City Hires Firm For Groundwater Study

By Gordon HopkinsThe Little Blue Valley Water Systems’ (LBVWS) Water Sourcing Project remains controversial, despite attempts by the LBVWS to assure landowners the project will not impact local irrigation wells.To that end, the Fairbury City Council approved the hiring of Leonard Rice Engineers, Inc., Water Consultation Services, to create a groundwater model to determine impacts to any nearby wells.A series of test wells were drilled in the Daykin area. Miller & Associates Consulting Engineers PC, an engineering firm that operates in Nebraska and Kansas, prepared a full report on the results. All five wells tested less than the goal of three ppm for nitrates. It was decided by LBVWS to find a different engineering firm to do the modelling to ensure independent results. The Fairbury City Council met on Tuesday, May 17. Project Manager Mary Renn explained, “This model was discussed at a previous council meeting. The idea was to gather additional information, the possibility of hiring another engineer. LBVWS for Little Blue NRD (Natural Resources District) did go out to bid for that. There was one engineering service that could provide that analytical model for us in addition to Miller & Associates. That’s Leonard Rice Engineering. The proposal’s for $35,000 and they’ll prepare an analytical model which will give us some additional information, say 20-to-50-year timeline impact on that geographical area.” Renn said, “One of the questions that did arise at the NRD meeting on May 10 was whether or not the city would move forward with the proposal. If the city chose at this time not to move forward with the proposal, the project would probably be considered a dead project.”The council voted unanimously to move forward.LBVWSThe purpose of the Water Sourcing Project is to locate a new, lower-nitrate water source for both the Little Blue NRD (Natural Resources District) and the City of Fairbury. In July, 2021, the city entered into an inter-local agreement with Little Blue NRD to cost share in a project to identify a new water source with nitrates ranging in the 0-3ppm (parts per million), under the LBVWS entity. There are four board members in that entity, two of them representing the City of Fairbury, and two of them representing Little Blue NRD. Those board members are: Scott Nelson, General Manager – Little Blue NRD; Kevin Orvis, Project Manager – Little Blue NRD; Robert Messbarger, City Administrator, City of Fairbury; Erin Reimer, City Clerk, City of Fairbury.Robert Messbarger recently announced his resignation as City Administrator effective July 22, 2022. It is not known at this time who will replace him on the board.The LBVWS met on Tuesday, May 24, at the city offices. Renn described this meeting as “only organizational in nature.” The board voted for the positions of Chairman (Scott Nelson), Vice Chairman (Kevin Orvis) and Secretary/Treasurer (Erin Reimer).The city office at 612 D Street in Fairbury was established at the physical address for correspondence and future meetings.Also discussed at the meeting was a “Public Notice Posting” policy. Messbarger said, “Typically what we do is we post at the courthouse, at our city offices, and then the post office as well as online.”Not mentioned was the submitting of agendas, minutes and notice of future meetings to the newspaper. FJN emailed Nelson and asked about that and also asked when the next meeting would take place. As of press time, he had not responded.Several landowners were I attendance. However, public comments were not listed on the agenda. One landowner, David Endorf, requested to be placed on the agenda but that request was denied. Nelson did give Endorff the opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting, but that did not last long.“I appreciate the opportunity to speak. First of all, is as far as I’m concerned, you have just violated the Open Meetings law because you have not officially given us me a chance to speak within this meeting,” said Endorf. “If you want me to go quote it to you, I can.”“No. I would say consult with your attorney. We consult with ours, and with that, we’re done,” said Nelson. “We have legal advice that we are following and with that this meeting is adjourned.”Nelson reached out to FJN after the meeting via email, “According to our attorney and State Statute 84-1412, public bodies are not required to take public comments at every meeting, but the public is free to provide their written comments to board members at any time. We received written comments from David Endorf yesterday and my intent after the meeting was to allow him to verbally share his comments with our board and the public. When he accused our board of violating the Open Public Meetings Act, I decided to conclude the meeting.”Nelson indicated there would be opportunities in the future for public commentFJN also spoke to Endorf after the meeting. He said that several landowners have formed a group, Jefferson County Water Right Coalition,” and have engaged an attorney.In a letter to the LBVWS, the coalition wrote, “As farmers and residents who live in this area, we have a deep understanding of the limits of our local water resources, learned from decades spent living on and working the land. We will be highly impacted by the proposed high-capacity well field, and the many reasons we oppose the project will be outlined below. However, we can also see that this proposed project is an extremely expensive, short-term bandage for a long-term problem. This is a bad deal for Fairbury, LBNRD taxpayers, and water users who will pay higher fees for their water - without solving the quality problem.”Owner of the Proposed Well SiteA prospective location for the new wells has been identified approximately four miles south of Daykin. A series of test wells were drilled and the water obtained from those wells tested. The route of the pipeline to feed the water to Fairbury would be about 14 miles.That property belongs to William (Bill) Glenn, Vice-Chairman of the Little Blue NRD board.One landowner, Susan Thomas wrote in a letter, “We are concerned that there has been a lack of transparency throughout this project regarding the apparent conflict of interest and private financial gain to be made by an elected official, Mr. Bill Glenn.”FJN has reviewed the minutes of Little Blue NRD board meetings when the Water Sourcing Project was discussed. William Glenn voted “Yes” on April 13, 2021, to approve the interlocal agreement with the City of Fairbury. This would have been before his property was selected as the location for the wells. Glenn abstained when the board voted on land acquisition on October 12 and November 9, 2021. FJN has not learned that any conflict of interest has taken place.If the project moves forward, LBVWS would need to secure the land rights from Glenn. At the City Council meeting, Renn presented a new groundwater agreement and said, “This is a revised groundwater agreement. The original agreement was signed a couple months ago. And this revision now indicates that the landowner is going to grant access to the land rights on the property at no cost.”

Memorial Day 2022

Sheriffs Report/Real Estate 6.1

Related Articles

Former City Administrator Received Unexplained Payment After Departure

Power Plant Continues To Cost City

PowerSchool Offers Free Identity Protection To Those Impacted By Data Breach

Knox County Sues NIRMA Over Wind Farm Lawsuit