Carpentersville cracking down on minor violations

Not too long ago, illegal immigration dominated the public comments portion of Carpentersville village board meetings. Recently though, residents and business owners have been complaining about what they see as an uptick in code enforcement.

From the banning heavy vehicles parking on village streets, alleyways and driveways, to a citation for repaving too much driveway area, some who work or live in the village say code enforcement officers have become sticklers.

"I have parked my bus in my driveway for 23 years," said Marie Taillon, a school bus driver for Barrington Unit District 220 and one of five school bus drivers who sued the village over a heavy vehicle ordinance the village began enforcing almost a year ago. "Why are they ticketing us now?"

Taillon and other bus drivers were hit with $150 fines and said they were threatened with fines up to $1,000 per day if they did not park their small school buses elsewhere. The case was recently moved to federal court.

Joseph Mainolfi aired his frustrations at last week's board meeting after receiving a citation for replacing brick pavers in his driveway. The west-side resident said he paved the exact area of the old pavers but was told the pavers covered too much lot space.

Village Manager Craig Anderson said it's all a result of additional code enforcement officers and the village's concerted effort to do more.

"We are getting to more things than we did before," Anderson said. "That might be part of the reason we are getting complaints on occasion. We try to be equitable and fair, but sometimes there are problems."

Anderson, who said the village is working with Mainolfi to rectify the situation, said the original paver work done on the Mainolfi's property was most likely completed without a permit. The village code limits the area covered with impervious materials to 35 percent of the lot size.

In another situation involving heavy vehicles, a local business owner accused the police department of predatory practices for lying in wait to ticket trucks delivering or collecting products from a commercial park on the village's east side.

Jim Jendruczek, president and managing partner of Trim-Rite Food Corp., said he has seen a spike in the number of tickets he has received for overweight truck violations for vehicles weighing more than 73,280 pounds. Those tickets run from $1,500 to $1,800, Jendruczek said.

"These tickets are bleeding my business to death," he told the village board last week before trustees amended the ordinance to allow trucks weighing up to 80,000 pounds on Commerce Parkway.

After the meeting, Jendruczek said he had received four or five tickets since August - more than he has received since his business moved to the village seven years ago.

"I have never had a problem, we have been here for seven years," Jendruczek said. "Now, police are stationed on Commerce Parkway, waiting."

Police Cmdr. Tim Bosshart said his department has not mandated a crackdown on overweight trucks. The upsurge in citations is the result of a few officers taking an interest in the enforcement. From Jan. 1 to June 1 of this year, police issued 25 overweight truck citations. Since then, the department has issued 63.

"It's nothing more than a couple of officers taking an interest," Bosshart said. "We were not told to crack down on it."

Anderson noted that writing more citations does not do much to boost the village's bottom line.

"For the most part, all we want is compliance," Anderson said. "Unless we go to court there usually is no revenue involved. There are tickets sometimes, but they are not going to make or break the village. There is some revenue, but that's not the main reason for it."