Alluvial contract addendum approved by Carlinville council

By ERIN SANSON
Enquirer~Democrat Reporter

An addendum to the Illinois Alluvial Regional Water Company contract was the main topic at the Nov. 7 Carlinville City Council meeting. Also up for brief discussion was the matter of reworking existing panic buttons to alert the video system at the Public Safety Center.

Alluvial Water Contract

An addendum to the Alluvial Regional Water Company contract between the company and Carlinville was presented by City Attorney Don Craven.

So far, Carlinville has made a deposit of $30,000 and paid invoices totaling $354,277.13. Those amounts are to be credited to Carlinville’s connection fee and security deposit, which totals $1,692,000 to be paid in two installments. Carlinville now owes Alluvial $461,722.87 to complete the first half of the connection fee and security deposit payment. The second half of the connection fee and security deposit, amounting to $846,000, can be paid in installments or as a lump sum if Carlinville chooses. Should Carlinville pay in installments ,Alluvial must provide Carlinville with itemized expense reports for each payment request.

Craven went over several other items included in the addendum. There is a clause saying that if the total Pre-Closing Expenses approved by Alluvial exceeds the originally estimated $6 million, Carlinville will pay its proportional share, not to exceed 10 percent of $6 million.

The proportional share will be calculated by the estimated usage of all Alluvial members. Craven said that the 10 percent in additional funding still falls within the limits of the loan agreement between Carlinville and CoBank.

A repayment plan was put into place to repay the CoBank loan. Previously the contract said that Alluvial had the option to pay Carlinville back or to grant them credit for the water. The new contract states that “Alluvial shall refund the connection fee and security deposit to Carlinville upon the receipt of sufficient funds and authorization to do so” from USDA Rural Development. It adds that the funds should be repaid at the earliest possible time and to the fullest extent possible. The addition was added due to a separate agreement between Alluvial and the city that CoBank required.

Alderman Doug Downey brought up that the previous contract had a dispense date, a date by which water would be running, but this contract does not. He agreed that there were many unknowns with the project still but he was concerned that several years from now, Carlinville will have signed the new contract and will still be waiting for water. Craven said he understood Downey’s concern but it was not possible to get a dispense date because there were too many variables to put a firm date on completion.

Alderman Kim Harber pointed out that several steps had already been made in the project and that there were now firm objectives and targets for the company to complete. Alderman John Levora also mentioned that materials for the plant had already been purchased and well sites had been dug.

Dan Held, the Carlinville representative to the Alluvial Board and head of public works for Carlinville, chimed in to say that the beginning stages of any project such as a water plant take the longest because the easements had to be obtained. Held said that the easement committee of the Alluvial board hopes to be able to have 50 percent of their easements by spring.

Downey also asked that if the project extended out further than the council wanted would there be any remedy to the situation. Craven answered that the council could decide to leave at any time but there would be no way to get back the money they had put into the project.

A motion to approve the addendum was made by Alderman Dick McClain and seconded by Alderman Todd Koller. The motion passed in a 7-1 vote, with Downey as the only ‘nay’ vote. The contract had already been approved by the Alluvial board before it was presented to the Carlinville council members.

The council thanked Dan Held, the alluvial representative for Carlinville, Joe Direso, the previous Alluvial representative, Don Craven and all others who worked on the contract and are currently working with Alluvial.

Panic Button

The only other business to be discussed Monday night was a proposal from Senergy Electric, Inc. for panic button rework. Carlinville Chief of Police Dave Haley spoke about the project to the council. There are panic buttons in City Hall, and the proposed work is to connect the panic buttons to the video feed at the new Public Safety Center to alert the police if the alarm was sounded. The other option was to tie the panic buttons in to the radio frequency which Haley dismissed because the radio would be tied up by the alarm and the radio tie in cost more money. The council approved the proposal to connect the panic buttons to the video feed at the Public Safety Center for $935.