ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC WORKS
Elm/Orchard Area Mine Subsidence Repairs
The work needed to correct the 1999 subsidence in the neighborhood that affected water, sewer and roads has been awarded, and the $460,000 construction project should be under way in the March/April time frame.
Obernuefemann and State Street Roundabout
This project remains on track, having cleared all IDOT review hurdles. If things remain on track, the $400,000+ project should be awarded by IDOT to the low bidder in September.
State Street Overlay
The $338,000 project has been awarded by IDOT, and construction from Obernuefemann Road to Carson Street should be underway in the March/April time frame.
Simmons Road Reconstruction
The bids for reconstruction of the roadway from Fairwood Hills Road to Kyle Road have been awarded by IDOT. The cost of this improvement will be in excess of $800,000. All right-of-way issues are resolved.
North Lincoln Avenue Reconstruction
This $400,000+ project from Washington to Jefferson Streets should start at the end of the 2005-2006 school year and be complete around the time school begins in the fall.
2006 Pavement Overlay Program
The following streets are on the list (subject to alteration due to the wildly fluctuating cost of asphalt and fuel): Maces Grove, Cherry (north of White Oak), White Oak Drive, Madison (west of Lincoln), Wesley (west of Lincoln), Monroe Circle, Howland Court, Adams (west of Lincoln), Cedar, Shallowbrook, Wildwood (west of Smiley), Deer Run, Brandonwood, Jamie Lane, Joshua, Quail Run, Ramblewood, Greentrail, Somerset, Woodlake, Phillip Court, Shadowridge (from Wesley to Dustin), Venita (from Frontage Road to RR tracks), and 7th Street (from Lincoln to Parkview).
Storm Water Advisory Committee (SWAC)
The committee’s recommendations were presented to the Public Works Committee in a special meeting on January 26, 2006. The recommendations are:
· The current program of $250,000 from Prop S for capital improvements and $185,000 from the General Fund needs an additional $765,000 boost to fund a significant program
· A storm water program in O’Fallon should not rely on revenue reallocation from other City programs to cover all its costs
· A user fee for storm water maintenance and improvement needs to be established while retaining or increasing Prop S funding for capital construction. In addition, part of the General Fund expenditures for the storm water program should possibly be retained.
A copy of the advisory committee’s presentation to Council members is on the City’s Web Page under the Engineering & Public Works Section’s Storm Water Program (see SWAC Meeting Materials).
The next step is an analysis of properties within the City in order to determine the user fee, how best to implement the fee, and the ordinance changes required to make the storm water program its own enterprise fund. The new fund would be on parity with the existing City water and wastewater utilities. That analysis or analyses will take approximately nine months.
The Battlefield, Public Works, and Electronic Age
A fellow in the mud trying to repair a sewer problem doesn’t conjure up the vision of global positioning system (GPS) and communication satellites in synchronous orbit around the earth, but O’Fallon relies on those technologies every day to improve utility service to the area and get employees to the location where their efforts are needed. A local contractor just completed locating the 4,197 valves, 2,016 fire hydrants, and 16,000+ meters that are connected to the 258 miles of water line in the City’s water system. A similar program for our sanitary sewer and storm water systems will also be completed. GPS, developed to reduce chaos on the battlefield for the military, has become an indispensable tool for Public Works waging its battle to reduce the chaos
involved in trying to operate and maintain public infrastructure.
Through communication satellites and the internet, problems with sewage lift stations are relayed to our Sewer Crew. Some problems can even be solved on the desk top computer. If a human touch is needed at the lift station, the monitoring system logs in the mechanic who responds and keeps a record of the actions occurring in real time. Even the call to our Street Crew when the snow flies is internet based. While O’Fallon doesn’t do it yet, many cities track their snow equipment via GPS.
Two firms, Gateway Geospatial and Burns & McDonnell have been a huge help in helping us to adapt this technology to meet our needs. In particular, Jeremy Bixby, a Gateway employee who has worked daily for the past eight months with our Public Works personnel has been “the man.” He and Dan Gentry, our Public Works Division Manager, have put O’Fallon way out in front of any city in Illinois. Unfortunately for us, Jeremy has been accepted at Rice University to pursue a Ph.D. We wish him good luck in his very bright future.
Water and Sewer Rate Increases 
On January 25, 2006, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) informed the City that certain aspects of its water system were in violation of state statutes. Specifically, the amount of water storage was deficient by 1.5 million gallons and the existing pumping station at French Village (western edge of Fairview Heights) was insufficient in pumping capacity as well as deficient in emergency power backup to meet current requirements. In addition, the scheduling of line flushing to ensure chlorination levels was inadequate, and the City needed to enforce more rigorously its backflow prevention program (i.e, the annual inspection of lawn sprinkling systems and other potential systems that might contaminate the drinking water supply). The cost of compliance for these
deficiencies is in the vicinity of five million dollars, and facility upgrades must be in place within the next year.
Preceding the inspection of the water system, the IEPA inspectors informed the City on May 24, 2005 that its wastewater system needed attention. Fortunately, the City already had investigations underway into many of the concerns cited, and the initial indications were that needed repairs were going to be costly. With the passage of the summer and fall, our fears were only confirmed by additional investigations.
The sanitary sewer trunk mains running down the middle of the Engle and Rock Spring Creek watersheds are nearing 40 years old and have seen little maintenance. Deteriorating manholes and faults in pipe joints are allowing increasing amounts of ground and rain water into the trunk mains, putting stress on our wastewater treatment facility. Many of the mains in the older parts of town are in similar condition. The cost of improvement in sewer lines is in the vicinity of six to ten million over the next 10 years. Meanwhile, there are also items at the wastewater treatment plant that will need to be addressed due to age.
After reading about the numerous repairs and upgrades that our water and sewer systems need, you may be wondering how we can financially make all these capital improvements given our current (before April 1st) fee structure. The answer is that our fee structure was not sufficient to generate the amount of dollars needed now, or in the future. To make certain that we have enough monies to make the current improvements as well as future ones, it was necessary to increase water and sewer user fees. On April 1st, an average family of four, who uses around 6,000 gallons of water a month, will see their water bill increase from $19.14 to $22.97 per month. The same family will see their sewer bill increase from $24.51 to $28.19 per month. The total monthly increase for an average
family will be $7.51.
You may be wondering why we can’t simply use other City funds to pay for these improvements. Our water and sewer operations are funded by monies that are housed in Enterprise Funds. User fees supply the revenue for these funds and those revenues pay the expenses. Illinois State statute prohibits us from using tax money to fund our enterprise funds. While no one wants to pay higher user fees, increasing the fees was our only option in meeting the IEPA mandates.
Gardening with Water Quality in Mind
As cities and suburbs grow, our natural landscape is replaced with more hard surfaces and with landscapes that shed water faster than it can be absorbed. According to the EPA, 70% of pollution in our streams and lakes comes from storm water run-off. When it rains (or snow melts in winter), water courses down gutters, along roads and driveways and across yards before ending in storm drains or culverts and eventually streams. Along the way, it gathers fertilizers, pesticides, oil residue and many chemicals from businesses and our own households.
Rain gardens can improve local water quality while creating a beautiful natural area that will attract birds and butterflies. Rain gardens allow rain and snow melt to seep naturally into the ground. This helps recharge our groundwater supply, and prevents a water quality problem called polluted runoff. Rain gardens are an important way to make our cities more attractive places to live while building urban ecological health.
In addition, rain gardens reduce the need for mowing. Lawn mowing contributes greatly to the ozone problem. Engines are inefficient at reducing pollution. In fact, using a gasoline-powered lawn mower for one hour generates the same amount of air pollution as driving a car for 40 hours. A gasoline-powered weed eater operated for one hour is even worse as it generates pollution equivalent to driving a car for 60 hours.
What is a rain garden? A rain garden is a shallow basin or depression planted with native plants. The native plants have deep roots that allow water to infiltrate into the soil. If rain gardens collect water, don’t they encourage mosquitoes? Rain gardens are mosquito death traps. Why? While the water stands, mosquitoes lay their eggs. The water drains before the eggs mature into larvae, drying them out and destroying them. Rain gardens are popular with our neighbors to the north, such as in Minnesota (where they don’t have mosquitoes—they have torpedoes with wings!).
Be sure to visit the Engineering and Public Works Department at www.ofallon.org/publicworks and click on Storm water, then the Web Resources link to find additional information on creating a rain garden.
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