Thinking about McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks’ desire to give control of the Lake in the Hills Sanitary District to the Village of Lake in the Hills led me to thoughts of Crystal Lake and Lakewood.
The sewers in Country Club Additions Subdivision were put in by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930’s.
Federal money.
The sewage treatment plant was in Crystal Lake and still is.
For reasons unknown to me the City of Crystal Lake decided to increase the charges to Lakewood residents.
A cost-benefit study was conducted by Lakewood and the Village Board concluded that it would be cheaper to re-route the sewage flow from the Crystal Lake plant to the one that Lakewood built on the west side of town.
The cost would be about the same, Village officials wrote, but Country Club Additions homeowners would no longer be subject to another municipality’s determining their sewer rates.
Based on that experience, it seems to me that Crystal Lake and Huntley residents, businesses and the Huntley School District could see their rates rise, if the Lake in the Hills Village Board wanted to raise them.
There is no telling what will happen with rates in the years and decades to come.
Where is the detailed analysis on the effects of unionizing the labor?
Being that the Lake in the Hills Sanitary District is not unionized and the Village of Lake in the Hills public works labor is unionized.
And Jack Franks has received over $1 million in campaign contributions from labor unions and their affiliates.
Will any of the sanitary district labor be terminated and new labor hired by the Village of Lake in the Hills public works department?
“For reasons unknown to me the City of Crystal Lake decided to increase the charges to Lakewood residents.”
I believe CL simply wanted to charge Lakewood the same rates it was charging its own residents.
Until that point Lakewood residents were charged at a lower rate
I’m sure Jack’s cronies on the Ad Hoc Committee could care less if residents have to pay more.
This speaks to representation, with is lacking in the Sann dist.
Appointed people aren’t as responsive to tax payers as elected official, not like they are a whole lot better.
If consolidation doesn’t happen, not likely at this point, the system should be changed to elected overseers rather than appointed.
Since it appears the deck is already dealt, what about the legal representation of the people that don’t live in LITH?
Right now I see no indication they will have legal represention, no vote, on who’s controlling the $$$$$.
Problems Houston!
Nob, you’ve hit upon one of my earlier points on this topic in that the residents in CL and Huntley will have no political representation accountable to them.
They simply become “customers” of the Village of Lake in the Hills.
This sets up to create potential problems in the future.
You will now have officials in LITH making decisions on capital expenditures, maintenance, rate-setting, etc. that will affect non-LITH residents.
For example, what are the odds that LITH would approve a necessary multi-million dollar capital improvement program that only affects a Huntley service area, but the cost would have to be spread out to include LITH residents?
Conversely, how would CL and Huntley residents feel about having to absorb fee increases in order to pay for a project within LITH?
Mark – If the Lake in the Hills Sanitary District is controlled by the Village of Lake in the Hills the residents within Huntley and Crystal Lake, served by the Lake in the Hills Sanitary District, will have no representation on the Board when it decides to raise the rates (which will most likely happen).
The Village of Lake in the Hills has indicated that residents within the Village of Huntley and the City of Crystal Lake will pay the same rate as the Lake in the Hills’ residents.
Be careful with that since the residents outside of the Lake in the Hills Village limits now pay a 150% SURCHARGE on their water supplied by the Village.
If the Lake in the Hills Sanitary District property tax is abolished and the sewer rates are based on water usage versus the current flat fee, there will be more impact on the residents and less impact on commercial/industrial properties.
No village board can bind a future village board any more than one Congress can bind a future Congress.