City officials want to find out if it would be feasible — or even possible — to sell the city’s water and sewer systems to a private corporation.
Bids are to be opened at 4 p.m. Friday, March 14, for a contractor to operate the city’s wastewater treatment plant and its two reverse-osmosis water treatment plans for the next five years.
That’s routine business. Mayor Gary Moore pointed out that Bock Inc. has operated the three plants under previous contracts. The latest contract expired last year but Bock has continued to operate the plants under a one-year contract extension.
A legal advertisement seeking bids for running the treatment plants, however, added: “In compliance with state statutes. . .alternate proposals for the purchase of the (treatment plants), including easements, together with all personal property currently utilized by the City of Kewanee in connection with the operation of its water treatment facility and collection system and sanitary sewer treatment and collection system are invited.”
Moore said this means that if there is an acceptable bid for that second portion of the bid announcement, the city would turn over complete operation of the city’s water and sewer systems to a private concern.
That means the company would run the treatment plants and make any necessary repairs or upgrades in them, and do work now done by city crews — repairing water or sewer main breaks, maintaining the wells and fire hydrants and so on. The bidder would bear any expense for this work.
The City Council hasn’t made any commitment to sell its water and sewer system if a suitable bidder comes forward. “It’s 100 percent exploratory at this point,” Moore said.
The advertisement for bids points this out: “The city reserves the right to reject any and all proposals, to waive technical defects in the proposals and to select the proposal deemed most advantageous to the city,” the advertisement says.
At this point, city officials just want to find out if there is any interest on the part of a private corporation to take over Kewanee’s water and sewer operations, the mayor said.
Moore said if a private firm takes over the water and sewer operations, it could head off two expensive projects facing the city: Reducing chloride levels in the city water system and replacing lead water-service lines to homes and businesses in the city. Costs of those projects would be borne by the company operating the water and sewer systems.
The private operator would also have to comply with all state and federal environmental regulations, and pay for any violations of those regulations.
Last year the council hired LRS Waste Management Services to collect garbage and recyclables, but the four city employees who handled that job were assigned to other public-works tasks, and no one lost their job.
“Every effort” would be made to preserve the jobs of city workers who now work on water and sewer operations if those operations are sold, the mayor said.
A key reason for making the change, if it happens, would be that the city could save a great deal of money.
“If we sell the water and sewer departments, we could save enough money to fix every street in Kewanee,” Moore said.
