Long Grove discusses water costs

Long Grove trustees declined to put a Lake Michigan water referendum on the November ballot because they had no idea how much money residents would have to put up for the initiative.

Those numbers came in this week and gave the board a bit of a pause.

The village's engineering firm estimates that extending water lines to each residence would cost about $180 million. That comes down to about $75,000 a home, though that number varies depending on the type of wells residents are currently using and a number of other factors.

Village President Maria Rodriguez warned that even these numbers are very preliminary and still don't include the costs of actually bringing water to Long Grove, just extending the lines.

"Frankly, I still feel we don't have enough information," she said.

Long Grove joined a group of other Lake County towns to study the possibility of even getting Lake Michigan water.

Trustee Ed Acuna has been working with that group and said it seems likely Long Grove could receive the lake water allocation. But that would happen, at the earliest, next spring.

"This is a village-wide decision," Acuna said. "We would all have to pay."

The board could put the issue up for a resident vote during elections next April.

The village has several options to pay for the water system, including a bond sale or a special service area.

However, in the end, residents will be putting up the cost, likely over several years.

"It would still be thousands of dollars a year," Acuna said.

Trustee Charlie Wachs said the new numbers fill in one side of the equation, but there is still information missing on the current well systems.

"We're still missing the need side of it," he said, pointing out that Lake County is still doing studies on the impact of aquifers.

For now, the village will continue to pursue the water allocation and plans eventually to seek voter approval via a referendum question.