Aldermen in Monmouth last week approved an engineering agreement for an ultraviolet disinfection system at the city’s wastewater treatment facility.
The city has had a disinfection permit exemption in the past for its facility but changes with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency now require a lower level of fecal coliform bacteria allowed in wastewater.
Because of those changes, the city is now mandated to invest in ways to reduce the amount of FC to a much lower limit than the organic process allows and communities are looking into both UV disinfection or chlorine gas disinfection.
City Administrator says that the costs are $180,000 and that money is coming out of the city’s sewer funds.
“We did anticipate it. This was imposed last year so we did budget funds for the engineering design of the system and then there will be funds budgeted to actually pay for the construction of the UV disinfection system.”
Because the state mandated the action without funding sources, Steinbrecher says that ultimately the city’s water and refuse users are footing the bill.
Steinbrecher says that the water coming from the plant will be cleaner than the water in the stream it outflows into.
In other action from Tuesday’s meeting, Aldermen approved a Tax Increment Finance grant request from Flowers Are Us at 123 South 1st Avenue in the Maple City.
Work is to include Parge coating of the entire south side of the building, re-pouring concrete approach, and replacing a lintel above a garage door.
Steinbrecher called it “nice” to see business owners taking advantage of the TIF district to improve the look and appearance of historic buildings and improve the structural integrity of the buildings.
“We continue to preserve and protect the integrity of these historic commercial buildings downtown.”
The total cost of the improvements is $29,290.06 with about $8,787.29 eligible for reimbursement under the TIF program guidelines.
