Kendall County Times

At the Feb. 27 Village of Montgomery board meeting, the board discussed funding for the new lift station and Lake Michigan transition projects. 

The village had previously reached out to the Kendall County authorities asking for ARPA funding to help fix the water mains and decrease the water loss issues. The county supplied a contract agreement, offering the village $2 million for the project which would directly impact and benefit many county residents and Montgomery water users. This $2 million would come close to covering the full scale of projects identified in Boulder Hill area, which could wind up costing up to $75 million, however this funding will still cover a smaller project.

The board also discussed the plans for the Fairfield lift station improvements and Farm and Fleet lift station improvements. The village received two bid amounts for these projects, and were advised to accept the lower one, which was $316,400, from Marc Kresmery Construction. The village has previously worked with this contractor and is confident in its skills and service quality. 

Village engineer Pete Wallers answered some questions about the project from council members, including how some of the funding was raised from the increased water utility bills, however that increase is also going to water supply projects.

“To the best of my knowledge, we haven't done any substantive repairs on any of these stations, so this would be the first time I'd have to go back to the records to find out when we constructed all these,” Wallers said. “But I mean, the Fairfield station went in at the start of the Fairfield and Cambridge subdivision. So some time ago and obviously the Farm and Fleet went in when Farm and Fleet was built. So they've been in service a long time. They're kind of due for rehab for sure. So, you know, I think we got good service life out of them.”

The council approved these contracts and some other smaller purchases for the public works department.

The board uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the village’s YouTube channel.

The village is actively working toward a Lake Michigan Water supply, so many of the infrastructure funds will start going toward those projects in the coming years. Wallers said that the board would have to start looking at the allocations of some of the funds and revenues more closely in the next year or so.

In other business, the board also discussed paying $406,376.93 in bills.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. on March 27 at the Village Hall at 200 North River St.