WEST ALEXANDRIA – Village officials celebrated the opening of West Alexandria’s new wastewater treatment plant with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a tour of the facility on Saturday, July 17.
“Thank you for coming out this morning,” Mayor Jeff Hickey welcomed those in attendance. “I know this is not the most illustrious ribbon cutting in the world, but this is quite an improvement for West Alexandria, and a long time coming.
“I want to thank Adam Beneke, Jim Hans, Cliff Scott and Rodney Rehmert for all the extra hours they’ve put in for the last, going on two years,” he continued. “A big thanks to prior council, and all the new council members who have pushed on this to get this accomplished, he added. “It’s a great day for us to have a much-needed project and it’s going to serve us for years.”
“It all started with us being basically told by the EPA that we were going to have to move forward with a new sewer plant,” Hickey said following the ribbon cutting.
The land on which the new plant sits was acquired from a neighboring farmer. After acquiring financing, the project took nearly four years, Hickey said, but it came in “under budget, under timeline.”
“It was a safe project, [and] as far as I know there were no injuries on the job site,” he added. “There were a few hiccups like you normally have with any project this size, but overall, it was a very clean project and so far the village is very satisfied with the outcome.”
The new plant will allow for growth in West Alexandria.
“With our old sewer plant, we were at 100 percent capacity,” Hickey said. “We could literally not add a business or new residences to the village. So, this new project will set us up for the next 25 to 50 years for growth.
“Right now, this new sewer plant is barely at 50 to 60 percent of capacity,” he continued. “So, we literally can double our growth and hopefully bring in new businesses and residences to the village.”
Work on the nearly $8 million project began in 2018.
