Speak up, but please speak accurately
As residents of Campton Hills, we are free to choose the officials who make our land development and zoning decisions.
If we unincorporate, people will still make those decisions, but they will be the members of the Kane County Board, only one of which is from Campton Township.
The others are from Aurora, Dundee, Geneva, St. Charles, Batavia and Elgin.
Those people are not used to thinking in terms of one acre residential lots, or our rural lifestyle. They think in terms of city lots and high-density zoning.
The more houses per acre, the more children in school, the more school referendums, and the higher our property taxes go. Approximately 70 percent of our property taxes are for schools.
That's what this conflict is about -- to keep zoning control here so we keep large lots, and prevent annexations by adjacent cities, so we keep our rural lifestyle.
The people who oppose that are land developers who want to put as many houses per unit of land that zoning will allow in order to maximize their bottom line.
If you want to truly free us, retain the village that will keep land development and zoning decisions here. That is the way to keep property taxes down.
An Oct. 24 letter by Tracy Whiteside stated only 23 percent of registered voters voted in the incorporation election.
That is incorrect.
More than 49 percent of registered voters voted in the incorporation election, and 55 percent of those voted "yes." (See the Kane County Clerks elections Web page, archived election results, 2007 Consolidated Election.
Forty-nine percent turnout in a consolidated election is a record. Kane County's turnout was 22 percent.
Additionally, a recent letter distributed in the Woodlands subdivision stated the village president's salary is $87,000 plus benefits.
The village president's salary is $12,000 with no benefits, and she has drawn none of this. After the next election, the salary will go up to $17,000, also with no benefits.
The total pay for president, clerk, seven trustees and a liquor commissioner will be $37,000 after the next election.
If people want to work against the village, that's OK. They are entitled to free speech. But in their effort to change the minds of others, those others are entitled to the facts.
Richard Johansen
Campton Hills