Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Public Works/Water Wastewater Committee met Aug. 20.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

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

ABSENT: Alderman Muench

GUESTS: Resident Mark Garfield, Public Works Supervisor Loren Grosvenor, Keith Mulholland with Robinson Engineering

Alderman Cahoe opened the meeting at 7:20 pm. During public comment resident Mark Garfield spoke regarding the opera house and he is in favor of demolishing it, he stated its not structurally sound and he thinks the city needs to put every lot they own on the market to sell.

Public works Supervisor Loren Grosvenor reported on the following:

Test Wells: 1 land agreement is done, working on a couple more,

Well 11: Metropolitan completed the SCADA work and the operating permit has been submitted to the EPA

Well 6: this has been capped and abandoned on 8/13/2024,public works will demolish the building.

Hydrant Flushing: this will happen in September, exact dates will be coming Meter Reading Improvements: 1180 radios installed

North Street Watermain Extension under Railroad: bid specs were given to IDOT last week, they publish every Thursday and there is an 11 day letting process Lead Service Line Inventory Grant Approved: 3 different surveys were sent out with not a very good response. The City will start doing inspections

Grant for Watermain Extension on Elm St: no funding granted currently and there are 2 years left for grant monies

Watermain Breaks: 801 W Franklin on 7/25/2024

Wastewater Treatment Plant: non potable pump failed was sent in for repairs and it will be covered under a full warranty. $2,000 was received from U of I for SARS CoV-2 for wastewater sampling. The city will receive this annually

Locust/Brown Street manhole Project: bid opening was 7/22/24 and a pre-construction meeting will be held soon

Heat & Recycle Project: this project has been started, Sheridan St, North 6th to Raymond Rd, Raymond Rd to the City limits, Wabash, Virginia, and Iroquois, they should be finished by Thursday. A question was asked about Park Ave and Loren stated it needs more than heat and recycle program. There was a short discussion about trees planted on the right of ways and how they really shouldn’t be planted there as it causes a lot of issues. 48” Storm Sewer behind Kingdon’s: only needs rip rap at the end of the storm sewer Parks: Kay and Westside Park Pavilion roofs received a first coat of green paint on 8/20 and the poles will be painted brown.

Martin Ave Extension: contracts are signed waiting for Scheduling

Spray Patch Machine: Still operating to fill pot-holes

Concrete: 10 yards concrete poured this month for sidewalks

Asphalt: 36 tons of asphalts purchased this month for repairs

Staffing: 2 employees hired in August, 2 employees obtained their CDL’s, currently high school kids will be working at the yardwaste facility on Weekends, might hire a part time person for the week hours during the fall.

Loren asked about giving millings away to the people that live outside the city limits and the committee is ok with this.

Miscellaneous: tree trimming will start up again this fall, received $1,072.50 from Metro for hitting and removing a water bbox. The wall up town has been tuck pointed and painted. The empty lots are grass now.

Equipment: picked up the tree grinder and put on a demo for Village of Bradley per their request. Loren would like to purchase a catch basket for the high school lift station for $2218.90. Public works will install it. Alderman Marcier makes a motion to recommend to the Council to purchase a catch basket for the high school lift station for $2218.90 from USA Bluebook and Alderwoman Rohlfs seconded. Roll call carried 8-0. Loren stated he needs to have $3,000 worth of DEF repairs done to the 2014 1-ton Ram, or they can remove the DEF for much cheaper. Alderman Cahoe asked about reselling the truck at some point without the DEF and Loren stated yes it could still be sold.

There was discussion about TIF 3 monies being used for a Belmont Area road project. TIF 3 has expired and the monies need to be spent. There was discussion about using the monies on watermain also. It was decided to do the engineering on the road and bring more information back to next month’s meeting regarding possible road repair and or watermain projects.

The Hanford lot on E Walnut was discussed next. Loren stated his guys have removed all of the concrete and its back to grass now, what is the next step. Alderman Anderson stated the would like to put it up for sale, maybe someone would buy it and open a new business. Then there was discussion about the other empty lots downtown and the vacant buildings

that someone could buy instead of building new. It was decided to ask Attorney Cainkar if the city needs to do anything special to put empty city owned lots up for sale.

Mayor Allhands stated he has heard back from Gibson Hospital about purchasing the Kaper Pond area. He asked the committee about getting an appraisal done and they are ok with moving forward with that.

At 8:17 Alderman Cahoe makes a motion to enter executive session for Compensation of employees and Alderman Marcier seconded. Roll call carried 8-0.

At 8:33 Alderman Marcier makes a motion to go back to regular session and Alderman Barragree seconded. Roll call carried 8-0.

Alderman Cahoe stated per Loren that 2 public works employees took CDL classes and passed he makes a motion to recommend to the Council to give Andrew Walton and Ben Norgaard at $2.00 hour raise effective 8/27/2024 bringing their hourly rate to $23.25. Alderwoman Rohlfs seconded. Roll call carried 7-1 with Alderwoman DeLahr voting no and Alderman Anderson voting present. Alderwoman DeLahr stated she voted no because it is outside of the CBA contract, and she said the city needs to consider the size of the community.

Alderman Cahoe makes a motion to adjourn at 8:37 and Alderman Barragree seconded. Roll call carried 8-0.

https://www.watsekacity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/public-works-water-wastewater-8-20-24.pdf