Fairbury City Superintendent Brett Ashburn updated members of the Fairbury Rotary Club on the state of the city Tuesday afternoon.
He said the focus is on infrastructure and the city’s water plant.
“We have stuff in the ground that’s over 100 years old,” Ashburn noted.
The city is preparing to upgrade the 1928 water plant building, as the city has great water and wants that to continue. Even with droughts, the city has plenty of water in its aquafer with lime-softened groundwater. Fairbury has seven wells.
“Hopefully, we won’t have to do anything that involves raising rates.”
According to Ashburn, they are looking to rehab the facility where they don’t have to go out and find a secondary water source. Plans call for more efficient ways to feed chemicals from a computer standpoint and upgrading the inside infrastructure.
Ashburn said they are always looking at newer technology and ways to save money with soaring electricity rates and other costs. They are tasked with keeping an inventory of what is in the ground. Fairbury’s water department has five full-time employees and six part-time employees.
Work is done on the new sewer plant, although lines are being upgraded throughout the community. A new system has been purchased which helps with GPS mapping.
Ashburn spoke about the fiber optic company workers in town working to install lines in the ground. They are almost done with the initial phase of the project then another crew will come in to do more work.
The new garbage and recycling program is up and running in town and Ashburn addressed glass. He said there were no plans for glass due to the costs involved from separating it and doing something with it.
