A petition drive has been launched at change.org to gather signatures from CARMI residents who are not in favor of selling Carmi’s wastewater treatment plant, which is currently run by the city.
On May 26 at the Carmi City Council meeting, it was announced that the city was looking at possibly selling the treatment plant. A representative of American Water was in attendance as well as employees of the plant who were concerned about their jobs.
Allegedly, attendees were told that the City was just looking to see what the treatment plant was worth by putting out bids. But the bid notice that was posted in the McLeansboro Gazette stated that the city had every intent to sell it to a qualified bidder. See bid notice here.
The bid (or bids) are to be opened on July 7 at the City council’s regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. and the board is expected to vote on the matter at the following board meeting on July 21. Allegedly, two of the eight alderman have already indicated they would vote no to a sale.
The petition has just started to gather signatures and can be found at this link. Information from customers of American Water on Facebook have indicated that their costs for water and sewer services have increased once the company takes over. American Water is a publicly traded company that purchases water and sewer companies.
