Village approves $8M contract for wastewater plant upgrades

Channahon’s wastewater treatment plant will be getting some upgrades over the next few months after the village board approved an $8 million contract with low-bidder Whittaker Construction and Excavating for the job.

The expansion will double the capacity of the system from 0.73 million gallons to 1.4 million gallons a day, Public Works Director Ed Dolezal said. Use of the system has increased as population and new commercial and industrial connections have grown since the last plant expansion about 15 years ago.

The upgrades will also add sludge handling capabilities to the plan.

Channahon pays contractors to remove the sludge four times a year, Dolezal said. The project also adds a phosphorous-removal system, which Dolezal said is now an Environmental Protection Agency requirement. The village’s wastewater treatment plant expansion is contingent on IEPA approval.

A low-interest IEPA loan will pay for the project.

Channahon trustees this week also approved the village’s new budget, with revenues of $42.045 million and expenditures of $42.981 million.

“We are operating in the black,” Village President Missey Moorman Schumacher said. “Which is a good place to be.”

Included in the budget is a general fund reserve of more than $200,000. Finance Director Heather Wagonblott said Channahon’s revenue is growing, and the village has not had to raise property tax rates or institute new taxes on residents.

Included in the budget are funds for the new position of public works foreman and replacements for two police patrolmen, an engineering technician, a laborer and a part-time planner.

The budget also includes the contractual salary increases of 2.75% for union and non-union employees.

Capital projects for this year are the wastewater treatment plant expansion project, continuation of the Dove Drive infrastructure project and work on the Bridge Street Multi-Use Path. The budget also includes provisions for land acquisition for an additional wastewater treatment plant at the western end of town.

The village also budgeted for two police squad cars, a vehicle for the building inspector, a bucket truck, a dump truck equipped for snow removal and squad car cameras.

The Channahon Village Board this week also approved the hiring of Sarah Miller as a patrol officer. The hire fills one of two vacant spots in the police department. Miller graduated from the University of St. Francis with degrees in social work and criminal justice. She served as a Joliet Police Explorer and interned at the Romeoville Police Department.