Winfield studies water connection fees

A Winfield school finally may find out how much money it owes the village for water connection fees nearly two years after it opened.

But first the village board must settle on a total.

Trustees are set to vote Thursday on a measure to establish fees for schools to connect to the village’s water supply. The move is a response to a complaint last fall by Wheaton Christian Grammar School that a $102,600 connection bill from the village was excessive.

Since then, school officials have been talking with the village’s finance committee, trying to work out a compromise.

At the village board’s last committee of the whole meeting, the finance committee recommended a fee of $43,740, using a formula that takes several factors into account. But only two trustees agreed, with two others wanting to eliminate the fee altogether and the remaining two saying the village should meet in the middle.

Village President Deb Birutis asked trustees Tony Reyes and Erik Spande to choose between $43,740 and abandoning the fee, sparking a clash with Trustee Tim Allen, who said the board should have discussed the matter further to see if a compromise could be struck.

“There were four of us who wanted less than $43,000 but we were not allowed to actually discuss it,” said Allen, who first suggested eliminating the fee. “If we had been able to do that, we could have found a number higher than zero and lower than $43,000.”

Trustee Jim Hughes says he supports the $43,740 fee, which Hughes said essentially would charge Wheaton Christian the amount it expected to pay when it first chose the school site in 2003. School officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Hughes said recent attempts by the school to eliminate the fee have been partially driven by Allen’s motion.

“Any good business would try it if you had the opportunity to zero it out,” he said. “I don’t mean that in a rude way but that was put out there and once you put it out there, then, yeah, they are going to say, ‘We want it zeroed.’”

Before the school opened in August 2009, officials asked village staff if they could “expedite the permitting process,” according to village Manager Curt Barrett. He said village officials agreed because they wanted to help the school open on time. Barrett has previously said they did so with the understanding that a connection fee would be forthcoming. That fee finally came last fall and the school balked.

After several discussions with the finance committee, a recommendation came forth last month. Allen said forcing a vote based on the finance committee’s recommendation was improper.

“The finance committee is an advisory body, they can’t set anything,” he said. “We were denied the opportunity to work it out ourselves.”

Allen said he hopes to discuss the matter and work toward a new fee.