The Minonk City Council listened to complaints from a Thomas Street resident about the water damage from last week's epic rain in which water stayed around for a week before it drained away east of Thomas street. Residents in that area spent days pumping water out of their basement. The resident wanted to know if and when the city was going to do something about the water problem in that part of town.
City Administrator Bill Moline said he did not have a definite answer to the water problems in that area other than based on prior fixes to water problems it would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to remedy the situation. Mr. Moline said it will take a study to determine the nature of the fix and the cost.
It was pointed out that there is a sewer line that runs from the Thomas street area east to a creek in a field but it was closed off because it was polluting the creek. It was asked if that line could be used for storm water instead.
Mayor Bill Koos said the city needs to get an easement from each property owner in order to run a new storm sewer tile. He said one reason Thomas street gets so much water is because of the runoff from the Fieldcrest high school parking lot which used to be grass.
In other business the council decided to renew the insurance policy for the city for $60,000 with IMLRMA and decided to postpone the purchase of a new backhoe until more money can be set aside for its purchase.
City Adminstrator Moline gave the following project updates:
- Sand filters at the WWTP were cleaned and the guys are in the process of finishing up hopefully end of this week or early next week. All depends on weather and other projects that pop up.
- WTP - piping should be completed by the end of this week. Painters are prepping now - Shawn and Kaleb will be working on a plan to get the plant fired back up hopefully by the end of next week, hopefully sooner if all goes well.
- Will be getting leaf vacuum equipment ready - rough town wide pick up schedules will be put together this week so we can communicate. Weather and leaves falling will dictate the schedule. Might do a run through town next week to just clean up the Streets.
- Working on liquid salt mixture so that process is ready for the winter.
- Meeting with the local businessmen and women on new ideas or adding to already established events to bring people to Minonk. Currently working on what we can add to the Parade of Lights and events that follow the Parade.