Winter Work

Occasionally, I hear people wonder what we are doing when we are not out ripping up roads and fixing streets. So I thought I would try to share with you some of the tasks that we try to work on over the winter months:

PROPERTY:
The city has over 300 parcels of land that need to be monitored, inventoried, and managed. When I first started working for the city back in 1993, there was no listing or map of the properties in which the city held and interest. Since then I have built up a database of all the parcels I have been able to find, but I know there are still a few more out there. Finding the deeds or other documents that transfer this interest is not always easy and can take some time. So I try to spend a few weeks on these activities in the winter to improve our database and work on our city map. Unfortunately each year we get more and more busy leaving less time to work on property issues.

Another task that takes place each January is related to property is the filing of Certificates of Status of Exempt Property. Because the city does not pay real estate tax on the property owned by the city, we are required each year to re-certify that the city is still the owner. The county mails out the forms, I check to make sure we still meet the exemption status. Then I fill out the form, sign, and mail them back to the county. This year we filed certificates for 55 parcels.

FLOODING
This year, we unfortunately are busy working on the documentation related to last year's flooding of our wastewater plant. Mike Furlan, Sam McNeilly, and Andy Bacidore have been spending significant time collecting and documenting the work and related bills, then filling out the FEMA forms, meeting with FEMA, and filing the required paperwork.

STIMULUS BILL PROJECTS
Each Winter we also spend a lot of time surveying and designing projects for the coming year, but this year, we have worked on more than the average number of project designs because of the chance to submit projects for stimulus funding. So far, this is the listing of projects related to water and wastewater and the ones for which we submitted applications to the IEPA:

• Large Water Meter Replacement Project (no construction permit required)
• East side Wastewater Treatment Plant (NPDES Permit IL0078336)
  
• VFD Installation in City Wellfield (no construction permit required)
• Painting of Civic Elevated Tank (no construction permit required)
• Generators at Water Plant & Wellfield (no construction permit required)
• Purchase of a valve insertion/installation machine (no construction permit required)
• Illinois Cement Water Main Extension – Permit No. 1956-FY2005
• Cannon Subdivision - Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Extension – Permit No. 0688-FY2009
• 2008 Route 6 Water Main Extension – (permit not yet applied for – plans near completion)
• North System Water Transmission Line (permit not yet applied for – plans near completion)
• TIF III Sanitary Sewer Extension, Log No. 1942-09
• Campbell Sanitary Sewer Replacement, Log No. 1839-08
• Replace Aeration Bay Bridges (no construction permit required)
• Generators at Wastewater Plant (no construction permit required)
• Renovation of Historic Post Office for City Police Dept
  
• Cannon Subdivision – Sanitary Sewer & Water Main Extension, Log No. 2090-09
  

We have also worked on road projects but found out last month that the way legislators have written the bill, local governments can only use road money on federal aid roads. Only a few of our streets meet this criteria. And the Illinois DOT is not allowing anyone to formally submit anything at this point. We are planning to submit some road repairs and sign replacements, but have not yet done so based on the information we received from the Illinois DOT.


FINAL OUT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
Many people consider a construction project completed once the work is done, and the contractor leaves the site. But for us, there is still a lot of work yet to be done. Winter is usually spent measuring and calculating the amount of work that was completed. Then we have meetings with the contractor to agree on these quantities and compile pay estimates. We call all of these post-construction activities "finaling-out the job." And depending on how large the job was, this work can take a significant amount of time to complete. This year was no different, Mike Furlan and I spent some time working on documentation and paperwork related to last year's jobs, and we still have a lot more work to do.


WRAP-UP
So that is it for my summary of what we have been working on over the winter. In addition to all the above, we still try to address the many problems and issues that come up over the winter related to snow removal, salt acquisition and storage, basic maintenance, and citizen concerns. After all that, I guess we will be looking forward to construction starting!