Wauconda considers future service fees

Wauconda village officials are considering introducing a host of new service fees to ward off a projected $600,000 budget deficit in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

That includes establishing new fees for village storm sewer utility maintenance, leaf collection, a user fee for brush collection, and a maintenance fee for the Slocum Lake Drainage District. If approved, each household would pay $56 more annually.

The village board's committee of the whole reviewed the proposed fee increases and other money-making ideas for the first time earlier this week.

More discussions are ahead, with possibly a future community forum to gather public input on the proposed fees. Nothing will likely be approved until fall 2009, Mayor Salvatore Saccomanno said.

Yet on Tuesday, the village board is expected to approve a 6 percent increase to village water and sewer fees that would generate roughly $200,000 more annually.

That's because officials are projecting $1 million deficit in the village's water/sewer fund at the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Wauconda, like many of its neighbors, is feeling the pinch of a troubled economy and a housing market slump.

The village faces a projected $600,000 deficit in property tax revenue at the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year, as well as revenue shortfalls from sales tax and building permits.

"We're making cutbacks on a day-to-day basis and we're looking at the possibility of laying off several employees," Saccomanno said. "Right now, we're reviewing everything that we have before us. It's time that we actually looked at how the village is operating. Everything is up for discussion, but we're doing this now so we're not caught in 2009-2010 with a greater budget deficit."

With the water/sewer fee increase, a senior citizen homeowner with an estimated usage of 6,000 gallons of water/sewer service per three months would pay an additional $10.96 yearly. A family using 18,000 gallons of water/sewer service every three months would pay $34.96 more per year. Residents will see the fee increase on bills dated Oct. 15.

Village officials also are considering eliminating seaweed pickup from private property around Bangs Lake, and selling fire wood from dead trees cut down by the village to generate additional revenue.

Saccomanno said Wauconda is being progressive with some of its proposed fees.

For instance, not many Illinois communities charge residents fees to maintain and repair their storm sewer infrastructure.

"It's something that we know for sure nobody in Lake County has," Saccomanno said. "The creation of the storm sewer utility (fee) is a very complex process. We have to petition the state for it."

Village officials also want to change the way they charge for brush pick up by making it a user-only fee. Presently, 20 percent of Wauconda residents use the brush pick up service, but all residents have to pay for it.

Officials are also considering asking residents to pay 50 percent of the cost of planting trees along parkways.