On Monday night, members of the Imperial City Council spent some money to buy a pair of items for the public works department. The total expenditure for a new street sweeper and a computerized utility meter reading system is US$318,482.57. The net cost of the Elgin Pelican street sweeper in 2022 is US$219,288.82. The original price was US$227,788.82, which was reduced by US$8,500 as the city traded in 2007 units. Public works support Pat Davison said that the equipment that currently has more than 9,700 miles and 2,200 working hours requires extensive and expensive repairs. Since 2013, the city has its current street sweeper. Although the city was offered a lease option, the city council chose to use city street funds to buy directly. Davidson said that the city government did not participate in the bidding for the unit. The city is a member of Sourcewell, and the organization seeks competitive bids from government agencies to get the best bargaining prices from dealers, “rather than the city taking time to bid,” Davidson said. The purchase proposal lists an additional document fee of $250. Davidson said he does not seek the price of second-hand units because they are difficult to buy. He expects to deliver the new street sweeper in February or March. With the approval of the second purchase on Monday, city residents will not see city workers reading meters in the future. Davidson said that board members approved the purchase of an automatic metering system from Core & Main in Omaha at a price of $99,193.75. The system will automatically collect all customers' water and electricity usage in approximately 30 minutes. He said that now, using a handheld reader, the meter reading process takes about two days. He wants to know if he can replace handheld devices in the future. "This is the next step in our new metering system," Davidson added. He pointed out that city workers have installed 1,800 new meters in the city and are waiting for another 112 pallets to be installed. He said that an antenna must be installed on the city's water tower, but all meter readings will be done at the city government office by pressing a button. One issue that board members worry about is the nearly $26,000 annual fee that is part of the Core & Main package. The document stated that the cost will continue to increase by 3% annually. Davidson said the annual fee includes upgrades, new software and cloud storage. He added that the AMI system will be able to display the daily and hourly water and electricity usage of a single customer. The funds used to pay for the system have been budgeted in the hydropower sector. Both the street sweeper and the meter reading system were approved by a 4-0 board vote. Park development costs are questioned. City clerk/chief executive Jo Leyland reviewed some of the costs of the new park development in the Cornerstone property. She said that after receiving drawings of three stadiums and a U12 football field at a meeting of Engineering International last month, these plans have been sent to the city's engineer Miller & Associates for review. She said the M&A engineers found several areas where they thought the cost was underestimated, including venue grading, lighting, and concession booths and toilets. "I really think we will see more money than the park commission estimated," she said.

Chris Miller of Miller & Associates told her that Engineering Internationals estimated that it was short of about $1 million. Leyland said that according to Miller & Associates' estimates, the proposed project provided to the committee last month was estimated at $2.1 million, which is close to $3 million. Leyland said that in order to prepare the tender specifications, Miller & Associates' costs will be between $60,000 and $65,000. Committee member Doug Gaswick stated that in order to “get a higher bid that we knew would be higher,” it would cost a lot of money for the specifications. Davidson was instructed to carry out the maintenance required for the 2022 season at Schroder Park, including fences, lights and telephone poles, and will use part of the $500,000 budgeted in the 2021-22 park budget to pay for it. Among other businesses, the City Council approved Jonathan Klentz to become a volunteer firefighter, agreed to purchase two temperature kiosks for elderly care institutions at a price of US$13,890, canceled US$2,430.90 in unpaid utility accounts, and Continue to discuss code manual updates.

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