Sunday, September 09, 2007

CIty approves study on street flooding

Sunday, September 09, 2007 - Posted 7:23:26 PM
The Minonk City Council City Council approved the expenditure of $12,000 to allow the Farnsworth Group to do a study that will validate the optimum and most cost effective approach to alleviate flooding issues in the Locust Street corridor.  Bob Kohlhase, a representative from Farnsworth, gave the council a lengthy explanation on the water drainage issues facing the city and the possible solutions.

Kohlhase stated that Minonk has a combined sewer system that combines rain water with the sanitary system and then goes to the waste water plant. He said that in the 1950’s the combining of sewer systems was stopped and new systems were designed to separate the two systems. The goal is to separate them so that the waste water plant is treating only domestic waste and storm water is continuing on its way in the natural drainage of the community. The intended result is to reduce flooding issues and to reduce the impact on the waste water plant.

Kohlhase said one solution is to drain the water from Locust Street west on Fourth Street to hook into the Oak Street sewer. But he said the real solution is to provide another outlet to get the water out of the city faster. Kohlhase said "We believe that the next step would be to try and go from the 7th and Oak Street manhole and go north and discharge out by Burroughs. This would give you a second outlet for water to get out of the city."

Kohlhase continued that "If you have a second outlet for the town going north, we could do an interim project and just take 4th and Locust Street and run it due west and hook into the 18 inch storm sewer on Oak Street and then you would have a second place for it to go so that you would not be overloading." He said that if the elevation works from 7th and Oak to Burroughs north of town that as time goes on you could do projects from the west. According to Kohlhase, "If you upsize the pipe to 24 inches, you would have the ability to come from the west and tie in as you go north up Chestnut Street."

Mayor Koos said that the city budgeted $34,650 to relieve the flooding problem at the 4th and 5th Street intersections. 

Fencing commercial outdoor patios

The council approved an amendent to Zoning Code 17.15 (Fences and Walls) as follows:

• No fences or walls shall be permitted on the east side of the alley between Chestnut Street and Walnut Street from Fourth Street to Sixth Street with 20 feet of the alley right-of-way.

• Fences will only be allowed in this area for business permitted to have retail consumption of food and/or liquor on their premises.

• Fencing for commercial outdoor patio spaces shall be a minimum of 6 feet in height and a maximum of 8 feet in height and must be constructed of wood, metal or a commercial grade construction material. The top 1/3 must be constructed such that visibility is allowed. Any openings in this portion must be no larger than 2 inches. The bottom 2/3 of the fencing must be of solid material.

• Any fenced commercial patio must include an entrance/exit gate constructed of unobstructed chain link material.

Temporary appointment of zoning officer

The council approved the temporary appointment of Pat McGuane as Zoning Officer until October 15, 2007.

Other business

Roger Gaspardo was elected to the Rec Board chairperson position last week.

The Filger Library new roof project was awarded to Greenland Construction for $6952. $8000 had been budgeted for the job.

Mayor's Comments

• Reported that work on the baseball fields is in progress.

• On the east diamond the clay has been removed and new dirt has been hauled in and the new infield mix should be arriving shortly.

• On the west diamond we will be adding infield mix and high school baseball will be returning to Minonk for this school year.

                        Viewer comments on this article

John Hawk wrote on 9/13/2007 at 07:03:04

Kohlhase said one solution is to drain the water from Locust Street west on Fourth Street to hook into the Oak Street sewer. Isn't this what I suggested over a year ago? In the mean time all my neighbors have been pulling their carpets up and pumping water out of their basements. John.

EAGLE EYE wrote on 9/13/2007 at 06:55:07

The old shingles you see are left on the part of the roof that will not get done that day. I know what they are doing; they are only stripping the part of the roof they can get completed same day in case of rain. The worst thing you could do is leave the roof exposed overnight or worse gets a rain while they are off. The way they are doing it takes longer due to the fact you have to clean up every time you get done and you have to keep all the tools on the roof and walk around them. Thank you to the city of Minonk for keeping the work local (as reported). Thank you to the roofing crew for taking the extra time to do the job correctly. As to the "non Minonk res.", keep stirring the pot, this is good/free advertisement for who ever is doing the work. Anyone know who the contractor is? I will call them when I need something done.

Editor wrote on 9/11/2007 at 19:02:28

No more comments will be accepted on the EMT issue. It has been beaten to death.

Eric Kapraun wrote on 9/11/2007 at 18:00:30

From the angle I was looking at (on the roof for 18 hours over the weekend) i can very safely say that wherever there is a new shingle nailed to the roof, there are no old shingles underneath. Keith and I tore off a good chunk of them ourselves. I have some blisters on my hands from the shingle shovel that should put this matter to bed. And I think Mr. Greenland is doing a fine job.

re: issue wrote on 9/11/2007 at 16:58:07

No issue?? Hmmmm....maybe you should check out the postings from the last council meeting....PLUS Kona Taylor's email last month concerning the unexplained termination of an EMT. Seems like a pretty big issue to me (and many others)!

What Issue wrote on 9/11/2007 at 12:39:08

There is no issue concerning EMT's. The city is trying to hire well rounded, honest, friendly, presentable EMT's they can trust. I hardly call that an issue.

support local EMT's! wrote on 9/11/2007 at 09:04:51

I wonder, does anyone know if the issue with ambulance personnel/hours/dismissals was addressed?

jaime ruestman wrote on 9/11/2007 at 06:58:42

To the person who started this mess with the comments, if you are that concerned about it you should have written your name instead of an alias so you can speak to the person or person's involved to get the correct information instead of assuming or driving by to see if it was done correctly. In my opinion, it sounds like you have too much free time if that's all you have to be worried about then maybe YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT A BID IN FOR THE JOB.

non minonk resident wrote on 9/11/2007 at 06:51:13

To Non Minonk REs:Maybe if you drove by at the right time you would have seen them doing the job correctly. Take it from the people that saw them or helped with the water. If you want i think there are some pictures you can look at if you are that skeptical about it.

Resident wrote on 9/11/2007 at 03:18:37

I am just glad to see they gave the work to someone local.

Keith Lett wrote on 9/10/2007 at 18:36:28

Living across the street from the library I also can say for a fact that the shingles were torn off first hand. I kept there water cooler full of water as well as helped pick up some of the old shingles. It was a hot weekend and those guys were working very hard. I think they have done a great job so far. Keep up the good work. Great job.

Non Minonk REs wrote on 9/10/2007 at 13:08:12

Because if you drive by you can see them shingling over the existing shingles.

Christine Cunningham wrote on 9/10/2007 at 14:50:24

I live across the street from the library and know for a fact that the old shingles were torn off. I could see them working on the roof all weekend and would like to add that they did a great job cleaning up.

non minonk resident wrote on 9/10/2007 at 11:46:28

To new roof: How do you know they didn't tear off the old shingles before placing the new ones on? I think i would have gotten some facts before sending an email. Just a thought.

new roof wrote on 9/10/2007 at 09:23:52

Why didn't the city hire someone to do the library correct, and tear off the old shingles before reshingling?

Former Alderman wrote on 9/10/2007 at 06:51:57

I am wondering why the City is spending yet another $12,000 for a study. They have done this already and know what they have to do to fix this problem. They keep spending money on the research when they should just pick a solution save that money and start the project already...

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