Charleston’s City Council will vote on awarding a bid to a company to perform landscape waste tub grinding for the city.

The lowest bidder for the project was R&R Services, Inc. from Argenta, IL, with a bid of $45,000. The funds for the project have already been allotted in Charleston’s FY22 budget.

“Tub grinding” refers to a process of waste disposal where the waste is dumped into a type of grinder which has a tub-like opening.

This process is usually used for wood and other vegetative waste to help it break down more quickly and take up less space in landfills.

The ground up waste is often used as mulch in gardens and parks since there isn’t any glass or plastic mixed in.

The council will also vote on an agreement between Eastern and the city to build a sidewalk connecting previous sidewalks across from the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Bookstore and the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Specifically, proposal says the sidewalk will be “on the east side of 7th Street from Grant Avenue and then to the south approximately 250’ to connect an existing sidewalk (the proposed sidewalk will be constructed on the Eastern Illinois University property that is adjacent to the Eastern Illinois University Police Station, Charleston, Illinois, and across from the Martin Luther King Jr. Union Bookstore located at 1644 7th Street).”

The proposal does not include when this project would begin.

The council will also vote on a proposed agreement between Eastern and the city so that the city would be allowed to inspect and continue to operate Eastern’s water tower.

The letter detailing the agreement states:

“If the inspection of the EIU water tower delivers favorable results, the City would like to isolate the water tower from the EIU water system and operate the water tower on the City of Charleston distribution system. The City would install a residual chlorine monitoring system in the base of the EIU water tower.

The City would operate the EIU water tower on the City system for a period of six months, with the ability to terminate earlier upon mutual agreement.”

Luke Taylor can be reached at 581-2812 or egtaylor@eiu.edu.