On Wednesday, July 20, 1994 a proposed rural water meeting was held at Broom’s Orchard and Market in Carlinville, Illinois. In attendance were some citizens who were interested in clean water for rural areas. The planning committee consisted of:

Barry Adkins, Bill Broom, Ted Dworzinski, Jim Frank, Max Lowrance and Lynn Turley

On August 18, 1994 Judge Thomas P. Carmody approved the placement of the Water District on the November 1994 ballot. It was approved by the citizens of the District by 306 yes votes to 35 no votes. There was a seven member board appointed by the Macoupin County Board that took office on the first Monday of May 1995. This Board included the above six men as well as Al Shipp. The District was named Central Macoupin County Rural Water District.

The engineer appointed for the project was Dean Heneghan and the attorney for the District was Brent Cain.

Funding for Phase I, to the tune of $2.9 million for the Water District, was approved in 1998 and installation began in June of 1999 in the Townships of Brushy Mound, Hilyard, Polk, the Village of Plainview, Beaver Dam State Park and the Lake Catatoga development. Dedication for the completion of Phase I was on September 18, 2000.

The water source was originally going to be from the City of Gillespie, but with IEPA restrictions the Water District was able to obtain the needed water for it’s then 440 customers, from the City of Carlinville.

In September 1999, the District started the paper trail, due to interested customers, for Phase II. This Phase would allow Chesterfield Township and the north part of Shipman Township to annex into the Water District. Funding for Phase II was obtained at the cost of $1.82 million and construction began in November 2002. Completion was accomplished in the Fall of 2003. This phase also allowed the Village of Chesterfield to obtain water through CMCRWD and get of their wells.

In the latter half of 2007, with the concurrence of the Henderson Water District Board, CMCRWD annexed into our district the areas south of Route 108 that were in Bird and Western Mound Townships. Phase III funding was about $500,000 and added approximately 47 customers to our district along with 15 miles of new water lines. This phase was completed in 2009.

In August of 2010, the Board adopted a resolution to reduce the Board from seven members to five members. This was due to the difficulty in getting individuals to serve on the Board. Judge Kenneth Diehl approved the resolution in October of 2010.

CMCRWD covers an area from the coal mine on the east of the county line on the west and from Route 108 on the north to near Medora in the southwest and then east of Shipman on Route 16 in the southeast. This results in about 140 miles of pipe from 8” to 3”.

In late 2015, the District refinanced it’s Phase I and II loans with CNB Bank & Trust from USDA Rural Development. This lowered the interest rate and shaved off about two years of payback.

The District has an “emergency 4 inch” water connection on FS Road to Jersey County Rural Water District and in 2016 connected to Henderson Water District at two locations which gets it’s water from Litchfield and Otter Lake. One connection is about two miles south of the coal mine on Honey Creek Road and the other is on Rt. 108 at Bear Rough Hills Rd.

In the Summer of 2019, the water district obtained off space in the south end of the Farm Bureau Building in Carlinville. There they commenced to doing all of it’s office work from the location with a part-time office manager. This move saved the District money and this move was headed up by Mr. John Bunk. Mr. Bunk was the Chairman of the Board at that time.

In the Summer of 2020, the District again refinanced their CNB loan and saved 1% in interest which is now 3.44% down from 4.44%. The outstanding balance of the loan is now about 1.8 million with the payoff being January 1, 2036.

In early December 2020, the Board was able to pay off the IFA loan (Phase III) in the amount of $220,000, the bonds being held by US Bank.