There’s differing views among members of the Watseka City Council about the future of the city’s water works. And the natter could come to a head at the regular meeting of the City Council in a couple weeks.

Discussion during the Public Works committee meeting Tuesday evening got a little testy. Select members of the Council were not in favor of moving forward with an appraisal of the current water system to determine just what the future may hold.

Mayor John Allhands said he believes an appraisal would do everyone good. "An appraisal doesn't mean sell. I think we need to make the best educated decision we can and th at's where the appraisal would lead us," Allhands said.

Last night, Public Works Director Marvin DeLahr presented info about an evaluation to see just what the city has with its present water system. That would carry a cost of about $25,000.
Another option is to allow the Robinson Engineering Company to bring the operation back in-house and have the city work with an assigned expert to learn what it would take to have the city handle the water/sewer works.

That move would carry an approximate cost of $78,000.
Allhands says he believes an appraisal is what the citizens agreed to when a public hearing was held ........

The sewer system life span may be limited to where the expenses would be greater than anyone would want to tackle.
The city has a little more than a year left on a contract with ERH Enterprises.

The mayor said an educated decision would be best. He said we already have an estimated $10-million in updates to get to today’s standards. And he says we may be looking at rate increases close to what Aqua Illinois talked about earlier.

The Council meets in regular session at 7 pm October 23.

94.1 WGFA