City purchases pumps for water and sewer plant

By Editor | December 20, 2023 |

By Carmen Ensinger

Christmas is the time for giving and in Carrollton’s case, city is gifting both the sewer and water plant with a new Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) after the current ones failed at both facilities.
Public Works Director Steve Rosentreter said that a couple days after the last city council meeting one of the two VFD’s at the sewer plant went down.
“There are two of them so they alternate running back and forth to save wear and tear on the drives,” Rosentreter said. “We had a backup and installed it, but we need to replace that backup.”
Rosentreter said he got bids from two different places and there was quite a bit of difference in the amount from those two places.
The lowest bid for the 60 horse-power motor was from Illinois Electric Works in the amount of $6,881 for the drive and set-up. The council approved the purchase.
Then, just a week ago, Rosentreter said the same thing happened at the water treatment plant on an even bigger motor. This was a 75 horse-power motor on a high service pump.
“We got bids again from Illinois Electric Works again,” Rosentreter said. “But this will only be good for a year and a half until we have our new water treatment up and running.”
Rosentreter asked if they could rebuild the current on.
“They said they couldn’t because it is obsolete so I said how about a refurbished one and they said they don’t have the kind we need since it is kind of specific to the horsepower and volts,” he said. “So, the only option we have is to get another one.”
Rosentreter said he thought about seeing if they could use the new motor in the soon to be built water treatment plant but then realized that the old plant is 230 volts and the new water treatment plant will be running on 460 volts so that wouldn’t work either.
“So, if we don’t get another one and we go down, unless someone has a lot of buckets, we will be in trouble,” he said. “The only good news is they said whenever we go to switch over to the other plant they would entertain taking back the VFD and giving us a small credit on future purchases. We really don’t have a choice.”
The council approved the purchase and installation at a cost of $13,897.
Rosentreter also asked for a low-level alarm for the water plant.
“This is a low-level float that if the water tank gets down to eight foot it will set off an alarm and let us know we are getting low,” he said. “It is just something that happened during the rebuild – we have no way of knowing right now how much water is left in the tank and this would alert us when it got down to eight foot.”
The council approved the purchase of the low-level alarm in the amount of $1,360.
No vote was needed by the council, but the city will move forward in the coming year with performance reviews on department heads before annual raises are given.
“We talked about this in the first quarter of this calendar year,” Personnel Chairman Larry Gillingham said. “This presents some objectivity to a highly subjective position. It should be done if any salary adjustments are coming.”
These reviews, which will be performed on the Police Chief, Treasurer and Director of Public Works, will be completed by the Mayor within the first three months of the new year. Then, the Personnel Committee will look at the review and make a recommendation on raises which it will then present to the council before the end of June. The fiscal year ends in April.
Ed Hindelang, who owns Mary Michelle Winery, has asked the city to obtain a utility permit to run an irrigation (sewer) line under Rt. 67 for a future development he has planned for the property he owns in that area surrounding the winery.
“He has asked us to acquire this permit because an individual can’t apply for a permit to go under a state highway,” Carrollton Mayor Mike Snyder said. “We would apply for it if we were in agreement with his plans. He has the right of way already acquired through there if the development goes up. Right now, he just wants to know if he has the council’s support.”
The council, for the most part, said they were behind him developing the land, but wanted to see more specifics on what he has planned for the area.
Alderman Gillingham said he would suggest the city having a Planning and Zoning Committee become active and do some preliminary work in this area as well.
“It is time to look at broader issues to keep our young people here,” he said. “I would like to see some activity in that area and work with Benton and Associates to possibly get some grants and do some serious planning for the future.”
Wisper Internet came to the city with a proposal to advertise on the back of the city’s water bills.
“They are going to put internet through here and they want to advertise on the back of our water bills for anywhere from three to six months,” Rosentreter said. “In return for this advertisement, we could work out an agreement of some sort whereby they would pay all six months of our postage on the water bills or all the printing cost for six months or even free internet. They said they will work with us if you allow them to do this.”
Treasurer Diane Hendricks said it costs the city approximately $500 a month in postage to send out the water bills and approximately $100 a month to have them printed. The city signed a three-year agreement with Sparklight internet, so the free internet wouldn’t really benefit the city. The city agreed to talk it over and make a decision at the next council meeting.