Council Meeting 45

June 11, 2007

The annual drinking water report from the IEPA has been received and it is now posted on the Oregon website and it will be in the Oregon Paper this week.  There were no violations in 2006.

EMC has been working very closely with Wendler Engineering, Arc Design and the IEPA to resolve concerns about the Settler Ridge Subdivision.  EMC has been working with engineers to install a public lift station following comments by IEPA in their review process.  It is anticipated that the redesign work should be completed and submitted to IEPA this week.

Work is continuing on the design of the wastewater plant upgrade.  Plans and specifications are now at the IEPA for approval for a construction permit.  Once the permits are obtained, we will begin the process of obtaining a loan from IEPA. 

I recently had a discussion with Bernie Held of CMT and he thinks there is not going to be a problem with Oregon receiving the IEPA loan that our wastewater upgrade is going to require. 

EMC has been working on the City of Oregon Capital Improvement plan for the next four years.  This is a rough draft and Karl and I will continue to massage it until we have a clear-cut plan.  Unaccounted things happen every day with a facility like the Oregon Wastewater and Water system, but we can anticipate improvements and maintenance requirements.  We would like to have everything possible documented with correct cost estimates. 

A project for the near future is going to be the rebuilding of Route 2 between Oregon and Route 72 near Byron.  At the time of this project, the City must seriously contemplate the installation of 12” water and sewer lines from the existing system to a point somewhere near the Stronghold retreat.   To coordinate our infrastructure project with the IDOT project will save the City of Oregon a fortune in construction costs.  I will have our engineers start planning the project as soon as IDOT has a preliminary plan. 

Routine cleaning of sanitary sewers will continue in June.  Work will primarily focus on the North end of Oregon this summer.

Layne and Western is scheduled to be in Oregon sometime in the next two-weeks to complete their annual testing and maintenance on all four wells.  The work should take one to one-and a half days to complete.  The work will include well levels, pumping capacity and inspection of the motors.

Roger Cain of Cain Millwork in Rochelle has duplicated more trim for the Oregon depot and this is the third time he has answered my requests.  The patterns used 100 years ago have been accurately reproduced and the depot appreciates it.