Carbon Hill opts for own plant

CARBON HILL — Saying nay to the recent supposed good-neighbor offer by Coal City, the village is eyeing its own, first-ever wastewater treatment plant.

“We’re going to cancel our bids, amend our financing facility plans, and move from there,” Water/Sewer Commissioner Chuck Besenhoffer said during an interview Wednesday.

The decision comes in the wake of a Dec. 30 resolution by the village of Coal City to provide municipal wastewater treatment service for nearby Carbon Hill. The resolution was a best-faith offer by Coal City to allow Carbon Hill to connect to Coal City’s sanitary sewer facility.

The terms in the resolution are valid until Feb. 28.

The resolution provides for permanent and temporary construction easements to connect an 18-inch gravity line to the village of Coal City’s system. The construction would conform to Coal City specifications and become that community’s property.

Carbon Hill would maintain and operate the sanitary service utility within the village, except for the 18-inch gravity line, and repay the tap-on fee for the village’s approximately 152 households in three yearly payments, ending in 2012.

According to earlier estimates, Carbon Hill would pay about $2.3 million to build the infrastructure to transport sewage to the Coal City treatment plant. The tap-on fee would be about $3,100 per home, and the monthly debt service charge about $25.

The discharge would be metered by Coal City for volume.

Carbon Hill Mayor Ed Pacchetti said Coal City’s first offer to the village included a tap-on fee of $508,000, and was to be paid upfront at about $3,200 per household.

“And, no credit for the 18-inch line they wanted to go from Carbon Hill to their wastewater treatment plant,” he said Wednesday.

“Also, a mandatory referendum was to be placed on the November ballot for annexation of Carbon Hill to Coal City, along with use of Coal City’s village engineer to oversee the complete sewer project at Carbon Hill’s expense. Well, that didn’t go.”

Coal City’s second offer to Carbon Hill called for a tap-on fee of $471,000 paid upfront at about $3,100 per household. The offer included crediting Carbon Hill with $133,000 for the 18-inch line.

Pacchetti said if Coal City were to put in the line, the cost would be roughly $250,000.

“The line would become part of Coal City,” he said. “They wanted us to turn the (right-of-way) easement for the line over to them. If we did not agree to their engineering firm, Coal City would require a meter to gauge the flow coming out of Carbon Hill to their wastewater treatment plant.”

The meter and the cost of installation would be at the expense of Carbon Hill, Pachetti noted.

“We don’t need the meter,” he said. “Why should we pay for the meter?”

Besenhoffer said Coal City informed the Carbon Hill Board that Coal City wanted to meter the flow because that village could not check whether sump pumps and storm water drains were dumping into the sewer mains.

“They said they didn’t meter the outflow of their own residents, but that Carbon Hill was special because they can’t come into town to check for themselves,” he said.

Carbon Hill also was to maintain the wastewater piping at its expense, while Coal City would collect about $50,000 annually from the village for supplying the service.

“And, do nothing,” Pacchetti said.

“This would be our sewer – we would maintain it and everything else, but no, that’s not good enough. We’re willing to pay for our sewer (service) what Coal City customers pay for their sewer (service). But no, we have to be metered. That’s not right.”

Which Pacchetti said he thought would be discriminating.

"Their treatment plant was designed and funded with the idea Carbon Hill would someday go into this," he said.

There were also two other subdivisions at the time that it was able to handle and not be over-capacity. Well, those two subdivisions went away from Coal City."

The 18-inch line would not solve a Carbon Hill problem, but is a request by Coal City to solve an issue at a location there where they would like to offload the runoff, Besenhoffer noted.

“We designed the project with a 6-inch gravity main – that’s all Carbon Hill needs. Coal City came to us and said, ‘Could you upsize that to 18 inches?’ So, in our bid, the lowest we got, there is a $133,000 add-on expense for an 18-inch upsize. Our engineer ran the numbers and said this would cost Coal City $250,000, give or take $5,000 or $6,000,” he pointed out.

Carbon Hill offered to put in the 18-inch line if that is what Coal City wanted. However, Carbon Hill wanted to be credited with the $250,000 because Coal City was not doing that part of the job, Besenhoffer said.

“Why the 18-inch line? We’re not aware of all the problems they have in Coal City, but somewhere there’s an overflow issue where they have two pumps and a lift station that are too large to operate at the same time. When they turn them both on, wherever they empty into floods basements,” he said.

Pacchetti said Coal City’s coming out to Carbon Hill’s 18-inch line would alleviate their problem at Carbon Hill’s expense.

“Exactly,” he added.

Many village residents attended the Tuesday, Dec. 29, special meeting of the Carbon Hill Village Board regarding Coal City’s final proposal.

The determination during the meeting was the proposals in the Coal City resolution would increase monthly municipal service costs to Carbon Hill residents at about $70 to $80 per household. This cost would be over and above the regular monthly water bill for each household.

“The motion was made and seconded to reject all the bids, and we decided to proceed with an alternate plan, that being construction of a sand-filter treatment plant within the village of Carbon Hill with significantly lower cost to the residents,” Pacchetti said.

“The residents at the meeting here and at previous meetings were all in agreement with that. They said we cannot afford that extra expense every month. We can’t. There’s just no way. We were elected by you people, and we’re here to do what you want us to do, and that’s what we’re going to do.”