The 2010 Storm Sewer Project was displayed to the public at the Minonk City Council meeting Monday night.  Farnsworth engineer Bob Kohlhase explained the route of the new storm sewer line from a blown up map of an aerial view of Minonk pasted on the wall.   Kohlhase said the two reasons for the Storm Sewer Project are (1) to reduce flooding, and (2) to take water out of the sewer system and divert it into the creeks and fields outside the city.

All of the water from the new storm sewer will end up in a 30 inch tile at Eighth and Chestnut.  The water is all gravity flow and has its starting point at West Fourth Street which will contain an 18 inch tile.  The west trunk starts at the corner of Jefferson and West Fourth and runs east to Johnson street while the east trunk starts near Walnut and West Fourth and runs west to Johnson.  A 10 inch tile will run north from a field pond to the Fourth Street tile near Johnson.  This tile is smaller so as not to overload the main storm sewer line.  Kohlhase said a restrictor may have to be put on the 10 inch tile if it eventually does overload the main line. 

From West Fourth and Johnson, the storm sewer will run on the west side of Johnson north to Mill Street at which point the storm sewer will run east to Walnut through the lowest spot in Minonk.  The storm sewer turns north at Walnut and heads towards Eighth and then runs east to the 30 inch tile at Eighth and Chestnut. 

During the public comments segment, Mark VonNordheim said there is a small pond in his back yard near Elm and Third whenever there is a large rain and asked if there is something that can be done to eliminate the pond.  Kohlhase said the the 10 inch storm sewer draining the larger pond west of his property should help reduce the flooding.  Vernon Barth, whose house is north of the field pond, questioned whether the small tile draining the pond will be sufficient to get rid of the pond.  Kohlhase said the pond will be drained adequately and that neighbors should not worry about the pond hanging around for days like in the past.

Kohlhase said the City will need to get easement agreements from the affected property owners through which the storm sewer will run.  He said there is only one tree that may have to be removed which is located near West Fourth and Lincoln.  The total lineal feet of the storm sewer line is about 5000 feet and no brick streets will be impacted by the construction.

The City Council will vote to authorize the advertisement for bids on the storm sewer project at their next meeting on December 6.   Bids should be approved by February which means that construction could start early in March.

To view a map of the proposed storm sewer line, click here.

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Special Use Permit Granted

Snow Removal