No Campton Hills watering ban this summer

Campton Hills residents will get a reprieve on an all-out watering ban this summer because Wasco Sanitary District trustees have rejected bids to rehabilitate the district's 400,000-gallon water tower.

If the project went through this summer, some 1,000 Campton Hills households that are served by the sanitary district would have been banned from watering lawns and bushes, washing cars, using power washers and even small children's pools.

Instead, trustees hope to bid out the project in the fall with an eye on a summer 2016 project - and watering ban then, said Charlie Foulkes, Wasco Sanitary District administrator.

"There's no doubt they're relieved it's not happening this year, but I'm sure they're dreading next year. It's a total ban," Foulkes said. "We feel if we rebid it in the fall, we might get better pricing."

Foulke said trustees evaluated three bids last week.

The district plans to obtain a $550,000 loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, but two of the bids did not meet IEPA standards for the sanitary district to apply for the loan and were rejected, Foulke said.

The final bid came in at $697,550, which was more than $150,000 over budget, he said.

Foulkes said the water tower near Route 64 and Burlington Road was erected in 1996 and needs to be refurbished by painting both the inside and outside.

He said the best time to do it is in the summer because of poor weather conditions in the spring and fall.

"It's much more difficult to paint a tower (in the spring), same with fall," Foulkes said. "It's an extensive project."