CRESTON — At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Creston Village Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $4,164 bid from Blood Hound Underground Utility Locators for work on locating service lines as it hopes to alleviate rust issues in the village’s water system. 

The board also considered quotes of $6,000 and $6,600 for the work. Village Engineer Kevin Bunge said the work will involve 15 homes and the work may vary on what it takes to find each service line and its source. Bunge said the work will begin immediately. 

In recent months, trustees have discussed rust issues that some residents have seen and Bunge created a map showing areas seeing the worst rust issues in Creston, and he said he believes those areas coincide with bellies, low spots and old four-inch water mains in the village's water system.

Back in December, the board unanimously approved a proposal from KLM Engineering for $16,836 for the cleaning and inspection of Creston’s water tower in another effort to alleviate rust issues. Bunge said Tuesday that the contractor is waiting on dry and warm enough weather to begin the work. 

Sewer

Bunge said during the meeting that the village will soon be going out for bids for a planned storm sewer project in Creston after it has received 90 percent of easement agreements back from homeowners affected by the project. 

The project will consist of 36-inch storm sewer pipe being put in to replace broken drain tile and improve drainage in Creston. The storm sewer work will consist of adding pipe on both sides of the railroad tracks, but the current phase of it will not go under the tracks. The work was suggested due to issues with stormwater overflow.

The work will likely begin in the spring or summer of 2025. Bunge has estimated in the past that the project could roughly cost $180,000-200,000.

Bunge originally planned to wait to secure all of the easements before the bid process but trustees directed him to move forward with the project due to legal precedent giving Creston the right to do the work. 

“They drop the stuff in the ground and cover the pipe in two weeks.” Bunge said. “And then it’s just restoration. It's not that big of a project. It's a big pipe, but not that big of a project.” 

Library

Village Engineer Aaron Moore said during the meeting that he expects to do a final inspection at the ongoing new Creston-Dement Public Library project in the coming weeks with a move-in day possibly by March 17. 

“The library's coming along,” Moore said. “Last week we did an above-ceiling inspection so they could put the ceiling tiles in, and there's a lot of finish work going on now. I'm anticipating a final inspection soon from the contractor. They haven't called yet for one. I anticipate this week or the following for a final inspection.”

The project broke ground March 15 at the corner of Main and Cederholm Streets. A referendum passed in June 2022 that allowed the Creston-Dement Public Library District to issue $2.2 million in bonds to build a new library building on the land that was donated years ago for just that purpose. The main reason for the desire for a new building is the library outgrowing its current space at 107 S. Main St.

Subdivision

Moore provided another update to trustees on the building of new homes that has been taking place in the Creston Commons subdivision.

Moore said a final inspection will soon take place on the first new build and rough-in inspections were recently seen on the second and third to get started. Two others are in the framing stage. The new homes have all been sized around 1,600 square feet.

Hayden Real Estate closed on the ownership of the subdivision at the end of December 2023. The village has hoped in recent years to see clean up, new homes and a new agreement with the subdivision's ownership. Construction work on the homes is still taking place amid the winter weather.