Bensenville to White Pines residents: Pay property taxes, or pay doubled water bill

Roughly three years after residents in a neighborhood near Bensenville rejected an annexation proposal to get a new water delivery system, village officials say they no longer can afford to postpone the project.

Bensenville officials this week informed White Pines residents that an estimated $7 million project to replace their subdivision's aging water system is expected to begin next year. To fund the work, White Pines property owners have two choices: voluntarily annex and pay for it through property taxes over a 20-year period, or remain separate and pay a higher surcharge that could nearly double their water bill.

“The big difference between this plan and previous plans is this project is going to happen,” Village Manager Evan Summers told more than 140 residents during a Tuesday night meeting at Blackhawk Middle School. “It's just a matter of how you want to pay for it. The village is committed to take the project on.”

White Pines has been staunchly independent since its founding in the 1940s, but the neighborhood of roughly 280 homes gets Lake Michigan water through Bensenville.

Village officials say the White Pines water system, which includes decades-old pipes, is obsolete. In addition to frequent main breaks, the system produces substandard water pressure to combat fires.

But a December 2014 proposal by the village to replace the system never materialized because residents resisted annexation and questioned the cost estimate.

The residents have tried to persuade DuPage County or a private company to replace the system and supply them with water, but DuPage officials say the county plan would cost more than Bensenville's proposal.

In the meantime, village officials say the water system is fragile. Just last month, a series of 16 water main breaks in one weekend cost the village more than $60,000 to repair.

Village President Frank DeSimone said White Pines residents asked him to tackle the issue after he was elected last year.

He said village officials spent that time working to come up with a fair and equitable solution.

“We're not hiding anything,” he said.

“We're not twisting any numbers.”

The village's plan is to use roughly $900,000 it collected from a surcharge that White Pines residents have been paying on their water bills and to borrow the remaining $6.1 million for the project from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

If White Pines residents agree to become Bensenville taxpayers, the property tax dollars they pay to the village would be used to help repay the loan over 20 years.

Residents who refuse to annex, or who can't because their properties aren't contiguous with the village, will have a second option: Bensenville would increase the surcharge for their combined water and sewer bill.

DeSimone said that's what would be needed to pay for the $7 million project.

The average household uses 5,000 gallons of water every month and the average Bensenville resident pays $102.45 a month.

The typical White Pines homeowner pays Bensenville $153.68 a month for the same amount of water.

If the project is only funded with water and sewer charges, the average monthly bill in White Pines would increase to $281.74.

“We recognize this is high,” Summers said.

If the White Pines neighborhood is annexed into Bensenville, it would increase the residential tax base for the village, which lost hundreds of homes to O'Hare International Airport expansion.

Summers said previous attempts to find an alternative to fix the White Pines water system haven't panned out. He said the village plan “is the best way.”

“We are your water supplier for White Pines,” he said. “At the end of the day, I have a legal obligation to provide you clean water. That system no longer works.”

Homeowners have several months to decide whether to annex. Meanwhile, the village is planning to apply for the IEPA loan in the fall.

“Once we get the loan, the project is going to start,” DeSimone said.