HILLCREST — At its monthly meeting Wednesday, the Hillcrest Village Board of Trustees heard an update on its priority 1A water main project, which recently began.

After seeing delays, contractor Elliott & Wood, Inc. is on site and installing water main and locating water service lines. The project has a $1.2 million total budget and plans to replace mains along the full length of Scott Avenue, parts of Errett Road and Erickson Road from Scott Avenue to Jeffrey Avenue, and parts of Jeffrey Avenue from Errett Road to Erickson Road. Those streets are in the southern and oldest part of the village. The project will be financed with an IEPA loan that will involve 50 percent loan forgiveness. The debt service on the project will be $35,000 per year over 20 years.

Lead

The board voted unanimously Wednesday to give Village Engineer Kaitlin Wright of Baxter & Woodman approval to create a first draft of a lead service line replacement plan.

Work is still ongoing in the village on a state-mandated water service line inventory project to determine if any are made of lead. Residents were sent a survey recently. The village must submit an inventory and replacement plan to the state by Sept. 1. Residents have been asked to check their own water lines and provide information to the village.

Hillcrest has 444 water service lines that it must check to see if they're possibly made of lead. So far, it has found that 188 lines are made of copper, 15 are galvanized pipe, one lead, 10 plastic, 62 unknown-not lead due to age of construction, and 167 unknown.

Wright said it is likely another survey will be sent out to determine the remaining unknown lines and village personnel may be sent to homes to determine the line materials if resident feedback isn't seen.

Due to there being unknowns and reports of lead and galvanized lines, the village is required to submit a replacement plan to the state along with the inventory. The cost for the replacement plan will be no more than $7,800, but Wright said it will likely be "significantly less than that." The village has received a grant for the water service line inventory work.

RVs

During the meeting trustees discussed issues that have been seen in the village recently with RVs and campers parked in the street and in yards.

"I've been making a lot of stops and talking to people," Village President Rick Rhoads said. "We're going to start sending tickets out. I've been warning people, get your stuff together or tickets are going to start being issued."