South West Illinois News

City of Waterloo Water and Sewer Committee met Feb. 3.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Members in attendance

Mayor Stan Darter

Alderman Kyle Buettner

Alderman Russ Row

Alderman Gary Most

Alderman Joel Vogt

Alderperson Tina Charron

Alderman Matt Buettner

Alderman Jim Hopkins

Alderman Jim Trantham

Director of Public Works JR Landeck

Deputy Director of Public Works Nathan Krebel

Michelle Childers

Assistant Police Chief Trin Daws

The meeting was called to order at 6pm – Mayor Stan Darter took a moment to read a prepared statement that clarified the quality of the water that was delivered to the City of Waterloo residents at no time had failed a test with the IEPA. Samples had not been submitted to the IEPA in December, but internal tests had been completed daily with no issue and the January test samples came back from the IEPA in January and were excellent.

1. Petitions by Citizens on Non-Agenda Items – Before any Citizens spoke, Mayor Stan Darter clarified to the audience that anyone was allowed to petition on any non-agenda items, but the members of the committee are not allowed to engage in discussions on non-agenda items. This part of the meeting is to allow people to speak directly to the committee, but the petitioners will need to wait until a later time for a response to their specific comments. Alex Bishop came forward to ask the committee why only two out of five of the City of Waterloo’s water qualified employees were suspended with pay that morning. The mayor reminded the petitioner that we are not allowed to discuss those matters at this time. Cole Moore asked the committee why the city knew that the members of his department with certain water licenses were unable to run the plant. Mayor Darter read his statement again that clarified the members of the City of Waterloo’s underground department had not been trained on the water plant and at this time did not know how to properly run the brand new, state-of-the-art water plant. John Miller came forward and told the committee that this was why he retired.

2. Approval of the 11-04-24 Water-Sewer Cmte Mtg. Minutes – Motion made to approve the minutes by Alderman Matt Buettner, Seconded by Alderman Russ Row. All members are in favor. Minutes approved.

3. Approval of the 01-21-25 Water-Sewer Cmte Mtg Minutes – Motion made to approve the minutes by Alderman Russ Row. Alderman Matt Buettner seconded the motion, all members in favor. Minutes approved.

4. Water Plant Update – Director of Public Works JR Landeck reported that a separator for the water softeners had been delivered to the water plant. It would begin being installed on Tuesday 2-4-25. He anticipated the softeners would be working within two weeks but possibly sooner. Each resident would start to receive the softer water based on where they live on the distribution line.

5. Water Main Extension – Director of Public Works JR Landeck told the committee that he had been in touch with Illinois American to buy a section of their water main that is no longer in use currently. The section would start at Waterloo’s current ending point and would go north to the 57 acres the City of Waterloo currently owns.

6. Comments – Director of Public Works JR Landeck took this time to address some social media activity over the weekend that had some residents concerned. On Thursday the City of Waterloo was notified they had not conducted the samples for the month of December for the IEPA. The January samples were immediately collected and delivered to the testing facility. As of Monday 2-3-25, the IEPA website shows that Waterloo has passed all of their tests with the IEPA. The City of Waterloo has NEVER failed a water sample test. The IEPA does not issue violations or fines for missing samples for one month. JR reported that the sample collection situation has been resolved and does not expect that in the future any water samples will be missed. Alderman Joel Vogt expressed his desire to purchase the existing water main from Illinois American all the way to the end of the 57 acres of property that the City of Waterloo currently owns.

Motion to adjourn made by Alderman Jim Hopkins, Seconded by Alderman Russ Row. Meeting adjourned at 6:14pm

https://www.waterloo.il.us/wp-content/uploads/Water-Sewer-Cmte-Mtg-Minutes-02-03-25.pdf