Elk Grove Dist. 59 board member seeks referendum on library district
Voters could get to decide as early as November whether to extend library services to unincorporated Elk Grove Township through the creation of a library district, if a referendum question gets on the ballot.
Tim Burns, an Elk Grove Township District 59 school board member and former Elk Grove Village library board member, submitted to Cook County circuit court this week 100 petition signatures seeking a binding referendum on creation of the new taxing district.
A judge will decide Sept. 8 whether it gets on the November ballot, but it's possible it won't because of a Sept. 1 deadline to certify ballots.
If the referendum is held and the measure is approved, it could pave the way for some 12,500 residents to get library cards at the Des Plaines Public Library and use its services without paying nonresident fees.
Most of the estimated $350,000 that would be raised through property taxes every year would be paid to the Des Plaines library as a contract fee. The proposed taxing body, the Firefighter Richard Heller Memorial Library District, would have a seven-member board of trustees and pay a part-time administrator to prepare monthly meeting agendas and respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, Burns said.
It's possible the board could rent space to hold meetings at the Des Plaines library, he said.
Des Plaines library officials have expressed willingness to contract with the new district, but the plan has been opposed by the Elk Grove Village library board, whose president, Gil Schumm, previously called the plan a "scheme" that would raise property taxes.
The new library district would mean an additional $75 in taxes per year for the owner of a $100,000 home, Burns estimates.
The proposed library district covers the same 2.5-square-mile area as the Elk Grove Rural Fire Protection District, which is roughly bounded by Dempster Street, Elmhurst Road, Busse Road and Touhy Avenue.
Burns proposed the idea in late 2014 because some 1,000 students who live there and attend Byrd, Rupley, Salt Creek and Grove schools don't have a public library to go to. The area includes four mobile home communities, a condominium complex and an apartment complex.
Burns said he heard "enthusiastic support" for his proposal as he was walking through mobile home parks collecting signatures.