December 16th, Update

There was a pre-construction meeting November 3 for the wastewater upgrade project with CMT, MDES and Sjolstrom Construction.  Construction will begin within 10 days of that date and last for 500 days, with completion expected by March of 2011.

Installation of the electrical connections for our portable generator to our lift stations has been delayed waiting for the necessary couplings.  We have run into a availability problem, but this is expected to be resolved within four weeks. 

November 11th, Kelsey Excavating did a test dig for the new clarifier and they hit water at 18 feet.  They will sink three wells and pump water for a week before excavating for the project.   Construction of the new secondary clarifiers will begin and Weather permitting, 3000 yards of dirt will be removed and concrete poured.

MDES also has started the GSI mapping of our manholes and sewer mains.  It was found that many manholes have never been opened on the East Side of Oregon and considerable maintenance is going to be required. 

The department 1996 one-ton dump truck is on its last legs, and we will be looking for a replacement.  I plan a meeting about the budget, resources and department needs soon, and the truck will be addressed. 

November 24th we hauled sludge for two days and cleaned out all of our storage for a total of 270,000 gallons.  We will now be good until spring, when it will be necessary to not only haul sludge but also clean our digester and storage tank for upgrade modifications.

December 1st and December 11th the City met with MDES engineers to discuss plans for the sewer main North of Oregon on Route 2.  There has been a change of engineers with IDOT and complications with moving utilities, but we will let for bids on our sewer project by the end of January.  

MDES will be submitting for a grant to install a water main from the Liberty Hill Reservoir to Fairgrounds Park.  This would be a 75/25 grant and would provide a loop for existing homeowners in the Fairgrounds Subdivision and adequate water supply for North of Oregon should the need become necessary. 

Sjolstrom and Son’s are having difficulty getting the upgrade project started and will now wait until spring to install the new clarifier.  The project requires ComEd temporary lines to run dewatering pumps before digging and with the impending winter weather, it has been decided to start in the spring of 2010.

From 2002 to 2009 the City has rebuild all four wells in Oregon and cleaned both reservoirs and painted one.  We have replace or installed 30 new fireplugs, and replaced six manholes and repaired many others.  We have started replacing old water-meters with state of the art radio read units and the $300,000 project is about 1/3rd completed.  Many poor functioning privately owned commercial water-meters have been replaced by the City and are now owned and maintained by the City.  GPS mapping of our infrastructure is nearly complete and this will indicate details about location of all equipment in a readily available software program.  We have purchased a new service truck, auxiliary generator, and completed construction of the maintenance storage building and administrative office.  The generator required expensive switching connections and they have been installed on two wells and five lift stations.  The department has also paid a half share interest in a replacement skid-loader used by both the W&S Department and the Street Department.  All of the infrastructure and equipment purchases have been provided with department funds from service fees, and the department has not borrowed any funds during my tenure and the wastewater upgrade will be the first required loan.

Recent accomplishment was the disconnecting of storm water discharges into our sanitary sewer by the Oregon Post Office, the County Court House and FNS Manufacturing.  These three violators were major contributors to our over flows into the Rock River.  With the wastewater upgrade we should be able to seal our last overflow discharge piping.  Discharges into the river are a major concern of the Environmental Protection Agency. 

For the year 2010 the plan is to construct the wastewater upgrade.  Install the sewer-main and possibly a water main North of Oregon.  Continue installing as many radio read water meters as the department can afford.  We will disassemble well 4 for routine maintenance, and MDES will aggressively continue maintenance of our sewer system and replacement of broken infrastructure.  MDES will complete our annual budget and business plan for the future.  Install and have operating a SCADA system to monitor our wells, reservoirs and lift stations.  Purchase a new service truck for heavy maintenance.  Purchase a portable screw type sludge press to accommodate our remaining sludge due to annual purging of the system.  Secure a fee increase of 6% for water and wastewater usage or 50 cents per 1000 gallons.  There has not been a fee increase in two years and there has been an inflation rate of 3% each of those years.  The City also needs to increase turn on fee’s from $30 to $50 to be more in line with today’s costs.