The Kewanee mayor broke some news over the weekend revealing to his 2,300 followers of his official Facebook page that the issue of privatization of the water and sewer systems is off the table.
The City Council will reject a bid from Illinois American Water to purchase Kewanee’s water and sewer systems, Mayor Gary Moore announced in a Facebook post.
Moore said that the council “will NOT be voting to privatize water.”
The council will vote on a resolution hiring Bock Inc. to operate the wastewater treatment plant and the city’s two reverse-osmosis water treatment plants for another five years. That resolution makes no reference to selling the water and sewer systems.
Bock has been operating those plants for years, and its contract for the work expired in 2023. The city gave the company a one-year extension, which expires this spring.
When the city advertised for bids on operating the plants, they included language allowing companies to bid on purchase the city’s water sewer system outright.
The purchaser would be buying not just the treatment plants, but the water towers, the water and sewer mains and all the equipment the uses to maintain the system.
The council would no longer have any say in how the systems are run — or in any rate increases the new owner might impose.
At the time, Moore said that the legal advertisement was strictly “exploratory” and didn’t commit the city to selling the water and sewer systems.
The bid advertisement said the city reserved the right to reject any bids.
In his Facebook post, Moore noted that Kewaneeans have expressed opposition to the sale. He wrote that the council “have listened to our constituents.”
Here’s the full text of Moore’s post:
“I want everyone to be aware, we will be having a vote at Monday’s council meeting that involves our waste water treatment and our RO system. This in no way is a vote to sell any of our water distribution. This vote will involve the continuation of the system as it is currently run.
“The only possible change could be the company that runs the system.
“The city does, and will continue to own our water system. We have listened to our constituents and will NOT be voting to privatize water. Also, information that I was able to gather leads me to believe privatization of our water system would not be in the city’s best interest.”
