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WHAT WE KNOW: Colona is considering either hiring its own employee to run the sewer treatment plant or contracting with the city of Moline to operate the plant.
WHAT'S NEW: In the past week, the sludge press at the treatment facility failed. City officials reached Evoqua, the company that makes the machine, and learned they had no alternative but to fly in someone from Georgia to assess what was wrong at a cost of nearly $7,000. Other companies repaired a pump that was bad on the press and addressed a PLC computer issue, but the city had to research back to the 2005 purchase to learn the company they originally bought from had been bought out by Evoqua.
Mayor Rich Holman noted that the $7,000 price was just to get someone to Colona to see what was wrong with it — the cost of actual repairs and getting someone back to fix it remain in the future. Alderman Amanda Stablein, 1st Ward, asked whether it might make more sense just to replace the sludge press, but Holman said it would probably take a year to replace it and the city has no choice but to fix it.
"We've done what they thought might be wrong with it," he said. "It's still not running correctly." The mayor said the city had been forced to spend what it had spent so far. "I totally get the frustration," he said, adding that he talked to a past mayor who told him based on his experience he thinks Colona is considering the right alternatives.
The council also voted 6-0 to hire Carl Ensley of DAK Water LLC to operate the plant in the interim until a decision is made which way to go in the long term. Ensley is a Moline city employee who has a business on the side and is familiar with the aging Colona plant.
WHAT'S NEXT: The former Masonic building at 630 Green River St. has been sold, but the sale is contingent on the new owner being granted a special-use permit to operate Get a Grip Training, a workout center. The Masons had a special-use permit because the building is zoned residential, and to operate a commercial business there now the owners would need another special-use permit. A hearing on the matter will be held at 6 p.m. May 23 before the next City Council meeting. Aldermen also approved an agreement with Teska Associated totaling $35,000 to get a new tax-increment financing (TIF) district put in place. The new TIF will be from the Dairy Queen on Route 84 to the Rock River bridge. Holman said the cost could come from TIF 3 because the two TIFs were adjacent to each other. The plan will go before the state legislature in the fall for approval.
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