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KEOKUK, IOWA -- The City of Keokuk is looking at some major expenses when it comes to capital projects in the next few years. And some of those expenditures include electrical and mechanical upgrades at the city's sewer treatment plant and repairing or replacing the HVAC system at the police and fire station.

The upgrades at the sewer treatment plant totals nearly $6 million dollars while the HVAC project at the police/fire station is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $65,000.

Both buildings have been serving the city for more then 50 years and now they're staring to show their age.

"We need all kinds of things at the treatment plant. We need new laboratory, it's older then heck. We've got instrumentation that is old and need new digital equipment there," Keokuk mayor Tom Marion said.

The mayor also said when those upgrades are completed it should extend the life of the plant for at least another ten years and beyond.

Meanwhile over the at the police/fire station, the police chief has been working out of that building for the past 22 years. Dave Hinton said he would like to see consideration given to a new building being built for police, fire and city services.

"You do make do with what you have. When times are tight there's no doubt about that, but now we're experiencing some serious repair issues and it's no longer nickel and diming you like we said earlier. Those aren't nickels and dimes anymore, we're talking about $65,000 just for heating and air," Hinton said.

So as the city looks at several capital expenditure projects, there's hope some decisions can be made on what to prioritize as more budget meetings are held with the council and city department heads as they approach the new fiscal year.

The mayor said he would really like to see a new treatment plant built, but that just isn't financially feasible for the city.

"From my point of view, I was hoping we could build a new plant and move it off the riverfront. We're in the flood plain, we have a flood wall. But again, right now finances we have our sewer separation project that's mandated by the EPA. It's going to cost $77 million dollars. So we're kind of at our limit. We're doing some infrastructure works, streets and we have no where to allocate excess money," Marion said.