The Mt. Carmel City Council met in special session yesterday afternoon to hold two public hearings to facilitate improvements to the city infrastructure. The first hearing was a requirement for the city to borrow more than $1.3 million from the Illinois EPA to pay for proposed construction at the wastewater plant. City Clerk Rudy Witsman said the need for the work is important as they are out of compliance with the I-EPA….

Witsman said the work will start after the first of the year and will be completed in February of 2019.

The second project dealt with the reissuance of a $150,000 bond to purchase public safety equipment. Witsman explained the bond is renewed every 5 years and finance commissioner Joe Judge said $100,000 will go to the fire department while $50,000 is earmarked for the police department. According to Judge, 5 years ago…the street department received $100,000 with the police department getting $50,000. He said the rotation of the funds allows each department to receive a total of $100,000 every ten years.