Harrisburg to pursue $2 million water main replacement

HARRISBURG - A long-overdue water main replacement project is on tap for the city of Harrisburg, after the council voted to Thursday to move ahead with the $2 million project.

City Engineer Jim Brown spoke to council regarding a meeting he had in 2014 along with then-Mayor Dale Fowler, Water and Sewer Supervisor Kelly Hefner and Finance Commissioner Richard Harper concerning areas in the city where water mains needed updated.

Some areas still have original cast iron water main lines, and those water mains need replaced, Brown has said. Thursday night, he presented council with maps of areas in the city with old water mains in need of replacement.

"We identified the areas in front of you as requiring a lot of maintenance, a lot of time and man-hours and as having a low flow from fire hydrants," Brown said.

There are two areas Brown indicated. The first is the entirety of Hobson Street, which begins a block south of Taylor Field, and extends south to Barnett Street. One block of Barnett Street is included in the area designated as needing to be rehabbed.

The other area is larger, starting at the south end of Roosevelt Street, which terminates at Sullivan Street. Then, the area extends between South Granger and South Main streets and includes Robinson Street as its southern end and Sloan Street as its northern end.

Brown said a few weeks ago, Hefner spoke to him again about the possibility of proceeding with the renovation. Brown said after speaking with Harper, the city is in a good financial position to go ahead with the project.

"Right now, we can get a good loan rate, about 1.3 percent, 1.32 percent, with IEPA," Brown said. "And in some instances, there is loan forgiveness, dependent on the low income of the area, which you may be eligible for. If the mayor and city council wants to proceed with the project, we're at a point where we can go ahead."

Harper said also the city has paid off a infrastructure improvement loan for a sewer project and may be able to commit that money now to a water main replacement loan.

Brown said he could not guarantee that the project and subsequent loan will be approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, when asked by Councilwoman Beth Montfort, but that chances are good.

Council voted 5-0 to pursue the project.

Also, at the meeting, Montfort gave a report from the state regarding the amount of money generated from gaming machines within the city.

More than $9.2 million went into gaming machines within the city in 2017, according to the report Montfort presented. The city's portion of those revenues was $130,497.19.

She also noted that according to the state, more than half a billion went into gaming machines throughout the state in the month of December. The amount of money received by the state for that was about $28 million, according to the report.

"That $28 million is just the state's share," Montfort said. "It's hard to imagine why the state of Illinois is broke."

Commissioners also praised Street and Alley Superintendent Rick Brown and his crew for quickly clearing streets of snow and ice when bad weather broke a week ago. Councilman Mike Weirauch said Brown and his crew worked more than 36 hours straight to clear streets, including roads through the city's cemeteries. Mayor John McPeek also praised Street and Alley along with all other city departments for their efforts to mitigate the effects of ice, snow and polar temperatures.