West Dundee to acquire land for new lift station

Acquiring property along the Fox River is the first step in West Dundee's long-term plan to upgrade its downtown utility services.

The village board on Monday unanimously approved purchasing a roughly half-acre site at 89 Liberty St. for $64,000. Plans call for demolishing a vacant garage and constructing a new lift station that will service downtown West Dundee and about 75 percent of the village's Old Town area, Village Manager Joe Cavallaro said.

The land is part of a larger residential property that had been vacant and in foreclosure for years, Cavallaro said. It recently became available and was purchased by a new owner with whom village staff members have been working to subdivide the parcels and reach a sale agreement, he said.

The new lift station likely would be built within the next five years, replacing similar utility infrastructure on the north side of Liberty Street, Cavallaro said. The existing lift station doesn't have a backup generator, meaning it has to constantly be monitored during storms or high river levels.

"We'd like to put all lift station improvements under roof in a structure and secondly provide for emergency backup power," Cavallaro said. The current site isn't large enough to accommodate such upgrades.

West Dundee intends to close on the property by the end of January, documents show.

Depending on how the lift station is configured, the village could later decide to sell any unused portion of the land, Cavallaro said. Village officials expect there to be sufficient acreage left for a potential residential use.

A total cost estimate for the lift station project is unknown, he said, noting engineering work still needs to be completed.

"We know there's a long-term need," Cavallaro said, "so property acquisition was a logical first step."