A water treatment plant that treats the organic waste stream produced from Smithfield Foods before entering Monmouth’s primary treatment facility continues to get upgrades.
On Monday, aldermen in the Maple City approved an amendment to the engineering agreement that will allow for remote monitoring and control different aspects of the plant.
City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher says that the amendment will allow the engineering firm overseeing the upgrade to design and send the work to bid.
“We were just simply entering into this amendment to allow our engineering firm to do the design work and take that work out to bid and it is part of that 10.5 million dollar upgrade,” Steinbrecher told WGIL on Tuesday. “So, it’s just the last [component to that project.]”
The change also includes a lagoon cover and flare replacement as well as all applicable permits through the Bureau of Air.
Steinbrecher says the city owns and operates this additional treatment plant but Smithfield Foods is paying for the upkeep and upgrade.
In other action, aldermen in the Maple City denied a grocery store’s bid to operate video gambling terminals in-store.
Neiman Foods, who owns County Market in Monmouth, was not awarded a class one liquor license by the city. The class 1 license would allow for the on-site sale and consumption of alcohol and is required for video gaming.
County Market has video gaming in multiple other locations and found it to be marketable for their clients.
Despite the city seeing tax revenue from it, Steinbrecher says that the city council felt that there were enough bars in town that had video gaming, and relied on revenues from it.
“Plus, the fact [that there is a feeling] among the elected officials the gaming parlors are something they do not want to encourage here in Monmouth. And that, more or less, is what this would become.”
Neiman Foods was required to apply for a change to their existing license class since they already sell packaged liquor.
