Click here to view the Davis Lodge Reservation Calendar and instructions for reserving the lodge.

Non-Profit Organizations

All Other Entities (Thu - Sun)

All Other Entities (Mon - Wed)

Tables and Chairs

• Seating for 100 to 120 people (100 chairs in the Main Room)
• 120 folding chairs (brown)
• 12 round tables (5 feet across) that seat 6-8
• 12 rectangular tables (8 feet long) that seat 8
• 6 rectangular tables (6 feet long) that seat 6

• Electric stove
• Microwave
• Commercial refrigerator (no freezer)
• Stand-up freezer for ice
• Bunn coffee maker with 2 pots and coffee urn that makes 50 cups

• Barbecue pit
• Fire ring with wood (available upon request)
• Patio – 5 picnic tables provided
• Outdoor electrical outlets – (1) in patio area and (1) in front

• Gas fireplace
• Central heating and air for interior (ceiling fans for porches; no additional heaters allowed)
• Projection screen (available upon request)

Anyone wishing to consume alcohol at a City facility must submit an online request to the City Clerk Department. This request should be submitted at least 15 days in advance of the event. Note: Alcohol must be provided by an establishment that holds a Class W Catering or Secondary Premise License. The license application must be submitted by the establishment at least 15 days before the event. If you have any questions and/or require any additional information, please contact the City Clerk Department by phone at (309) 434-2509 Ext. 6 or by emailing cityclerk@cityblm.org.

The ratepayers that use the City of Bloomington water supply pay, through their water rates, a proportionate share for the public fire protection systems throughout the entire water supply, treatment and distribution systems. The most visible part of the fire protection system to most rate payers is the corner fire hydrant. But beyond that fire hydrant are a complex system of pumps, pipes and water reservoirs to provide water to that fire hydrant. This includes ample storage in the source water reservoirs to provide water for treatment in the Water Treatment Plant, proper sizing of water treatment units to provide adequate amounts of treated water to supply both the domestic needs of customers but also the public fire protection needs of citizens, as well as adequately sized water mains, booster pumps and storage facilities.

Customers can rely on the Public Fire Protection system for their fire protection needs at no additional cost. However, if a customer desires to have additional fire protection for their business, in the form of a sprinkler system or other fire suppression system relying on the public water supply for its water supply, the private fire protection charge applies. This is done so that the beneficiary of the Private Fire Protection system is paying their fair share for the public water system support of their private fire protection/suppression system.

The radio frequency (RF) water meters transmit a radio signal containing an encrypted meter number and meter reading that is received by a radio receiver in our marked City of Bloomington vehicle. Encryption of the data is a security feature that basically “scrambles” the data and makes the information unreadable except to a receiver that has the software to “unscramble” the data.

The meter reading from that transmission is used to generate a water bill. The transmission lasts for 7 milliseconds (0.007 of one second) and occurs once every 14 seconds, using less than 100 milliwatts of power. This regular transmission allows the City of Bloomington marked meter reading vehicle to capture readings as it drives by and on-demand should a special reading (such a “final” reading for a tenant moving from an apartment) be required at any time. In other words, the meter transmits for about a total of 43 seconds a day from a single "D" cell battery that the manufacturer states will last 20 years.

The City is trying to solve two long standing problems for our water supply. This project will increase the amount of water available for use during drought (reliable yield) while simultaneously providing a method to lower the concentration of nitrates when they are elevated in our reservoirs. Since the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) developed and began enforcing the nitrate regulation for drinking water supplies over 35 years ago, the City has actively pursued practices and actions to assure meeting this regulation.        

As part of an enforceable compliance agreement with the IEPA in the mid-1980’s, the City stated that it would solve the nitrate problem by blending water from its reservoirs to stay below the nitrate regulation. This has worked fairly well for the City through the years, simply because of the principle of dilution. Both reservoirs can absorb a fair amount of nitrates from the agricultural watershed before the water in the reservoir is at or above the nitrate standard. However, there is always a point that, as the reservoirs continue to be filled with high nitrate water from the watershed, they reach or exceed the nitrate standard. While Lake Bloomington can seasonally exceed the limit, Evergreen Lake will generally exceed the limit only after periods of extended drought. This usually occurs in the Lake Bloomington reservoir because it has a larger watershed in relation to the reservoir volume. High nitrates tend to occur less frequently in the Evergreen Lake reservoir as it has a smaller watershed and a larger volume of reservoir.        

Thus, it is a much more likely occurrence for the Lake Bloomington reservoir to exceed the nitrate standard.  We normally observe a seasonal cycle whereby the nitrate levels are elevated in both reservoirs in the spring, generally decline through the summer, and reach their lowest levels in the early fall.        

That means that the sole source for water with a nitrate level below the standard is the Evergreen Lake reservoir or Lake Bloomington reservoir water blended with the lower nitrate Evergreen Lake reservoir water. Again, historically, blending lower nitrate water from the Evergreen lake reservoir with the higher nitrate water from the Lake Bloomington reservoir has worked through the years. The City has an active source water protection program with the McLean County Soil and Water District and in cooperation with producers and landowners in the watersheds to decrease the amounts of nitrates and other nutrients entering our reservoir.        

However, following the drought of 1988-89, the City exceeded the 10 mg/l nitrate nitrogen standard. Both reservoirs were down by billions of gallons of water and when the rains did come again, they filled both reservoirs with high nitrate water. Since there was not as much low-nitrate water already in the reservoirs, the ability to dilute the high nitrate water coming into the reservoirs was limited and the reservoirs were overwhelmed with high nitrate water. The Lake Bloomington reservoir easily exceeded the nitrate standard in 1989 and the Evergreen Lake reservoir was above the nitrate standard for months.        

This experience could happen again. The City simply wants a cost-effective solution, kind of an insurance policy, against this happening again.

The process can be broken into several distinct steps. The first step in the process is to review all available information about the subsurface conditions, such as the location of existing wells, depth to the bedrock, existing aquifers, etc. This is done from existing public records and any research that has previously completed. The Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) has completed this work.         

The St. Peter Aquifer is generally around 1600 feet deep in this area and residential wells are less than 500 feet deep in the glacial till.  The St. Peter sandstone formation is separated from the private well aquifer by alternating shale and carbonite layers which form impervious barriers known as aquitards.  These impervious layers prevent any change in water levels in the St. Peter aquifer from affecting the water levels in the upper aquifers.  The St. Peter Aquifer is currently used to supply the City of Minonk and the City of Chenoa as well as many Illinois municipalities farther to the north.        

The next step is to drill test well(s) in the areas where additional information is desired on the water quality and production capacity of the aquifer at this location. Because of the depth of the St. Peter Aquifer the test well(s) will be drilled at a production well diameter.  During the drilling process, careful attention is paid to the various layers of material that the drill passes through. The careful recording of this information develops what is known as the well “log”.        

The well will include a welded steel casing pipe from the surface down to the bedrock layers to isolate the shallower aquifers.  The test well is developed like a production well except it is intended for testing purposes to begin with.  The well will be pumped by a test pump which is generally smaller than the actual production pump. The test pumping is designed to determine the reaction of the aquifer to the effects of different rates of pumping over different periods of time and to gauge any potential influence on surrounding wells.

Test Well > Analysis > Process and Pipe Design > Permitting > Construction > Production Well      

The test well(s) will be constructed and tested during the summer and fall of 2017.  Well water quality and capacity testing will be used to design and permit any piping and plant modifications necessary to add the water to production.  Construction of production infrastructure improvements would occur during the summer of 2018.

First it needs to be understood that the City of Bloomington Water Department is an enterprise fund within the City. That means the Water Department receives no tax dollars for its operation, maintenance or capital improvement programs. Likewise, the City general fund does not take money from the Water Department. The Water Department operates much like a private business within the City; it only operates on the revenues it receives from its rates, fees and other miscellaneous sources.        

Thus any linkage of the Water Department with any other projects or spending in the general fund of the City is disingenuous; they are separate and distinct funds and operations.        

The City has, and will continue to, remain extremely active in research efforts and programs to reduce the amount of nitrate entering our reservoirs. Nutrient management programs and experimental methods of reducing nitrates (such as constructed wetlands and field tile bioreactors) have shown reductions but those methods cannot guarantee that concentrations will remain below the nitrate standard 100% of the time. We need a method to ensure that the water plant can reliably and consistently deliver low-nitrate water if our watershed-based methods fail to lower concentrations to acceptable levels.        

The Water Department is addressing the nitrate problem because it wants to act proactively in addressing the nitrate problem that has become more acute over time. The blending of water between the two reservoirs has been a positive action to mitigate the nitrate problem. But the experience of 1989 has shown the City that blending alone does not mean that the public water supply could not have a nitrate violation under the right conditions.        

The nitrate problem is not an imminent threat at this time but could be, given the correct conditions. It has not been mentioned in the Water Departments previous Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) to our customers because the City is not in violation of the IEPA rule for nitrates. As water supply and treatment professionals however, the Water Department does not intend to wait for a water quality violation before we act. The time to take action is before the problem recurs.

The City has looked at options to decrease the nitrate load upon the local water supply. This has included requiring all septic systems around Lake Bloomington to be brought up to current Code when a lake lease transfer has taken place. It has also included the long-term watershed management program to reduce nitrate inputs through a variety of innovative best management practices.  Educational efforts to Lake Bloomington residents and those in both the Lake Bloomington and the Evergreen Lake reservoir watersheds on the proper use of lawn fertilizers have also been included.  

The City of Bloomington Water Department is addressing the issue of long-term water supply sustainability in a variety of ways. This has reduced average day pumpage over the last few years, but as population growth continues the water demand will again begin to increase and the City needs to plan for the long-term future.        

The City has focused both on lowering loss, waste, and demands by encouraging water conservation and low water use fixtures.  Addressing the issue of water supply also includes a comprehensive watershed management program which the City has had in place for many years and continues to this day. This program has been successful in attracting hundreds of thousands of grant dollars for long-term watershed management. Additionally, a drought ordinance was adopted by the City Council several years ago.        

The City has an active leak detection program which identifies leaks through very sophisticated means, which might otherwise go undetected. This program has been in place in a comprehensive manner for years and has detected and repaired many leaks which prevents millions of gallons of water from being lost each year.        

The City has an active meter replacement program to ensure that water meters are accurate to industry standards and that all accounts are metered. Water meters generally slow down over time, so an active program is necessary to ensure that each water user has their use accurately measured and that each user pays their fair share for the water that they consume.       

The City has also addressed the need for additional water supply by increasing the Evergreen Lake reservoir capacity by about one third more or over one billion gallons of additional capacity. The City developed the Mackinaw River pumping pool which can be used to extend the capacity of the reservoirs by pumping Mackinaw River water into the Evergreen Lake reservoir under certain conditions, as outlined in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit.        

Lastly, the City has been working for nearly over two decades on the development of an additional water supply for quantity purposes in the western part of McLean County. The identification of the optimal locations for wells in this area came about because the City undertook a groundwater research project, just like it is doing now, to identify groundwater resources in the area and the quantity that can be safely withdrawn from the aquifer in the future.

Yes. The State of Illinois recognizes riparian rights which basically state that the landowners have a right to the water resources in the area of their land. Thus as a substantial landowner in the area around the reservoirs, the City can legally search for and possibly develop groundwater resources just as any other landowner in the area can. The important thing to remember is that riparian rights also include a “reasonable use” doctrine which means that water can be withdrawn for reasonable use but not at the detriment to others.        

The City, utilizing its consultants and State resources, will determine the extent of the groundwater resources in the area around the reservoirs. The City will also determine if the quality and quantity necessary for its use (without impact on nearby wells), is present before moving forward with any program of groundwater development. The City does not intend to endanger any resident’s water supply.

The City will hire an independent third party (ISWS) to analyze and assess the condition of private residential wells.  This would be at a resident’s request only to alleviate any concerns about impacts to their well.  No influence is expected, because these wells will be in a deep, separated aquifer with only municipal wells and no known connection to shallow aquifers,.  Testing a resident’s well by test well pumping is to scientifically determine the extent, if any, of influence of the City’s pumping upon nearby wells. This is to determine the conditions that exist in wells around the test site before any pumping takes place. When test pumping does take place, the conditions in those same nearby wells will be monitored while the pumping is active. To adequately determine the extent, if any, of influence upon anyone’s well, the condition of the well as it exists today needs to be logged for comparison purposes.         

If a particular site is developed into a production well and an adjacent well is seriously influenced by the City well pumping, the City will immediately take action to correct the problem.

The idea of the well testing program is to scientifically catalogue the response of nearby wells to either test pumping or production pumping if the City is able to develop a production well. This information will go a long way towards identifying any cause and effect relationship between the City pumping water and any influence on nearby wells.        

Wells that are monitored will have a detailed record of their response to normal weather conditions (amount of precipitation and the wells response to those conditions), and test or production pumping. This record will make it easier to determine the extent, if any of influence from the City’s pumping and may indicate the best course of action the City would take to minimize that influence.        

By not participating in the well testing program, a well owner can still make a claim against the City, but with the lack of information about the historical conditions of the well and the water levels in that well over a variety of conditions, it may be more difficult to relate the cause and effect of the City’s pumping and any influence on the well. That being said however, any claim of influence on a residents well will be taken seriously and responded to promptly.

Yes. The State of Illinois recognizes riparian rights which basically state that the landowners have a right to the water resources in the area of their land. Thus as a substantial landowner in the area around the reservoirs, the City can legally search for and possibly develop groundwater resources just as any other landowner in the area can. The important thing to remember is that riparian rights also include a “reasonable use” doctrine which means that water can be withdrawn for reasonable use but not at the detriment to others.

The City fully understands the impact of developing a groundwater supply. Rather than starting a project where the full effects of development are not known, it has chosen to scientifically study the issue. All aspects of the issue will be investigated before moving to the possibility of developing of a small, intermittent use, groundwater supply.

The City, utilizing its consultants and State resources, will determine the extent of the groundwater resources in the area around the reservoirs. The City will also determine if the quality and quantity necessary for its use (without serious impact on nearby wells), is present before moving forward with any program of groundwater development. The City does not intend to endanger any resident’s water supply.