Gurnee resident still peeved about taxation without service from sanitary district
A Gurnee resident is keeping up the pressure on an agency he contends is unfairly taxing some village residents without giving them any service.
Appearing at Monday evening’s village board session, Jerry Kolar said he recently discovered a pre-annexation document from 1977 that was not signed by property owners in his northeast side neighborhood and by North Shore Sanitary District officials, as required.
He contends the document means the properties never became part of the district’s boundaries when annexed more than 20 years later.
Kolar contends a majority of his neighborhood didn’t want to be in the North Shore Sanitary District when the land was annexed 14 years ago. Kolar said he and other residents have elected to stay with their own septic systems and aren’t served by the district, but are still paying taxes to it. Sanitary district officials maintain it appears the statute of limitations has expired to do anything about the annexation of Gurnee’s northeast side. Kolar is a founding member of Citizens for Responsible Government in the Gurnee area and represents more than 100 property owners.
“The North Shore Sanitary District annexed the whole area and started taxing at will,” Kolar said. “I’ve been trying to rectify this since receiving my tax bill in 1998.”
Sanitary district communications consultant Christopher Ganschow said Wednesday he was not immediately familiar with the document Kolar referenced at the village board meeting.
In June, Kolar read a statement to the Gurnee-based sanitary district, raising concerns about paying “unfair” taxes. He’s periodically addressed the issue during public comment time at Gurnee village board meetings.
Mayor Kristina Kovarik this month spoke to the sanitary district board on behalf of the northeast side neighborhood roughly bounded by Glen Flora Avenue, Northwestern Avenue, Green Bay Road and Sunset Avenue. Kovarik has requested a meeting between Gurnee’s administrative staff and sanitary district officials.
Kolar said he hopes the documents he’s located through additional research will assist Gurnee’s staff.
Property taxes are collected for administrative costs from homeowners living east of the Tri-State Tollway. Lake County Public Works bills for sewer service to Gurnee property owners west of the tollway.
North Shore Sanitary is the second-largest sewage treatment agency in Illinois, behind the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.