Council Ponders Return of City Court, Wastewater Issues

The Monticello City Council covered a lot of topics in their called meeting last Thursday evening, including re-instating the Municipal Court, and agreed to initiate a “perk” test on property at Mine Lake for possible land use application of wastewater.

Council also heard from Brett Hanes with Falcon Design, a full service engineering firm, who is interested in helping the city handle code enforcement, update impact fees, and other code compliance issues.

They received a report on the Fiscal Year 2021 draft audit, and learned that FY22 should be ready by the end of the year. That would leave FY23 to be done, and the city would be in compliance and able to apply for more grants.

The auditor said the audit gave an unmodified opinion and that there were six findings, which is down from the previous year when there were nine. He did say the water & sewer department and the gas department were not in a good place and they are not collecting enough funds. Electric is saving the day he said. He also said Blockstream was a good source of revenue.

Carter and Sloope just finished its report on Thursday. It said that the city currently operates two water pollution control plants, Pearson Creek and White Oak Creek. The report said that while the processes can meet the current permit limits, there are challenges with operation resulting from deferred maintenance and deteriorating equipment. The challenges with adequately treating wastewater will likely eventually lead to permit violations.

So they offered three solutions. The first one is to upgrade both water pollution control plants. The estimated cost for that is $11-12 million. That cost does not include necessary additional personnel. The second option is to consolidate the two WPCPs which would cost about $14 to $15.5 million. Lastly, the city has the option to convert to land application. The primary restiruction to that is the availability of land. However, since the city owns Mine Lake property, part of it could be used for the land application. The estimated cost of that is $16-17 million, however if the treatment facilities are first consolidated, the project cost is reduced to $14-15 million.

In other action at the meeting, council members offered names to the City Manager to serve on the Revolving Loan Fund Committee. Council also agreed to pay Bates and Carter invoices.

At the end of the meeting, they went into closed session to discuss personnel.