Eagle Scout honored, water and sewer line project funding discussed

 

By ERIN SANSON
Enquirer~Democrat Reporter

The Carlinville City Council held its second monthly meeting on June 20 as City Hall was closed on Monday in observation of Juneteenth.

There were several items of correspondence, a bid for City Hall Improvements and an Eagle Scout Proclamation that occurred during the meeting.

Eagle Scout

Charles Wilson was honored by the Council for reaching the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scout Organization. Wilson’s project was the reconstruction of a walking bridge at Beaver Dam State Park.

Public Comment

During Public Comment, Alderman Bill Link read a statement from Jen Birger with Woodard and Curran regarding project funding for several water projects.

Birger started by congratulating the City for gaining a “substantial amount of funding” from the IEPA (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency) from the Public Water Supply Loan Program and the Water Pollution Control Loan Program.

IEPA released a draft intended use plan (IUP) on June 1 for the Fiscal Year 2024 State Revolving Fund money. Carlinville was included on the draft IUP for four projects.

The correspondence from Birger says that starting in Fall 2022, Carlinville, with the support of Woodard and Curran began the application process for the State Revolving Fund Loan Program. The projects they applied for included 8,000 feet replacement of a six-inch water main with a “history of frequent breaks and service outages” on Highway 108 between McCauseland St. to the west of Colt Road. The project would replace the existing lines with eight-inch water mains. A second project would be to replace 2,000 feet of water and sewer lines on IL-108 from Alton Road to the City Square. This area also has a history of frequent breaks and services disruptions. This project would be in coordination with an upcoming IDOT road improvement project, the existing water line would be upgraded to an 8 inch line and the current 22-inch brick sewer would be replaced with a 24-inch line. The final project is the Lead Service Line replacement project.

Carlinville is included in the draft plan for water main replacement on Highway 108 between Colt Road and McCauseland St. with an estimated forgiveness of $707,500 on a total project cost/loan of $1,504,000. That project is estimated to begin on Aug. 21.

The water main replacement between Alton Road and the Carlinville Square is a total project cost/loan of $1,085,000, the estimated forgiveness on that loan is $542,500.

The sewer main replacement in the same area is an estimated loan forgiveness of $440,100 with a total project loan of $1,467,000.

The Lead Service Line Replacement project requested a loan amount of $349,000. The principal forgiveness of that loan is 100 percent of the loan, or $349,000.

In total, the loan amounts requested and approved amounted to $4,405,000. The reserved principal forgiveness amounted to $2,039,100. The draft intended use plan should be finalized by the end of June.

Alderman Kim Harber thanked everyone who had worked on getting funding for the projects.

Mayor Sarah Oswald stated, “ We’ve done good in doing our engineering and getting ready and when the money’s ready we’ve been getting it so I’m very happy. You guys are a big part of that and this is a good thing for Carlinville.”

Alderman Doug Downey added that many people have wondered why the City has a contract with Woodard and Curran and what the benefit of that contract is, and that “this” is one of those benefits.

City Hall Improvements

The council approved the bid from Kufa and Son, Inc. to replace a rooftop cooling and hating unit on City Hall. The bid amounts to $9,790. This project was not included specifically in the budget. However, according to Harber, there was money in the City Hall Improvement line item to cover the cost.

Correspondence

In matters of correspondence there were three letters to the council.

The first letter came from a Damon Miller. Miller is part of a Chicago based production crew that is looking to film scenes for a movie on the Carlinville Square. The letter requests the use of the East Side of the Square on Friday, June 23 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. along with 4 or 5 parking spaces and use of the sidewalk.

The second letter came from Summer Repertory Theater President Diane Hardy requesting show banners be placed at the Amtrak station. The banner would go up July 15 and be removed July 30. The Summer Repertory Theater will be doing The Addams Family with shows on the last two weekends in July.

The third correspondence was an Informational Letter from Illinois Dept. of Transportation. The letter was sent to inform the City that IDOT will be working on approximately nine miles of IL-108, from a point 200 feet east of IL-4 on the east side of Carlinville to the Montgomery County line. The project is scheduled to begin sometime this summer and will take approximately three months to complete. The work will include pavement resurfacing, guardrail improvements and other miscellaneous work. At least one lane will remain open to traffic at all time.