Downers Grove, water commission at odds

The DuPage Water Commission set a chair at the table for Downers Grove Thursday evening but no one ever showed to claim it.

Commissioners were expecting representatives from the municipality to discuss an extension on a $4 million loan the village received from the commission seven years ago. But lacking a formal invitation, village officials stayed clear of the meeting.

When asked where they were, Terry McGhee, the commission's acting general manager, said he received an e-mail from Downers Grove Village Manager Dave Fieldman at 5 p.m. stating the village had decided not to attend.

District 6 Commissioner Jim Zay said he spoke to Downers Grove Mayor Ron Sandack before Thursday's meeting.

“The reason they didn't come is because it wasn't placed on the agenda. We had asked staff to have Downers Grove come to our next meeting and discuss this,” Zay said. “It's not on the agenda anywhere here so as far as they're concerned, there really wasn't a reason to come.”

The village is now more than three months late with the first of 13 annual payments.

Now, with the water agency finding itself fiscally challenged because of an accounting blunder that ate away its $69 million reserve fund, commissioners are eager to be repaid. The loan paid for connections to the commission's Lake Michigan water distribution system for almost 800 residential properties in an unincorporated part of the county near Downers Grove.

Those properties had well water that had been contaminated with toxic runoff from nearby industrial businesses.

Annual interest payments of $92,000 have been received regularly since the loan was issued in 2003, commission officials said. But the first principal payment of $369,000 was due in July and never arrived.

“We haven't had a face-to-face meeting with them on this. Talking back and forth on the phone is not going to resolve this,” Zay said. “We need to sit down, face to face and talk about it. And have staffs talk and come to us with an amendment.”

Village officials say they are the borrower in name only and they are still waiting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess blame on the dozen or so businesses in the Ellsworth Business Park that caused the contamination several years ago.

They believe the village acted responsibly in 2003 by being the conduit for unincorporated residents to receive uncontaminated water. Normally, the village would have required property owners to annex into the city to receive the water service.

District 4 Commissioner Timothy Elliot, clearly frustrated by the situation, said it's time for both bodies to get serious about repayment of the loan.

“Whether they're on the agenda or not, they're adults and they could have shown up tonight and presented a public comment,” Elliott said. “Having said that, we need to stop dancing around this and playing games like deciding who's going to call who first.”

The formal invitation will be in the mail soon and the commission is looking forward to seeing what type of extension plan the village plans to pitch.

“Clearly they think they've got something to offer so lets meet face to face and see,” Elliott said.