How will Gurnee pay for $6.5 million water tower?
This spring, the old water tower near Fire Station 1 in Gurnee will be shut off and eventually removed.
The tower, graying with age, is past its prime, has a small capacity and stands in the center of town, where water pressure already is good.
The village is planning to replace it with a new tower with 10 times the capacity and locate it on the west side of town, where water pressure is worse.
On Monday, the trustees began discussing how the village would pay for the project's estimated $6.5 million cost.
Jack Linehan, the assistant to the village administrator, said residents who live west of Almond Road have the lowest water pressure in the village, between 30 and 50 pounds per square inch, compared to the average of 70 to 80 pounds per square inch.
"The further west you go in town, the worse the water pressure is," Linehan said.
If approved by the village board, the new water tower will be built on village-owned land at 1525 Knowles Road, near Rollins Road.
Their funding options include paying $1.5 million or $2.5 million using reserves and then covering the rest with a low-interest loan through the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The IEPA loan, with a fixed interest rate of 1.76 percent, could be paid back over the course of 20 years.
"That interest rate is extremely favorable," Linehan said.
The village board will decide how much money it wants to borrow to fund the project at a later meeting.
According to the village website, if the new water tower project began this summer it would be completed in 2020.
Linehan said residents won't notice a change in water pressure when the aging tower is removed.
"The 200,000-gallon tower has such a minimal impact on our levels," Linehan said. "And the old one is near the lowest elevation in town."
When the old tower is gone, Gurnee's total capacity will be at 6 million gallons, leaving the village without about 1.7 days of water in reserve in the event of an emergency. Capacity would increase to 8 million gallons, about 2.2 days of reserves, when the new tower is finished.