A meeting to discuss the city’s water and sewer system didn’t really happen this morning as the vote to go into executive session failed by a vote of 5-3.

    All members of the Watseka City Council were present at today’s meeting, which was called to discuss “the operation by a municipality of a municipal utility”, according to the agenda posted.

    There were six members of the public present.

    Mayor John Allhands opened the meeting, saying that no decisions can be made in closed session. He said the meeting was to look at options for operating the system. He noted that three members of the council, Rob Hoffman, Bev Foster and Brandon Barragree, were not aldermen when the discussion about the water and sewer system was had before.

    Currently, the system is managed by E.R.H. Enterprises and that contract is up in May of 2020.

    Allhands said should the council decide to make a change that whole process would have to be done in open session, including having public hearings.

    He told the public the council chambers would be left open for them as the council would adjourn to a separate conference room in city hall. He said the closed portion of the meeting could last from 45 minutes to two hours.

     He said after the closed session, the council would re-convene. “I’ll say ‘no action taken’,  and then we’ll get a motion to adjourn,” he said.

    Allhands said, too, that sometimes getting information from social media doesn’t get a person the right information. He asked that people contact their aldermen or himself to get correct information.

    He took 10 minutes of public comment, though in the end there was just one person who chose to comment.

    Resident Scott Anderson said he was one of the people who posted on social media about the meeting at it’s perceived purpose.

    He said part of that confusion stemmed from a telephone call he made to city hall after learning about the meeting. He said he asked if it was a meeting “regarding the sale of our water system to Aqua Illinois. The person who answered the phone that day did say ‘yes’. That did throw things into a lot of confusion.

    “It was just a simple question answered in a simple way….I know that did generate a lot of confusion based on that strictly. I have faith in my members that are up there that I voted in. I’m fairly certain that yeah this has to take place in an organized fashion. It can’t just be a blindsided vote and the like, but at the same time, I felt like I was misled by city hall, just by making a simple phone call. And if that was because of misinformation, I understand that, and I would hope the board would echo that, and if that was the case then this is the forum we need to take in order to clarify for our residents what happened.

    And I will make it a point to update people on how I believe I was misled. I also want to let people know that I believe this is the forum that it should take. If people in the city have questions of what our council and our mayor are doing this is the forum. We need to show up. We need to ask questions and we need to get the answers, and I know, again, I have faith in everybody that’s up there and everybody would take that stand and would give us the answers that we need. I wouldn’t expect anybody to blindside anybody.”

    Allhands said the issue will be addressed with the part-time person who was in the office the day he called.

    Allhands then asked for more public comment, of which there was none. He then asked for a roll call to go into executive session.

    Those voting to not go into executive session were Alderwoman Monna Ulfers, Alderwoman Bev Foster, Alderman Brandon Barragree, Alderman Dennis Cahoe and Alderman Mark Garfield.

    “Your motion did not pass to go in to executive session,” said Clerk Amanda Hibbs.

    “It appears we had a meeting I didn’t know about,” Hoffman said. “I make a motion to adjourn then.” The council then did adjourn.

    After the meeting, Garfield said he voted to not go into executive session for one simple reason. “I think this should all be done in open session.”

    Allhands said after the meeting that the meeting was to educate everyone about where the city is at with regard to the water and sewer system and to talk about contracts.

    He said talking about an existing contract and contract negotiations would be like talking about personnel matters.  He reiterated that the decisions would be made in open session.

    He also provided a work sheet that explains the maintenance that needs to be done to the system, which amounts to almost $10 million.

    Those items total $9,857,000 and include:

    — 18,780 feet of sanitary sewers that need to be lined now, $1,025,000

    — Cable line storm sewer, $1,500,000

    — Ernest Grove storm sewer, $500,000

    — 36 hydrants needed for 400 foot separation, $432,000

    — repair or replace well six, $750,000

    — repair Mulberry lift station, $200,000

    — northwest section of city sewer separation, $2,000,000

    — other areas of city sewer separation, $1,000,000

    — Hwy 24 north on Kay Street sewer separation, $1,000,000

    — Ten-year unplanned repairs, $1,000,000

    The sheet also says:

    — still need future sanitary sewer lining needs

    — need ten-year water main replacement estimate

    — need estimate on how many homes do not have shutoff and cost to fix

    — need estimate to fix choke points in water system

    — with inability to have wells on west side of town due to arsenic, should water tower be relocated at some point?

    — need treatment plant anticipated ten-year upgrades and repairs.