City officials held a meeting Wednesday night to let out of city residents along East Crystal Lake Avenue know the possibility exists to get sewer and water.
While normal people don’t know that not all homes along the street are not within the Crystal Lake corporate boundaries, a lot are “in the county,” as some put it.
Such homes don’t have city sewer and water. They have wells and septic tanks.
Some may have septic tanks that are failing, City Engineer Eric Lecuyer suggested in his presentation.
For those under county government jurisdiction, a failed septic tank may mean a home has to be abandoned under new rules mandating the number of square feet necessary to have such a sewage treatment system.
With the city due to re-surface the street and put sidewalks on both sides, now is the most economical time to put in sewer and water lines.
The cost, however, is high.
$25,000 per home if all participate. Finance it over 20 years and it would hike the property tax bill by about $2,000 a year.
At the end of the meeting staffers handed out forms on which one could express support, opposition or seek more information.
The lady sitting next to me who had said she was on Social Security checked the “No” box.
Jim Tomasello of 290 E. Crystal Lake Avenue asked for a stack of forms after saying he had talked to neighbors and “not even close to 50% of the folks are interested.”
“It doesn’t matter to us whether we do this project or not,”
was the way Lecuyer started the meeting.
“While normal people don’t know…”
What, are we “not normal?”
😉
I think “most people” would’ve been more appropriate…
Good suggestion.