FREEBURG — At their meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8, Freeburg trustees approved BlackRoads Group to crack-seal village streets for $8,426 and seal the streets for $21,581.30. The following village streets are slated for work: East Gilbert, East Oliver, South Chestnut, County Road #636, County Road #634, East Walker Street, West Harrison Street, and North Pine Street. The village had set aside $40,000 in the budget for street sealing and $50,000 for new asphalt.

“I’d like to leave that there for next year,” said Utilities Supervisor Doug Hamacher, referring to the amount budgeted for new asphalt. “I can fix some of the little stuff with patch seal and maybe keep that until next year, and add it together for a bigger project.”

Mayor Darryl Haller agreed, noting that he did not think there were any big problems that would need to be addressed this year.

Hamacher said the project could be completed towards the end of September.

In other business, the trustees approved $2,295 for Verslues Construction to put a French drain above the basketball court in the village park and tie them into the existing line.

“We always seem to have water between the hill and the basketball courts,” Haller explained. “We had a pretty big rain two weeks ago and there was mud all over the tennis courts.”

* Trustees approved repairs to the sewer pump behind Quaker Windows to include a 60-foot piece for pipe and clamps.

“Doug was on vacation and we had a little problem,” Haller said. “We had a leak that we had fixed before, and it broke right past that break. It is fixed temporarily, but we need to replace the whole 60-foot section.”

Repairs will be completed soon.

* Haller explained that the next steps in the sewer project will be to finalize the loan at the October meeting. The mayor also noted that the slab has been a topic of discussion and that it will need to be fixed.

“I wouldn’t mind having someone down there to dig it out a little bit,” Haller said. “What’s happened is over the years it’s just filled in. We have to get the water flowing under the slab again.”

Haller said that it would be cheaper to have someone local work on the project than having the construction company working on the sewer project bill the village with a change order.

* Freeburg’s trash service contract with Republic Services is due for renewal on Dec. 31. The village currently pays $12.96 per trash cart for trash service. The contract was negotiated five years ago, and the trustees are expecting a significant jump in price.

Haller said that he would invite the Republic Services Representative to the next meeting to discuss a new contract.

* The village will reach out to Feeler Tree Service for an estimate to remove several dead trees within the village limits.

* Trustee Jamie Kaesik hopes to find a village resident that has been awarded a Purple Heart to be present when Freeburg is officially declared a Purple Heart Village.

“I don’ t know if there is anyone that lives in the city limits that has a Purple Heart,” Haller said.

Kaesik will reach out to Paul Backes and see if he knows anyone.

* Trustees approved the following outstanding expenses: general revenue ($5,464.53), sewer ($1,896.30), and water ($4,316.76).

* Freeburg had the following ending account balances: purchasing ($467.35), sewer checking ($15,148.03), general revenue checking ($19,417.01), sewer money market ($453,522.99), general revenue money market ($553,696.90), wastewater project ($60,035.22), water revenue ($18,159.86), water replacement ($328.05), and water money market ($1,082,981.36).

* The village had a 3% water loss for the month of July after pumping 1,386,243 gallons of water and billing for 1,335,600 gallons.

* A special meeting will be held on Monday, Sept. 21, at 6:30 p.m. for the sewer project, and the next regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 8, at 6 p.m.