The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Plans Continue On Water Tower In Stronghurst

By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor

Steve Haring and Abby Cramer from MSA Engineering firm of the Quad City were present at the Village of Stronghurst board meeting Monday, August 3rd, with an update on where they were with plans for the new water tower.

Haring told the board the cost would be an estimated $1.25 million, but would not know an actual cost until the bids were let. The amount already paid MSA would include final engineering designs and preparing the bidding documents.

Haring said they needed to meet with Ronnie Gittings, Gary Root and any other trustees interested, sometime this month to go over the final details of treatment plant modifications, communications systems, and any other water system items they might want to include so the final design could be drawn up and brought for board approval in September.

Haring said the conservative estimated time lines include putting the bids out in January-February, with construction to start in May 2016.

Haring also said the board needed to decide how much time an MSA representative should be on hand during construction to oversee that things were done according to the specifications. They could have someone there daily, which the board felt was a good idea.

The board stated they would only need a few days to process the loan from the bank, which will be for a 10 year period at 2.5% interest rate.

Paul Schroeder thanked the village for the gravel placed at his mail box and also inquired why the potholes were not filled in the village. He was told there just had not been enough time to fill them. Schroeder also asked that a hole be filled at the end of his sidewalk that his mower wheel kept falling into and it was hard for an 89 year old man to get the mower out. The hole will be filled with dirt.

Yvonne Knapp, said Aug. 31st there will be a Community Vision meeting held at 7 p.m. at the Stronghurst fire station to put together a final document on community improvement projects which will be brought to the board on September 8th.

Knapp also said she is now a trustee for the Village of Raritan and shared some of the ideas they had to make Raritan a safer place and slow down the speeders through the village. The village is interested in possibly sharing Stronghurst's police department and she bought a copy of the contract Lomax-Dallas City share.

Brendan Schaley said the police are interested and the sub committee is interested in working with them and he will attend their next board meeting which will be held on August 13, at 7:00 p.m. Amanda Kane thought she would be able to attend the meeting as well.

Ronnie Gittings said they will hold off deciding what to do about retesting for Radium until he can get some cost estimates, since they are having no problems with it. They will be getting the cross walks at the school painted; both generators are up and running; and they will be putting in the water line to the spray park.

The Stronghurst Booster Club is looking at re-sodding around the spray park once it is completed.

In other business the board:

• Had no police report
• Gittings and Alan Ferguson will get together and decide which streets will be resurfaced this year, probably Nichols, Maple, part of Elizabeth. Cost of resurfacing runs approximately $11,000/mile.
• Heard 3 loads of patch at $300 per load has been put on the streets so far this summer.
• Gittings will get estimates for curb guttering on the other side of the street down at the school to alleviate the water problem.
• Received a letter from EPA regarding renewal of contract. This will be taken care of next month
• Held a lengthy discussion on what needs to be in a policy on drug testing before having employees sign a waiver. Amanda Kane volunteered to look into other city's policies and bring back some policy ideas at the September meeting.
• Discussed John Evan's property that has grown up in weeds, which violates a village ordinance. He will be sent a letter.
• Heard from Gittings his main priority is water and sewer before the streets and filling potholes. He also explained to the board that his two employees were not filling the potholes because he had them with him teaching them hands on about the water and sewer plant problems that arise.
• Mike Bohnenkamp mentioned noticing how high the cell phone bill was for last month. There were 400 text messages at 25 cents each on it. He suggested they look at the plan and maybe have unlimited text messaging. The cell is used by employee Bryan Bohnenkamp and Gittings will talk with him to make sure he knows the phone is for business purposes only.
• Announced City Wide Clean Up Day will be October 9th.
• Jim Spiker said he had talked to a person that was parking across the sidewalk and he said he would not do that anymore.
• Mayor Gary Root told Gittings if he couldn't get to the spraying of sidewalks, he would be glad to do it in the evening. Gitting said he would have some mixture at the city hall for Root.

Present: Mayor Gary Root; Trustees, Brendan Schaley, Mike Bohnenkamp, Amanda Kane, Betty Waterman, Jim Spiker, David Vancil; Employees, Lou Ann Nortrup, Ronnie Gittings, Attorney Bill Rasmussen; Guests, Paul Schroeder, Steve Haring, Abby Cramer, Yvonne Knapp, and Shirley Linder.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m., until Tuesday, September 8th, at 7:00 p.m. at city hall.