The Monmouth City Council this week approved an engineering agreement for a planned upgrade of the city's water infrastructure that circumvents the Public Square. Water mains that feed the businesses on the square are over 100-years-old and are too small and don't supply adequate pressure for buildings to have a fire sprinkler system installed. City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher says that a Request for Qualifications was made from six different firms with two responding. Woodard and Curran was chosen because of their familiarity with the city's infrastructure. "It was clear, based on their history and familiarity with our water system, that I recommended that we continue to use Woodard and Curran for our water engineering needs and they concurred," said Steinbrecher in a Tuesday interview. He says the city is paying for the work with $1.2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. "When we got that allocation we decided that we needed to replace the water
The City of Monmouth will be seeing some delays to a planned major roadwork project that was aimed at fixing roads and sidewalks through several city streets. Public Works Director Andy Jackson informed the City Council on Tuesday that the Illinois Department of Transportation was declaring the maintenance of the streets to be a road construction project, which requires more review. City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher told WGIL on Wednesday that the hope is that approvals come in this fall so work can get started this year. "Given the delays that we're seeing from all of the state agencies on these grants, we're prepared to accept the fact that we may not be able to get the project started until next spring." Some other roadwork projects are moving forward. The Council approved the Western Illinois Regional Council in administering a Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grant for the replacement of a water main on West Harlem Avenue. Steinbrecher told th
The State of Illinois announced this week that the City of Monmouth would receive $3 Million as part of the Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Streets Capital Program. 50 communities, also including Galesburg, Kewanee, and Aledo were awarded a portion of $106 Million towards projects to revitalize commercial corridors and main streets throughout the state. The grants support projects that will revitalize commercial hubs, beautify and modernize downtowns, address critical infrastructure needs, boost jobs and improve the quality of life for residents. Monmouth City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher tells WGIL that the city pursuing grant funding to assist with the re-beautification efforts of the city's public square, a project that has been in the works for several years. "This is our third application and finally we were successful. But I got to tell you, this will be a generational, legacy project. This will clearly transform the appearance of downtown Monmouth. It's focu
Aldermen in the City of Monmouth this week approved a feasibility study that will delve deep into converting methane gas from Smithfield Foods into a renewable energy source that could be marketed and sold. A similar study from Woodard and Curran was done in 2017 says City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher, and found then that it was not viable for Smithfield and no additional action was taken. "The market has changed significantly over the past five years," City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher told WGIL on Wednesday. "Particularly with the price of natural gas now, Smithfield asked us to do another feasibility study to see if the market now. With the tax credits and the cost of natural gas, would it now be financially feasible to attract investors to make this a marketable resource?" The City Council on Tuesday approved an update to the study at a cost of about $14,900 which will determine the available tax credits, market potential, and more says Steinbrecher. "H