Finances force village to curb goodwill toward Ela

In tough economic times, government agencies like everyone else are coming to grips with losing out on some perks.

Ela Township recently realized it must pay Lake Zurich roughly $77,000 in fees for a building permit, water/sewer service connections, plan reviews and inspections for its new $2.5 million township offices.

The building is planned for 5 acres next to the township's Knox Park at 22155 W. Route 22, annexed into Lake Zurich.

Township Supervisor Lucy Prouty said despite her appeal Lake Zurich refused to waive the fees. It's not uncommon for taxing bodies to extend such courtesies to save taxpayers' money.

"They say this is the going rate," she said. "I just think it's kind of high for another taxing body. It seems unfair. We have professionals (doing the work), and still we got charged that much to go over our plans."

The biggest charges are for water and sewer service connection fees, connection to Lake County's sewer system, and engineering site plan review. The township must pay extra for elevator inspection and a few other items.

Lake Zurich Village Administrator Bob Vitas said he couldn't waive the township's fees, "given our financial situation and our service delivery demands."

The village faces budget cuts and a hiring freeze due to revenue shortfalls. It won't have enough funds for all of next year's planned road resurfacing projects, Vitas said.

Roughly 30 percent of the overall fees charged to Ela Township go to Lake County for sewer conveyance, which the village also cannot waive.

"These fees were part of the 2007-2008 fiscal year budget," Vitas said. "It just creates another shortfall within our operating budget. Rather than perpetuate our problem of revenue shortfalls, we just basically said that we can't this time. It's a business decision."

Vitas said the village earlier waived $4,800 of a $5,000 annexation fee for the township's new offices, and still shares resources and equipment with the township.

Many municipalities are finding themselves stretched for dollars, said Mark Fowler, executive director of the Northwest Municipal Conference.

"It's kind of a sign of the times that the municipalities are looking for funding wherever they can," he said. "You'd like to extend some goodwill, but unfortunately economic times dictate that a municipality can't."