City renews contract with WIU Geographic Information Services
MACOMB — The city council voted permission Tuesday for City Administrator Dean Torreson and his staff to seek bids for two major water main replacement projects. Torreson said work in the southeastern portion of town could last through September, while work in the northwest should run through mid-August.
The administrator said he would like to see replacement of old cast iron water mains in northwestern Macomb finished by the time students return for fall semester at Western Illinois University. Macomb got a $450,000 federal grant for work in the northwest. The remainder of funds for the $1.1 million project would come from the infrastructure support portion of the city sales tax ($75,000) and the city water fund ($577,000).
Torreson said the debt service portion on city water bills would have to increase from three dollars to five dollars per month for each customer after May 1 in order to replenish the water funds. He said the three dollar per month debt service charge on sewer bills would not be increased this year, but could be increased in a subsequent year if Macomb uses a $3 million Illinois Environmental Protection Agency loan for improvements to the city sewer plant.
In other business, aldermen approved an $18,000 downtown building facade grant for help in putting 23 new windows on the east side of the Masonic Temple at 133 South Randolph Street. The Masonic Lodge has already received two city grants in past years to help replace windows on the building's south and west sides. The new grant would cover two-thirds of the east side window costs.
Council members voted to approve city participation in an intergovernmental agreement with WIU and McDonough County for joint sponsorship of the Geographic Information Systems Center on campus. The agreement has a nine-year life with the city paying $33,000 per year through 2020 when the fee would be renegotiated.
Alderman Dennis Moon said mapping services provided by the GIS Center are "a tool that a lot of communities our size would be unable to establish or undertake." GIS director Chad Sperry said the relationship with the city. the county, and WIU dates back to the 1990s.
Torreson presented a memo to the city council outlining a four-month timetable for producing a 2018-2019 city budget. He asked chairmen of standing city council committees to plan on working on the budget from February 5 through March 7, with a goal of presenting a draft budget for review at the March 26 city council committee of the whole meeting and final work to be done during the first three weeks in April.
Aldermen voted to concur with Mayor Mike Inman's appointment of Lara Dively to the Macomb Historic Preservation Commission. The mayor said Dively would leave her current position on the Macomb Planning Commission to take the new appointment.
The mayor concluded the council meeting by thanking Garrett Kline for his years of service in recording the televised city council and committee meetings. Kline has taken a job with St. Ambrose University in the Quad-Cities.
Reach Patrick Stout by email at pstout@mcdonoughvoice.com.