Council green‑lights underground works; Spicer engineer reports on 2025 water projects

The Village of Saint Charles Council approved contracting steps for underground work and received a monthly update from the village's engineering consultant, Spicer Group.

At the start of the meeting a Spicer representative briefed the council on multiple water projects. The engineer said the firm recommends awarding the TMF‑side contract to MEC Underground Solutions, the low bidder. Spicer told council the bids came in well below grant estimates, so staff hopes to use remaining funds to add verification work and physically confirm the materials on service lines the village suspects may contain lead or galvanized piping.

"We're kind of well under the grant amount. We're gonna look to add some additional work, additional services for them to dig up and verify the materials on," the Spicer representative said. He said the additional work could raise confidence in the inventory from about "98%" to roughly "99.9% that we'll have seen and put our eyes on every potentially lead or galvanized service in the whole village."

Spicer also said the village has received required "eagle" permits (noted in the project packet) for a 2025 water system improvement project, and staff will continue work on the Rural Development (RD) application and tree‑removal advertisement for the project. The engineer reported ongoing work on the Safe Routes to School project and said the TAP (Transportation Alternatives Program) quarterly report was submitted; the TAP‑funded pedestrian project remains on a longer federal schedule and is currently slated for fall 2026 in materials discussed at the meeting.

Separately the council approved a contract described on the agenda as a hydro‑excavation award. Meeting discussion treated the hydro‑excavation approval as part of the TMF/underground work contracting; the agenda and engineering report identified MEC Underground Solutions as the recommended low bidder for related excavation tasks. The council approved the contract by voice vote.

Council did not read a single dollar figure into the public record during the engineering update; staff said more cost detail is available in the bid and contract documents included in the packet.

The engineering update also previewed an advertisement the village will publish to solicit bids for tree removal related to the 2025 work and noted staff would verify sidewalks and other work areas as part of Safe Routes to School right‑of‑way reviews, including consultation steps with indigenous/historic‑preservation stakeholders as required by federal and state grant procedures.