South Jacksonville residents are a bit closer to having their water service restored. Public Works Superintendent John Green told the Village Board on August 29th that the insurance company had been dragging their feet on completing checks and necessary paperwork to get the water plant back up and running. However, he said that necessary parts for the telemetry unit were in house. “With the water plant, everything is on go with the insurance company. I’ve been staying on top of them. We’ve received quite a few parts this week. We’ll keep looking for a few more and the plant was started on this Tuesday in the afternoon.”
Green told the village board that 70% of the money for the work to be done, which totals around $130,040 would be given to engineers to begin the work on Tuesday next week. The final 30% would be due to them once the work was finished. He told the village that the money was already in the village’s bank accounts from the insurance company and things would be free to move forward.
Green also told the village about a major street resurfacing project coming in the near future on Holiday Lane. “The road is just breaking up. There is no based under it. It’s not sinking but it’s breaking up, crumbling up, and there are big potholes. It’s concrete so we’re going to tear it out and put a base under it and lay asphalt.”
Green says the work will begin this fall once Vas Paving finishes up some other scheduled work. Green also told the board that Dave Brogdon would be entering into a TIF agreement with the village for $6505 to repair the damaged tile on the southwest edge of the village. Brogdon and Glen McKean, both business owners in the area, have experienced drainage issues to their businesses and have offered to do the work to replace the tile to mitigate the issue. The tile was damaged 8 years ago when the village installed sewer lines. Three new tiles of 4 by 450 or roughly 1400 feet will be replaced in that project.
Green said that Godfrey Park’s water toy had closed for the winter but work at the park was just beginning. He said the public works department was beginning beautification at the park for the fall.”We are just going to do some mulch around the perimeter of the fence. There never was anything there so weeds grow through it a lot. We’re going to put a ground cover down, mulch it. That’ll do what it needs to keep the weeds away other than rock. It’ll be all landscaped.”
Green said that a new monument rock will eventually find its way to the park once the board approves it. He said that fall is one of the busiest times for his department because of the ability to get outside, the lack of extreme heat, and the necessity to winterize portions of the village.