Irish eyes will be smiling this March in a community known for its rich German heritage.

The Waterloo City Council gave the go-ahead for a St. Patrick’s Day parade during its meeting on Monday night.

Waterloo resident Dave Meehan is a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians – Michael P. Keeley Division, which will host the St. Patrick’s Day parade in downtown Waterloo on Sunday, March 15. 

“We don’t try to make any money. We just do the parade just to try to bring people to the town, and they filter off to whatever bars or whatever place they want to come to,” he said.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Its members must be male, Catholic and either born in Ireland or of Irish descent.

Mayor Tom Smith said Waterloo was home to a division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in the late 1800s.

“We did have one in 1875 and they did have parades back in that era,” he said.

In other news from the meeting, the council authorized the filing of a petition by the city to annex nine acres of property into the village of Valmeyer as part of Waterloo’s new water treatment facility project.

The petition still needs to be OK’d by the Valmeyer Village Board.

In July, Waterloo purchased 9.17 acres off East Hunters Ridge just east of Valmeyer village limits for $229,250.

Waterloo will build its own water treatment facility at a cost of about $17 million and leave Illinois American Water, its current provider, at the end of the existing contract on Dec. 21, 2022.

The city has entered into an engineering agreement with HMG Inc. for the new 2-3.25 million gallon per day water treatment facility and expects to break ground by the end of this year.

Also on Monday night, the council approved improvement plans and the signing of Illinois Environmental Protection Agency permits for a new residential development at the corner of Rogers and Hamacher streets to be known as Natalie Estates.

The plans call for 60 lots of single-family homes to be developed in two phases, with the first phase totaling 39 lots.

The developer of this project is J&M Development of Smithton, who purchased the land from Ss. Peter & Paul Parish. 

The council also approved a two-year extension request from developer Wayne Hank for the second addition, Phase II, of the Silvercreek Crossing subdivision to expire Feb. 16, 2022.

Lastly, public works director Tim Birk said Friday’s ice storm resulted in three circuits down that night. 

The first power outage was near the area of Waterloo Lumber from 8:40-9:50 p.m. The next was in the area of Casa Romero on South Market Street from 10:10-11 p.m. The last one was east of Rogers Street from 11:15-11:52 p.m.

Birk said the rising temperatures late Friday night helped alleviate the ice buildup on trees and power lines.