Hanover Park says funds aren't there to go green

Many towns find the idea of going green appealing.

But it's the other type of green that can prevent them from doing anything about it.

Hanover Park recognizes the conflict between working toward an environmentally friendly future and having the money to actually do it.

Mayor Rodney Craig had hoped Hanover Park would jump on the green bandwagon, recently presenting the village board with a resolution endorsing the Greenest Region Compact.

The document is a collaboration between Chicago and 272 surrounding towns known as the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

The compact identifies a series of air, energy, land, waste and water strategies it hopes towns will voluntarily implement. It also urges mayors to commit to a minimum number of strategies, some by 2015.

Hanover Park trustees called the compact unrealistic and unanimously voted down the resolution.

"If we're going to do this, let's do it right," Trustee Bill Manton said. "We can't commit to things we know we cannot do."

One of the document's "air strategies" call for towns to retrofit municipal diesel engines by installing pollution control devices.

Hanover Park doesn't have enough money to retrofit two or three of its trucks, let alone an entire fleet, Manton said.

"It's not feasible," he said. "It would cost thousands of dollars per vehicle."

Trustees also scoffed at another program that promotes the use of rain barrels. That, they say, is an invitation for mosquito breeding.

Craig said the goals are meant to be lofty, and that the board wouldn't be bound to all the measures laid out in the compact.

"It's a benchmark for us to begin somewhere on creating our own strategies for the future on what makes sense for Hanover Park," he said.

Roselle Mayor Gayle Smolinski, the caucus' executive board chairwoman, says the strategies are only guidelines and the compact hasn't been adopted, only recommended.

"Mayors should discuss it with their local governments and bring comments back to the caucus," she said, adding that even her town dissuades residents from having rain barrels.

Still, the Hanover Park board says it supports green technology, proven by its current involvement in a separate initiative.

Last month, the board directed the village manager to draft a new zoning ordinance that would allow a 150-foot, temporary wind testing tower to be built at Greenbrook School.

The tower is a necessary step to getting Keeneyville Elementary District 20's proposed wind turbine up and running. The machine would slash electric costs and cut emissions harmful to the environment.

In the end, the board proposed drawing up its own custom green compact.

"Let's come back with something that's actually doable," Manton said.