Fox River Grove residents protest approved garage
At the same time Fox River Grove approved zoning for a controversial public works garage Thursday night, affected residents vowed to mount a legal challenge to stop the project from ever materializing.
"Today will not be the end of our dialogue," resident Tom MacCarthy warned the board. "There's a number of legal advisers who find this indefensible."
The village plans to bulldoze an existing public works garage to expand its wastewater treatment plant in advance of pending regulations from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Officials will replace it with the new public works garage that's estimated to cost $3.5 million and will go up on County Line Road near Route 22.
The village will use $3.5 million in debt certificates to finance the garage - debt certificates are loans that carry higher interest rates because they don't use property taxes as back up funding sources.
They're paying the money back by raising water and sewer rates, and authorities expect to retire the debt in 20 years.
Trustee Jerry Menzel said the time to build is now - while construction costs are low.
"If we delay this ... we're going to be in a big pickle," Menzel said, adding that the board has wrestled with this issue for at least 10 years.
But board members were also divided on the zoning change, with trustees Michael Ireland and Steve Knar voted against it.
While Knar isn't convinced the water and sewer hikes will be enough to pay down the loan, Ireland said the village should save money by putting office space into the parking garage rather than embarking on a second project.
"The cost for us to move forward with the project and not do the entire thing ... is going to put a strong financial burden on our village," Ireland cautioned.
Roughly 40 residents were in attendance to protest the zoning change Thursday night that was approved by a 4 to 2 vote.
Thirty-seven residents have also signed a petition imploring the board to relocate the garage.
On Thursday, many said the public works garage has no business in a residential area, that the board is moving too fast to get the project done and expressed concern that taxpayers will be on the hook for the long haul.
"At a time of a recession, we need to be looking at alternatives and scaling back... instead of putting this city in debt for the next 20 years," said Mark Molenaar, who said trustees are destroying the serenity that surrounds the dream house he built in Fox River Grove.
The board is expected to meet in September to finalize the building's architectural plans.