Island Lake rejects police station, village hall referendums

Island Lake village board members unanimously rejected two referendum questions that would have asked taxpayers to pay $5.8 million for village hall upgrades and a new police station.

Each referendum question, which had been proposed for the April 7 election ballot, would have asked for $2.9 million. However, village board members said Thursday they were uncomfortable with a lack of specific information on what they would get for the money.

The board had split what was originally one referendum question into two, and cut the total amount they would request from taxpayers from the original $12 million estimate.

Trustee John Ponio presented the details of both referendum questions, but Trustee Deborah Herrmann expressed frustration over what she said was Ponio's lack of communication with the rest of the board. E-mail communications with Burnidge Cassell Associates, the architects handling the projects, had been exclusively with Ponio.

Ponio said the original 11,000-square-foot police station design would have to be cut to 9,000 square feet to work with a $2.9 million budget.

Herrmann said she talked to Brad Moser, an architect for Burnidge Cassell Associates, Thursday afternoon. Moser told her a police station of that size would actually cost more than $3 million.

Herrmann and other board members said they felt the communications between Ponio and Burnidge Cassell Associates should have been shared earlier.

"I feel that at the eleventh hour here, it is not something that I'm comfortable with," Herrmann said.

Ponio said the information he provided on what the money would buy - new windows and upgrades to the plumbing and fire protection systems for the village hall and a new police station - was specific enough. He said the board was expecting the reduced budget to buy the same things the original estimate would have covered.

The board had to make a final decision on the questions Thursday because the deadline for certifying referendum questions for the April 7 election ballot is Monday.

The next time the board would be able to pose any referendum questions is in two years.

"I'd rather see it worked on properly and have it put through on a referendum two years from now," Trustee Don Saville said.

Herrmann said the decisions mean these projects will not move forward. At least two other trustees were disappointed by the lack of communication and everyone voted "no" on both items.

"It ended up being a board member who chose not to disclose the information he received," she said.