Campton Hills' poor oversight on center

On Jan. 16, 2013, the Herald published a letter of mine headlined, "Grudging support for the KIVA annexation."

The KIVA Group was requesting annexation of the Glenwood School property into Campton Hills for conversion into an addiction rehab facility. The opponents succeeded in stopping the annexation, but KIVA then sued the village for $4 million for civil rights discrimination, eventually settling for $500,000.

I understood the opposition, but the hard facts were revealed in this question that I posed: "If Campton does not annex, and thus control KIVA, who will?" The reality was obvious, KIVA would by-pass Campton and take it to the county level. This action would deprive Campton of the means of overseeing the KIVA operation, control the integrity of their western border, and thereby surrender all they incorporated for right back to Kane County politicians.

Today that is exactly what has occurred, though it is now a different rehab group named Maxxam. I guess KIVA was happy to walk away with a half a million in their pocket. Maxxam has also now raised the stakes in that they are threatening to sue for $64 million if the county does not provide "reasonable accommodation" to reconsider approval of the rehab center.

To add insult to injury Campton is now faced with the possibility of Glenwood becoming the very rehab center they feared, but now not accountable to the village in any way. How could the KIVA opponents not have foreseen these obvious consequences to their action? Where was/is the strong and enlightened leadership? After all the hardwork, expense, and dedicated commitment of time to incorporate, why did they not seize this opportunity to protect their border and control their environment and desired quality of life.

Steve Thompson

South Elgin