City Council meeting 11-28-2016

The City Council had a short agenda and a short meeting on Monday evening. First up were engineering reports on two potential sewer projects, one for Owen Street and the other for West Washington. The consultant from United Engineering said that there were three options he examined to serve 19 existing residences but potentially 60 residences if the vacant lots were built. A gravity system would cost an estimated $1.7 million, a low pressure system in which residences had individual grinder pumps was estimated at $.9 million, and combination of the two at $1.2 million. There were a number of questions about technical details. Apparently the estimates included the City providing and installing the grinder pumps, but their maintenance and electrical costs would be borne by the residence. The prices mentioned were a magnitude higher than the prices I see on-line for grinder sewer pumps. The discussion of the West Washington was brief, and in this one there is no option for a gravity system. These projects are several years off if they happen at all, but this was advanced planning.

The next item was a decision on which engineering company to hire for the Watts substation that will be several miles out on Bunkum Road and will provide a second line to the Interstate area. The Council accepted ISC, which had a low bid of $126,000. The entire project is estimated at $1,680,000.

Supply bids, which had been read at the previous Council meeting, were awarded: unleaded gas and diesel to Ceres Solution and tire repairs to CTS. The date for the December meeting was changed from Monday, Dec 26 to Tuesday, Dec 27. (The 26th is a City Holiday.) The Redevelopment Commission met on November 21 and awarded paving of Gaspar Drive and part of Melville to Town and Country Paving. The work will be done next spring.

There was a brief discussion about the sorry state of the Weston Cemetery building. The sentiment seemed to be that it would be better to replace it than try to fix it but that project is also not imminent. The Christmas parade will take place this Saturday. The roof on the Power Plant has been finished. Work continues on the high rate treatment plant. (This morning--Tuesday--trucks were delivering more 66-inch culverts.) With no further business or announcements, the meeting adjourned.

Last week I spent a few days in Illinois and I do not have any really appropriate pictures, but I did take the one below over the weekend. The doors are now on the new C&C Warehousing building on Melville.

While I was in Illinois I took part in the largest 5K race I have ever been in--there were, I guess, well over a thousand people running. It was free and untimed, though there was a clock at the finish line so that people could time themselves. I wondered if the huge turnout--they ran out of bibs before I registered and by the time I finished they had run out of goodie bags--was because it was a free race. I wonder how many people would run in a free race here. Or is the thought that you are helping some cause part of the draw for our 5ks?

The other odd thing from Illinois was the price of eggs. I thought they were ridiculously cheap when Strack and Van Til recently had them for 69 cents a dozen. However, Aldi had them for 28 cents a dozen.