Burdick Secures Bid for Water Drainage Work in Cerro Gordo

By CHRISTY JANKOWSKI
Staff Writer

As previously discussed, Cerro Gordo has multiple water projects underway concerning drainage issues. The village board presented two quotes for work off of Madison and Franklin. One from Burdick Plumbing and the other from S&S construction. While Burdick’s is higher at a cost of $11,200 and S&S was $5,355, Burdick gave more information detailing the work so the board approved Burdick.

Village Trustee Beth Medlen stated, “This is a starting bid and there would be more things they would get into once they uncovered this and that.

Whereas Birdick already had so much previous knowledge so they knew what they were going to expect.” She added, “I think that was probably the greatest discrepancy as far as cost.”

Village President Tim Allen added, “Well even Birdick’s bid we don’t know what we are going to get into because that intersection is quite a mess.” While the word bid was thrown around the number is not over the $25,000 threshold for the work which would prompt the board to have to go out for technical bids. The numbers are merely quotes. Nor does the board have to go with the lowest number.

Allen also added, “S&S was pretty open up front, they knew there was going to be more to it

Trustee Jeff Powers asked Medlen, “Does the homeowner on that corner know it is not going to fix their problem?” She replied, “Oh, absolutely.”

The work being done will be replacing broken tiles in the intersection.

In other water related news, Engineer Tom Overmyer, chatted with the board about updates to the IEPA loan for the upcoming water project. The water committee met the previous week and while they have a map of areas to work, they may cut some due to the amount they receive from bids. The goal is to have the plans completed registered with IEPA by the end of March.

Overmyer added that they did touch briefly on the current water rate. “Felt current rate structure is sufficient to support this project. However we did recommend the committee making small increases over time. Primary reason your current rate structure looks so good is you have a nice cushion in your water fund.”

Multiple permits and forms were also approved to move forward with water projects. An easement was approved for Jeff Price for $200. An ordinance authorizing loan agreement for public water supply loan programs was approved. The RailRoad permit and the RailRoad payment of $12,500 was approved. The IEPA tax certificate, and Engineer eligibility checklist were also approved.

There were four water adjustments approved: Witts- $205.98- 119.22, Daly $366.38- 236.75, Hoehan $161.97-59.03, Sheets $355.75- 228.64.

It was discussed to possibly take action on not allowing rental(s) of the Cerro Gordo Civic Center if the citizen was behind on their water bill. Allen stated, “For simplicity sake you keep the two separate. It was brought to my attention and I see the point.”

Jeff Powers commented, “I don’t know how much good it would do. If they are set on renting the civic center you know, they’ll have their brother or neighbor rent it that is current on their bill.”

It was decided to take no action and let the two remain separate.

The village office will more than likely switch their computer software for water billing and the general ledger with Quickbooks. The main reason, efficiency. And, the cost is less than their current provider, ACS. Village Clerk Tina McCarty commented, “The new process will connect directly, talk directly, and update directly. It will also be user friendly for the water. They will talk directly to each other, download quickly. It will just be more efficient.” The cost of the new system is estimated to be $2,500. The current one costs $3,000/year.

After executive session fire hydrants were discussed with the Cerro Gordo Fire Chief, Delbert Powell. One malfunctioned during a recent fire. Once the parts are in Allen states it will be fixed.