Sticking to plans

Two Lake County townships are moving ahead with building projects despite losing funding requests to the state budget veto.

Ela and Vernon townships' plans to build a new town hall and expand an existing town hall, respectively, could have used a $550,000 boon from the state, officials said.

The requests -- $250,000 for Ela Township and $300,000 for Vernon Township -- were among $141 million in projects pushed by lawmakers that were cut from the state budget a week ago by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Officials at both townships say the rejection won't halt either project.

"There's a lot of good projects that were asked for and the governor has cut them out," said William Peterson, Vernon Township supervisor and a Republican state senator from Buffalo Grove. "We're going to proceed. We were already in the process of discussing and looking at the expansion."

Peterson said the township assessor's office has outgrown its 1,200-square-foot space. A proposed 2,500-square-foot addition to the town hall building at 3050 N. Main St., would become the assessor's new home, with the existing office used to expand the township's food pantry.

Peterson put in requests for both townships roughly a month ago when lawmakers were asked to submit ideas for local government projects because funds were available.

"We had no indication this was going to come about," he said. "When we got the call, we had to get back to them in 24 hours (with projects)."

Ela Township Supervisor Lucy Prouty said she learned at the eleventh hour about the possibility of state funding but didn't get her hopes up.

"We didn't ask for it. We didn't plan on it and it's not going to make or break us," Prouty said.

Ela Township proposes building a two-story, 11,200-square-foot town hall on roughly 5 acres next to the township's Knox Park, off Route 22 in Lake Zurich.

Township services have outgrown the office space at 99 E. Main St., Lake Zurich. The proposed new town hall would house offices for the supervisor, assessor, social worker, and their respective staffs. The building would also include a community room for public hearings and civic activities, kitchen, and conference rooms, and would be handicap accessible.

Though the cost of either project has not been determined, both townships have money stashed away in reserves to fund them.

"We will build the addition accordingly as to what monies we have available," Peterson said. "We probably have close to $1.5 million in cash reserves."

Peterson said the township may have to borrow money through a bank loan to start construction and repay it in a couple of years. He said he does not expect to raise taxes to fund the project.

"Hopefully, our plan is not to go through our reserves," he said.

Ela Township has $1 million set aside for building improvements in its general fund. Its town hall proposal will go before the Lake Zurich plan commission Oct. 3.

Vernon Township's expansion project is not expected to break ground for another year.