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Monmouth pursing $5M state grant for water infrastructure

The Maple City is pursuing a $5M competitive grant from the State of Illinois to expand its water infrastructure.

On Monday, Aldermen in Monmouth approved a motion to hold a special meeting and public hearing on June 22 as part of the application requirements for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Rebuild Illinois Public Infrastructure Program.

The money would be used to expand the municipal water system, including the drilling of a new production well, building a water treatment plant, and constructing a new elevated water storage tower to increase the water system’s output by 1.2 million gallons a day.

Lew Steinbrecher, City Administrator for Monmouth, tells WGIL that the new well and treatment plant will almost exclusively go to a planned modernization and expansion of Smithfield Foods meat processing plant on the city’s north side but may help other ventures indirectly.

“It might alleviate some of the pressure off of the existing system and so that the existing system would be better positioned to supply water to other indirect commercial development or housing development in the community. It will definitely take some of the pressure off of the existing water system throughout the town.”

In addition to the special meeting being scheduled, Aldermen also approved several items related to watermain work at East Euclid.

The watermain along Euclid has been plagued over the last year by breaks causing shutdowns at places like Smithfield, which leads to huge production losses.

The City Council approved a bid from Laverdiere Construction for $382,150 for the watermain work. In addition, the city passed a resolution to utilize local motor fuel tax revenue for street resurfacing of the affected streets.

Steinbrecher says that East Euclid Avenue from 1st to 6th Street will be completely resurfaced as part of the project.

Also approved Monday was a request to close the northwest quadrant of the public square to accommodate an outdoor opening of the new Patton Block Grill and Brew Pub. The request is to close that section of the square for outdoor dining in two time slots and offering small group tours.

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