ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC WORKS
Watch Out for the ERTs
Please be careful when mowing or aerating your lawn, and make anyone doing the same to your yard aware of the ERTs. ERTs are the electronic radio transmitters on top of your water meter. These devices are hardy pieces of equipment, but they don’t survive the direct impact of a mower blade or an aerator tine. If you feel your water meter lid and its ERT are in danger of being struck by a sharp metal object, then we suggest you add some soil around your meter area, and be careful not to spear the meter top with anything. Sometimes, in newer homes, the meter lid is quite a bit above the surrounding ground surface. Unfortunately, our workers place those meters at an elevation prescribed by the builder and almost always before the yard is final graded. If there is
insufficient fill placed around the meter, and it is subject to abuse by lawn mowers, please correct that deficiency. A damaged ERT costs about $150 to replace, and homeowners will be billed for the expense.
Seven Hills Road Sidewalk Connection
The culvert is in place and the sidewalk was put in place; however, the compaction of the soil supporting the sidewalk was less than needed. The contractor will be back this spring to correct that deficiency. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Obernuefemann and addressStreetState Street Roundabout
We continue to experience difficulties getting the needed right-of-way (ROW) for this project. Old ROW mapping indicated that sufficient area existed, but after further review, that was not the case. This project will likely not get under way until 2008.
Storm Water Utility
A copy of the Storm Water Advisory Committee’s presentation to Council members is on the City’s Web Page under the Public Works Section’s Stormwater Program (see SWAC Meeting Materials). This presentation outlines the needs and direction provided for the formulation of a utility.
Our contractor has done almost all the analysis of properties within the City in order to determine the user fee, how best to implement that fee, and the ordinance changes required to make the stormwater program its own enterprise fund. However, the State Assembly has passed a bill that could provide for a County utility of sorts based on property tax or sales tax collection. A first glance, such a program in St. Clair County would seem to support the notion that a County utility would be under-funded and would concentrate its efforts on watersheds not in the City of O’Fallon. More to come on this issue.
Water Storage and Pumping Improvements
The site of the one-million gallon elevated water storage tank near the intersection of Simmons and Porter Roads is complicated by old coal mines in the area. An alternate site is being pursued to avoid some hefty foundation costs. The second tank’s site across from Fulton Junior High School on Kyle Road does not have similar problems. We have received no word on a low interest loan from the IEPA for the needed booster pump station in Fairview Heights, but the possibility still exists that it may become available this year. Meanwhile, the design review section of the IEPA water division is well underway, and the Air Force and FAA have concluded that the general location of the towers are not problematic to flight or radar coverage in the area.
Porter/Ogle/Obernuefemann Water Main
With the completion of the water main along the east side of Simmons Road between Fairwood Hills Drive and Porter Road, the City will pursue extending that water line towards Hinchcliffe Elementary and south to Nixon Street along Obernuefemann. This will be the second phase of a main that will eventually tie mains at the intersection of Venita Drive and Highway 50 to Hinchcliffe Elementary School as well as Fairwood Hills. The completion of the total project will allow better and multiple service paths to the customers in the area and throughout O’Fallon.
Lincoln Highway Water Main Upgrade
The water main running along Lincoln Highway from its intersection with Bunkum Road in Fairview Heights to a point about 800 feet to the east is undersized and restricts the amount of water that directly flows towards O’Fallon from that point. By the time this article is read, the contractor who is waiting out the cold weather will have the pipe in place that has been sitting in the snow and cold. Previously, the majority of the water destined for O’Fallon from Illinois-American Water Company’s production plant in East St. Louis had to wind its way through neighborhood water mains in Fairview Heights.
USEPA and IEPA Keep the Pressure Up
The City of O’Fallon, like other operators of sanitary sewer districts, is under tighter environmental controls with each passing year. This spring, we will be given more hoops to jump through as our discharge permit is renewed. And, like the past, we will surpass the designated limits. However, this comes at a price. The perception in Washington, D.C. is that the majority of Americans want cleaner lakes, streams and rivers; so, regulation has been tightened.
The cost of doing this, however, is not borne by the legislators or regulators. It is borne by those who pay for local treatment of wastewater. We await the good news from an environmental standpoint, but it will come without resources to meet the higher treatment standards.
CY07 Road Improvement Program
North Lincoln from south of Jefferson to north of Madison will be re-constructed during school vacation this summer. The following streets will be a part of this summer’s asphalt overlay program:
Sherryl Court
Pheasant Run
Brittany Lane
Arrowhead Lane
Robert
Jennifer Court
Nicole Court
Oak Ridge Court
Kensington Place
Oak Creek Court
Royal Oak Court
CountryOaks Lane
4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Streets between Hilgard and Smiley
Hilgard between 2nd and 4th
Thornbury Place between Chiswick Court and Victoria
Chiswick Court
Victoria from Jordan to the cul-de-sac
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