Public Property Update
April 25, 2007
The City and EMC attended a Mayors Meeting in Cortland and we were able to see a presentation of the Cortland plan for explosive development. Cortland is installing water and wastewater facilities for a planned growth of 18,000 homes. The over 20 million dollar project will be paid for and maintained by the recently annexed property owners.
EMC along with Fire Fighter Safety Equipment presented a fire safety training session for all City employees at the City Maintenance Garage. Everyone who attended had an opportunity to use a fire extinguisher on a liquid fire.
Blackberry Fence has completed their work at the Wastewater Plant and now all of the damaged fencing has been repaired.
I have had some questions about possible wastewater service for the planned Hospice Hospital. EMC has investigated, and the forced main from Wood Brothers to the City of Oregon has a parallel gravity feed line. Hospice will be able to connect to the City with a minimum of complications.
Karl had completed his research into the City water and wastewater department's electrical requirements and we will present it to the next City Council meeting. It will be a two year contract saving the City $6,500 annually.
The auto-read water meter software is in the process of being installed and we should have everyone trained and the new operation in effect by the end of May. We now have 60 of the new meters installed in our downtown business district.
The twice a year maintenance of fire hydrant flushing has been completed without complaints of rusty water. It has been four years since this operation has been performed and it is time to have it done again. Hopefully this will be accomplished when the City does a complete maintenance on the Liberty Hill reservoir.
Preventative maintenance sanitary sewer line flushing will begin next week.
Karl and I met with Chris Heal to review the latest water and sewer comments on the proposed Settlers Ridge subdivision. Preliminary estimates of the City 's share for water and sewer appear to be in line with the original estimates supplied by the developer.
The City and EMC have met with CMT our engineers and all preliminary engineering plans are complete.
Karl attended the annual wastewater operator's conference in Springfield and was able to make contact with the IEPA heads of permits and revolving loan sections. Maintaining strong relations will be critical over the next few months, as we will be working closely with officials on the wastewater plant upgrade.
Karl and I will be traveling to Peru Indiana to visit a recent Cannibal System installation. This will give us a better understanding of what we can expect with our upgrade.
The department is continuing to work on the auxiliary power unit for emergency power for our wells. Initial estimates are $7,000 per well house for the necessary electrical equipment. We will be looking at a used power unit for about $35,000, which sells new for $125,000.
