Montrose fact-gathering on collapsed road

MONTROSE – The city of Montrose is once again having to deal with what is legitimately  a four-year sink hole.
For the past dozen years or so heavy rains have caused, at different times, a portion of the Mississippi River Road to collapse towards the Mississippi River. And the road is elevated so danger definitely lurks around that corner.
Montrose Mayor Matt Mullins said Monday that the city is in a fact-finding stage with regard to the road, but is also having to deal with very pressing concerns at the sewer plant.
Mullins said there are several broken pieces of equipment at the sewer plant but it’s still meeting Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks for water discharge into the river.
However, the repairs needed at the sewer treatment plant, were estimated at $3 million back in 2019 and Mullins fears those are 25% to 50% higher now.  And trying to prioritize the sewer repairs with the street repair is causing some sleepless nights. Especially nights when it rains.
This time the road collapsed on the night of April 28, the same night as Central Lee’s and Keokuk’s high school proms. Fortunately, no injuries were reported and the road has, again, been blocked off from traffic.
“Over the past several years in heavy rains like we’ve had, the road will sink. We’ll put up blockades, and then when it’s done sinking we put fill in it and gravel or seal the top to make it passable again,” the mayor said.
The city had an engineering firm put together a plan four years ago to solve the issue on a more permanent basis. Mullin said he didn’t know if the word “fix” was right or not, but they had a more comprehensive plan.  He said they’ve reached out to that company again to see if the resolution they came up with is still viable.
“We’ve reached out to that company to see if what they recommended then was still something they would recommend today and what that cost would be like,” he said.
“We’re still waiting to hear back from them on that.”
At Monday’s Lee County Supervisor’s meeting, Supervisor Matt Pflug mentioned the issue during his supervisor report.
Pflug said the road is inside Montrose’s city limits and it was a city problem.
Supervisor Chairman Garry Seyb said that was technically correct, but said the county wants to be an “information resource” to the city. Seyb has had several conversations with Mullin, as well as State Sen. Jeff Reichman and State Rep. Martin Graber about the stretch of road. He’s also offered to assist Mullin in making connections with people who may have insight into how to get a more comprehensive solution to the roadway in place.
Mullin said the roadway will remain closed until the city can determine if it is actively moving anymore.
He said in the past, the city has fixed the road with fill and let it go because the road isn’t used by city residents that much anyway.
“It isn’t that great of a road anyway so we fixed it in the past and it worked. We would wait til it quits sinking, fill it up, cover it, and that would be the plan,” Mullin said.
When the city conducted the engineering study, the suggested resolution was at a cost of about $750,000. Mullin said if it’s still viable and the cost is even $1 million, just coming up with 20% for a match on a grant would be daunting to a city with an annual budget of $350,000.
“Even if that is $1 million and we find 80% and people are fantastic, and happy and everyone’s coming together, Montrose’s portion is like $200K. How do we find that money on a $350,000 budget - and oh, by the way, we need to update this other infrastructure.”
He said the sewer plant is past is useful life, but is producing acceptable ranges as required by state and federal regulators.
“The last thing we want to do is wait until it completely fails and then we would be looking at astronomical fines and costs to repair,” he said.
“In 2019 that was $3 million and since then we’ve been told that price has likely doubled. So again, if we’re able to get grants to cover 80% of that amount of money, whatever that bond or loan is for the rest, will be a very big deal, almost prohibitive.”
Mullins said he appreciated Seyb and the county’s proactive approach in dealing with the issue.
“I really appreciate them proactively reaching out and discussing it,” he said.
 “Right now people need to know that we are in the fact-gathering stage and don’t want to rule anything out or make any promises about what will or won’t be done. We don’t know if it’s done moving or if the old plan will work. For all we know it could rain 3 more inches tomorrow and completely fall.”
Montrose currently doesn’t have any debt service on its property tax so it would have some bonding authority to borrow for the repairs, but Mullins said none of that has been officially discussed at this point.