Winfield's Good Old Days near an end?

At the June 17 Winfield village board meeting the topic of discussion was the road referendum that will be on the Nov. 2 ballot. The village board is asking the village residents increase our property taxes by 200 percent to fund $18 million in deferred road maintenance.

I understand that Winfield's roads are in disrepair but I find it foolish to give my authority to the village board to increase my real estate taxes without them first composing a plan to create sustainable revenues for the future. This plan should probably include developing Winfield's most promising retail corridor which is Roosevelt Road. In what can only be described as a rhetorical "red herring," Village Manager Kurt Barrett informed me that in order to address the needs of the village roads we would need sales taxes of "$100 million," and it was not as easy as "flipping a switch" to find other funding sources in place of the referendum.

Twenty minutes earlier Rich Bysina from the Winfield Chamber of Commerce asked village board members if they could pick up the tab for police services for the annual Winfield Good Old Days. Based on the responses from the trustees there is about a 50 percent chance there will be no Good Old Days this year.

I find it hilarious that Mr. Barrett can compartmentalize my demand for sustainable revenues into "only" needing them for road maintenance. From time immemorial money has been made for villages through the careful cultivation of commerce. Winfield should have started 20 years ago but there is no time like the present to have a plan. It's time for Winfield to make money the "old" fashion way, by earning it, or Winfield's Good Old Days will truly be behind it.

Tim Allen

Winfield