Post Messenger Recorder -

The Monticello Village board met on Wednesday, January 16, 2019. All board members were present. During the Public Appearance section, Bart Nies of Delta 3 Engineering spoke to the board about the need for Waste Water Treatment plant upgrades/phosphorous. The village will need to satisfy State Regulations by March 21, 2022. In order to meet that deadline, decisions need to be made as soon as possible.

Nies reported that a number of pilot studies had been performed, but there was no single solution to get the village to the .075 phosphorus level that is required. Alum; Sorbix - now called Re-300; Disc Filter system; Clearas - algae forming system that ended up being too high in capital costs and too low in revenue base.

Nies told the board that Delta 3 has come up with five options A - E.

Each option had three components.

1. Biological Phosphorus Removal - create anaerobic tank (no aeration) and an oxic tank (very little air) prior to the oxidation ditch (has air in it) which will eliminate phosphorus, ammonia and nitrogen molecules so you use less chemicals which saves on operational and maintenance costs. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in the fenced area at the sewer plant to add the tanks. The map showed the additional space the village would need to purchase. Even then, this system alone is not able to reduce the phosphorus level down to .075.

2. Alum Treatment - the village currently uses this and it does help to get the level down some.

3. Water Quality Trading - NRCS Streambank and irrigation ditch erosion estimator - this is used to preliminary calculate how many feet of stream at what heights of banks on the streams to see how many credits are traded for phosphorus. Improvements are done to the streams to eliminate the phosphorus getting into the creeks prior to getting to the sewer plant. One of the best credits is to rip rap or stabilize stream banks. The soil doesn’t erode when you get high rains/water level. Board agreed to only rip rap the property the village owns; however, this isn’t enough feet, need roughly 16,000 feet. It would be necessary to have trading partners to meet the requirement. This works well if everyone can agree on a plan and this estimate is based on the village paying 100% of the costs. Need to check the rip rap but minimal maintenance needed annually. Nies added that there are other ways to get credits for Water Quality Trading including increasing street sweeping to keep debris out of the streams and WWTP; increasing maintenance at the lake; providing rain barrels to residents to help them irrigate their lawns. He noted that the stream rip rap is where the highest credits are received.

Option A - Put tanks in at the sewer plant, minimize Alum use, and rip rap some streams. This option has a negative Operation and Maintenance expense due to the ability to tum down the pumps, it will use less electricity and less chemicals.

Option B - Put tanks in at the sewer plant, use RE-300 chemical, the advantage with this option is that less chemicals are used and there is less steam bank work. However, the cost of the RE-300 is that it is very expensive.

Option C - No tanks, buy more RE-300 treatment and Water Quality Trading.

Option D - Put tanks in, and no Water Quality Trading, Biological Phosphorus Removal and RE-300 treatment.

Option E - Ultrafiltration - more precise and expensive filter than the disc filtration system. No Water Quality Trading, still adding Alum, and adding a filter down the stream. Nies noted this was actually his least favorite of the five options because you have more mechanical moving parts, higher Operation and Maintenance expense, and he said that he doesn’t feel it’s the best option for the community.

When the board discussed the original eight priorities for the sewer plant, they allocated $912,500 for filtration system to remove phosphorus. All the options are close to this estimate. Nies along with the Public Works Department recommended Option A. The village will need to revise the facility plan and be sent to the DNR immediately. Plans and specs will need approval by the end of the year. Nies said bidding for the project should be done early in 2020 with start date by end of 2020. Nies reminded the board that a decision would need to be made as soon as possible. After discussion, the board approved Option A.

Village President Tere Dunlap informed the board that at the end of 2018 it appeared that the village had made a profit and asked the board for those funds be used to pay off of the refuse truck. This will save interest and get back some borrowing limit. She also told them that she felt that after the refuse truck is paid off, the loan payment should be put in an outlay fund for a truck in the future. The board approved a motion to put the profit into paying off the truck.

The board approved Sharon Ackerman for the part-time Administrative Assistant position at $14.00/hour up to 1,000 hours annually pending drug test and finger printing.

In the Fire Board report, Trustee Leaora Miller reported that the Dept. of Revenue levied a fee of $396 on the Fire District. She said she was looking into why. She also noted that the new truck is almost complete and should be in service in a couple of weeks. Miller reported that the Fire Department had purchased extrication tools and that Chief Komprood had built an air-drying system for boots/clothing.

Trustee April Fuhr resigned, and Don Schneider agreed to fill her vacated seat. The board accepted Fuhr’s resignation and thanked her for her service and approved the appointment of Schneider.