Not all buy water promise from Hawthorn Woods

For weeks, Lake County has blamed Hawthorn Woods for delaying construction of a new water system for Glennshire residents.

Now, the village has agreed to cooperate.

The village board Monday night said it would grant the necessary special use permits, variance, waiver and easements Lake County seeks to build the system -- if the county resolves the funding issue with residents.

County officials say that's not the village's concern.

At issue is the county's need to install the new water system for the 224 Glennshire homes or face thousands of dollars in fines each day the project is delayed.

Residents learned in 2006 their 20 shallow wells would have to be replaced under an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency order. The IEPA through the state attorney general's office sued Lake County on behalf of Glennshire residents to get the water system built.

To complicate matters, the 672 Glennshire residents filed a federal class action lawsuit against the county in late May, saying it should pay the entire $6 million cost to replace their "failed" system.

Hawthorn Woods Mayor Keith Hunt said Tuesday the county must settle the lawsuit with residents or find a way to fund the project itself.

"They (the county) had been proceeding on an assumption that the county was going to pay $1 million and the residents were going to pay $5 million," Hunt said. "How are they going to go out and sell bonds to finance the project, if there is litigation hanging over the project?"

Lake County Administrator Barry Burton said the lawsuit is a separate issue. The county intends to move forward with the project.

"The permits are needed for us to be able to engineer and design and submit to the state of Illinois," Burton said. "Unless we have permit approval from the village of Hawthorn Woods, we have no way with which to build the system and comply with the attorney general's office's demand and the residents' wishes."

The state and county hoped to force Hawthorn Woods to stop "obstructing" the permit process by adding the village as a "necessary party" to the state lawsuit.

That case will be heard Thursday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Lake County's special assistant state's attorney Jim Bakk agreed the Glennshire residents' civil lawsuit against the county could delay the project.

"County board officials have to decide whether they want to go through with committing $5 million for a project when the people that are responsible for paying for it say they are not going to pay for it," he said.

Lake County's original plan was to issue bonds for the new water system in August.

Christopher Donovan, president of Citizens for Equitable Water Solutions, a Glennshire homeowners group formed to address the water issue, said funding the system is not Hawthorn Woods' concern.

"As far as they are concerned, it is Lake County's system," he said. "The village has been obstructing this long before there was a class action lawsuit. They (the county) cannot issue bonds until they have a design approved … which is what the village is holding up."

Water: Glennshire group says funding not village's problem