Glen Ellyn, COD reach lift station agreement

Glen Ellyn public works employees now will be able to work on a village-owned sanitary lift station located on College of DuPage property under an agreement approved this week.

The lift station was constructed in the early 1970s on COD property at 580 S. Park Blvd., and while an easement was drafted at the time, it was never executed, village officials said.

COD and Glen Ellyn officials have had discussions about easements over the past seven years, but it wasn’t until this week that the village board and college board both unanimously approved a licensing agreement that grants the village a 20-by-60 foot easement.

It allows village crews to access the site for operation of the lift station and install a standby electric generator while other pumping facilities are upgraded.

Officials say the licensing agreement is an outgrowth of the intergovernmental agreement signed last year by the village, college and DuPage County. That pact ended a protracted legal battle between Glen Ellyn and COD that centered on the degree to which the college was subject to village regulations, particularly over permitting and inspections of COD building projects.

The county now has jurisdictional oversight on the college’s 273-acre Glen Ellyn campus.

The lift station gets wastewater from sanitary sewers that originate near Park Boulevard and Butterfield Road — an area that includes Glenbard South High School and the Arden Courts health care facility.

The agreement stipulates that the village must give COD written notice before it goes on the property. The village also must submit to the college on-site improvement plans — including installation of the electric generator — which are subject to the college’s approval.

The village is responsible for the costs of operating the station.