This penny pinching doesn't make sense

I have lived in Prospect Heights for 35 years and I have been surprised and saddened at the shortsightedness of many of my neighbors.

I have seen several referendums on acquiring Lake Michigan water go down to defeat because some homeowners were unwilling to pay for the process. They believed getting their water from a well would be less costly.

Our groundwater is awful, needing a good deal of processing to make it usable. In our home we have a water softener, an iron filter and a reverse osmosis filter. These are all costly to purchase and maintain. Then there is the cost of well maintenance, which can run into thousands of dollars, and of course, the cost of electricity to pump the water out of the ground.

Add to that the diminishment in home value because many prospective buyers will not consider purchasing a home without city water.

This letter was inspired by the rejection yesterday by many of my fellow Prospect Heights neighbors of the home rule referendum. Again, faulty reasoning prevailed. Those who voted "no" have no faith in the people they themselves elected. And in order to save a few hundred dollars a year down the road, they have severely diminished the value of their homes.

What potential buyer would even bother to look inside a beautiful house that is fronted by a disintegrating street that looks like a third-world cow path? It would not be just the condition of the street that would repel them, but wonderment at what kind of city would allow those conditions.

In any case, my fellow Prospect Heights citizens, those of you who voted against home rule have just reduced the value of all of our homes by tens of thousands of dollars in order to avoid the possibility of a small tax increase, and the worry that the people you have elected will run amok once it is in effect.

And you have overlooked the fact that home rule can be revoked by referendum as easily as it is put in place.

If we're fortunate, we'll have another chance to vote on home rule in the future. If that happens, I hope that reason will prevail before we're all afflicted with unsaleable homes and vehicles with shattered wheels, springs and shocks.

Marty Robinson

Prospect Heights