South West Illinois News

City of Waterloo Water & Sewer Committee met Oct. 21.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Members in attendance:

Mayor Stan Darter

Alderman Kyle Buettner

Alderman Russ Row

Alderman Joel Vogt

Alderman Jim Hopkins

Alderman Matt Buettner

Alderman Gary Most

Alderman Jim Trantham

Alderperson Tina Charron

Tim Birk

JR Landeck

Shawn Kennedy

Alex Bishop

Jeff Davis

Nate Krebel

Michelle Childers

John Wieters

1. Petition by Citizens on Non-Agenda items – None. 

2. Approval of 09-03-24 Water-Sewer Committee meeting minutes – Russ Row made a motion to approve the minutes, Jim Hopkins seconded the motion. All in favor, minutes were approved. 

3. Water Plant and Facilities 

A. Overall update – Water Tower is completed and currently being used. Water Transmission line is completed, waiting to be filled with water to pressure test. Wells are completed. The Plant is getting close to operational; the Sand Filters have been filled and on Wednesday 10- 23-24 the goal is to run them and fill up the tower by the water plant then proceed to filling up the transmission line to start the testing. Here is an update on the status of the project in regards to the budget. City of Waterloo Treatment Facilities Update Total Project Budget Amount: $35,329,910.07 Federal ARPA Fund (City): $1.40M Total Loan Amount: $33,929.910.07 Interest Rate/Term: 0.93%/30 Yr Loan Forgiveness: $1.25M Expected Repayment: $32,679,910.07 Annual Loan Payment: $1.25M Total Costs To Date (9/30): $32,654,806.28 Change Orders – Net. (Known): $200,000+/- Contingency: $934,744.81 Contingency Remaining: $750,000+/- Total Project Budget Remaining w/ cont. (9/30): $2,675,103.79. Currently the project is under the approved budget.

B. Korte and Luitjohan Contractors, Inc. Schedule Letter Dated October 8, 2024. A letter was presented to the Committee, at this time the Committee felt compelled to table the letter and look at it again at the next meeting on 10/28/24 at 5:30pm. Alderman Jim Hopkins made the motion to table the letter, Alderman Joel Vogt seconded the motion. All in favor, motion passes. 

C. IEPA Permitting Status – All of the Water Samples results have been coming back extremely positive. Currently it appears as long as there are no unforeseen setbacks the City will gain a permit from the IEPA to provide the City of Waterloo residents water from the plant on 11- 17-24. 

D. Village of Valmeyer Change Order – The City of Waterloo gave the Village of Valmeyer a bid to show what it would cost to hook up the City of Waterloo Plant. The Village of Valmeyer approved that Bid at a council meeting. The City of Waterloo is looking into a few items about what the next step should be and at this moment decided to table this item until more research has been done. Motion to table by Alderman Russ Row and seconded by Alderman Joel Vogt. All in favor, item tabled. 

E. Modifications – Mayor Stan Darter brought up two items, one item is the cost to add a fence to the Water Plant. It was originally in the plans as per engineer John Weiters, he was told by the previous administration to remove the fence. The council was not aware of this change and would like to add a fence to increase security to the water plant. A bid was presented to the Committee at the cost of $39,026.47. There was some minor conversation about the fence. All of it was positive, it was decided to wait until the committee got some more information at that time the committee would vote on the change order. Mayor Stan Darter also brought up a change to the main entrance to the Water Plant. Currently there isn’t a great option for entry by the public. As this is being built by a municipality it seems a better option could be explored. AOP which built the filters and other components has expressed the desire to show the plant to many of their other customers. The Mayor didn’t have quote for the exact price at the time of the meeting and will provide that the next meeting. 

4. Comments – Mayor Darter briefed the committee on the conversations taking place between the City of Waterloo and Sydenstricker Nobbe south of Waterloo. They are building a new facility and approached the city about supplying them water and possibly natural gas. If Sydenstricker Nobbe is responsible for the cost of the infrastructure required to make a connection and there are no ordinances in conflict with such an agreement the committee was favorable to the new connection. More information should be available at the next meeting. 

https://www.waterloo.il.us/wp-content/uploads/Water-Sewer-Cmte-Mtg-Minutes-10-21-24.pdf