Prospect Hts. mayor: We're setting pace on government consolidation

As Gov. Bruce Rauner encourages a cutback on local governmental units in Illinois, Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer said Friday his city is ahead of the curve on consolidation.

Helmer pointed to the bill passed in Springfield last year that formally dissolved the Old Town Sanitary District and put Prospect Heights in charge of sewer service for approximately 3,000 households.

The Old Town Sanitary District was established before Prospect Heights was incorporated, but in recent years it ran out of money and could not service the sewer lines that were old and crumbling.

In 2012, voters rejected a tax referendum that would have paid for Prospect Heights to handle the sanitary district's repairs and maintenance, but the city took over anyway. Prospect Heights was reimbursed by the last of the Old Town money and some additional tax proceeds.

The city then petitioned the state legislature to pass House Bill 3273. It went into effect July 15, formally consolidating the two governments, closing the Old Town Sanitary District's offices and splitting the remaining funds between Prospect Heights and the other towns in the district, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights and Wheeling.

Rauner came to a Wheeling/Prospect Heights Area Chamber of Commerce meeting this week to congratulate local officials on the consolidation, the first since Rauner created the Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandate Task Force to encourage government streamlining.

"Prospect Heights was the first to start consolidation," Helmer said, adding the city will look for more opportunities.

Next up for study are the 5.1 miles of roadway in Prospect Heights that are serviced by Cook County, which then contracts out the work to a third party, he said.

Helmer said he also is working with Wheeling Township to investigate the city taking over the maintenance of four streets near Prospect Heights that the township is maintaining.

"It's illogical to me that that should continue," Helmer said. "It makes no sense to me that we have a road commissioner that gets paid for four streets. The job shouldn't exist because of the nature of it."

Wheeling Township has about 5.5 miles of unincorporated roads.