Burlington signs off on easement with Alliant Energy for access to Dresser-Rand site
The Burlington City Council signed an easement agreement Monday with Alliant Energy to allow access to a small portion of city property at the old Dresser-Rand site.
The 10-foot easement covers five city-owned properties, collectively known as s 1106 Washington St. The site is vacant as part of the Brownfields program, which governs the usage of properties for which there was previously an environmental concern, such as a factory that made chemicals. The easement is specifically the 10 feet nearest the property line that is shared with the street
Alliant Energy is working toward taking many of its power lines below ground. In order to do that, it needs an easement that would allow access to the property. When a property is subject to an easement, it remains with the owner but the person who has the easement is allowed to use it for a specified purpose. In this case, the city will allow Alliant to have the ability to maintain the electrical line that will run through the property. The city will give the easement to Alliant for $1, the minimum fee required by law.
The agreement stipulates that the city may not do anything with the 10 feet that is in the easement and that Alliant Energy must have access to the easement when necessary.
The land is part of the extension the city did as part of construction on Agency Street. The city owns all of the lots through which the lines would run.
Alliant won’t be the only utilities running through that section of the property. The section is also where the Hawkeye storm sewer sits. Alliant has been made aware of the storm line and will work around it.
New software at wastewater facility
Because of a provision in Iowa law, Burlington was able to purchase a new software system without needing to go out to bid.
Usually, when the City Council buys anything, including software, it is required to look for multiple bids and then choose the best option. However, the law allows that if only one software will work with a certain type of technology, the city is not required to bid. Because of the unique nature of the Burlington wastewater treatment facility, only one company was available to provide the software.
Burlington's Waste Water Treatment Facility uses a software called SCADA, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, which is made by Wonder Ware. An Ames company, Automated Systems, is the regional distributor for the software and thus is the company the city will be working with.
The software update will cost the city about $200,000. This project was part of four planned updates. The final one is due to be paid for in Fiscal Year 2024, which starts next July.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Alliant Energy gets an easement at Burlington Brownfields site
