the end of the month Staffing: currently down 3 employees, 1 is on work comp. Loren is asking if the committee would be willing to reimburse the public works employees for a gym membership of $40 per month like the police department does. Alderwoman DeLahr stated she thinks this is a union contract issue and would like to wait until the contract comes due. The rest of the committee are ok with it. Alderman Marcier makes a motion to recommend to the council to reimburse any public works/water employee a gym membership of $40.00 per month. Alderman Cahoe seconded, roll call carried 8-1 with Alderwoman DeLahr voting no.

National Weather Service: Loren stated they are requesting public works to monitor and report weather temps and rain fall. There was a short discussion about why IEMA isn’t doing this. Loren stated he is ok with doing it for now and the monitor will be put on the roof of the treatment plant. The department will only be doing this 5 days a week.

Tree Trimming: this started December 4th and the westside of town is done and half of the northside is completed. This will begin again when the weather gets warmer SCADA: the equipment has been ordered and are waiting for an installation date Volvo Loader: this is a 2007 that is going to cost $12,000 for new tires, it has 7000 hours on it and the turbo was just replaced last summer. Loren is going to investigate getting a new loader with a more useful bucket. Alderman Cahoe stated this current loader was paid for from different funds, he is proposing to pay for the new one from water and sewer, TIF 3 and 4 and garage funds.

Keith reported the USDA grant for the spray patch machine needs to have a public hearing and he would like to do that before the code enforcement meeting next month. Keith stated the Martin Ave project will be going out for a February bid letting. Alderwoman Rohlfs stated she has spoken to the owner of the Copper Pot building about doing a winter farmers market. She has sent an email to vendors; she is hoping to have 10-12 vendors to start with. There will be more information at later meetings.

Alderwoman Rohlfs also stated the sensory play place opened for the first time at Trinity Church and she stated it was monies well spent.

Alderman Anderson stated Thursday will be the Hazard Mitigation Plan meeting for the county.

Alderman Cahoe makes a motion to adjourn at 7:27 and Alderman Barragree seconded. Roll call carried 9-0.

https://www.watsekacity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/public-works-water-wastewater-1-16-24.pdf