Update

August 14, 2007

The City has entered into an agreement with Rock River Energy Services Co., to provide the City of Oregon with electricity for 2 years at a savings of 5.6%.

The City has increased the fee for water and sewer connections to the City system.  The fees were last adjusted in 1996 and the fees are adjusted to be more in line with surrounding communities.  Previous fees were $1,000 and the new fee is $3,000 for water and wastewater.   Commercial fees were raised proportionately.  We must remember that the initial connection fee is the cost of participating in a system that has been paid for by previous homeowners and businesses, and once connected, the City assumes responsibility for water and wastewater indefinitely. 

The City of Oregon and EMC has been in conference with CMT, our engineers, about the wastewater upgrade.  The City has forwarded a letter to the IEPA allowing them a time extension to approve our upgrade plan.  The IEPA is now requiring an Oregon Facilities Plan and the City is providing the necessary information.  Requirements change and we are working to meet those changes.  A problem could develop because the City of Oregon is being proactive with the wastewater upgrade and most IEPA loans are for compliance requirements.  Our engineers believe that once the IEPA understands what we intend to do, that the money will be made available.

The City is having our property on Liberty Hill surveyed to establish property lines between the City and other property owners, and we will be looking at water line easements.

Vacuuming and structure evaluation of our two 850,000 gallon reservoirs will be conducted Friday August 17th.   There is an accumulation of one inch of residue in each reservoir for every year of use and it is decided that they should be cleaned every four years. 

We received delivery of our mobile generator and this is going to be a welcome addition for the city.  The necessary electrical components are now to be installed.  The system will be installed with equipment to run well #3 at the Coliseum and well #4 on Pines Road. 

On July 17th and 18th the City wastewater facility recorded 1 inch and 3 ½ inches of rain respectively. During this time period, only one sewer back up problem was reported.  On July 18, small back up had corrected itself by the time the Sewer Department received the call in the morning.  Overall, the City’s sewer separation project, taking the street inlets off of the sanitary sewers, has been a success.  The upcoming smoke testing will help determine some of the storm water connections on private property.