Mayor Jim Daley
At Homer Township Chamber of Commerce
April 28, 2010
Thank you all for coming today. I appreciate the support you show our community and the pride you take in your businesses, your homes and your community. I want to thank the Chamber for hosting this event every year and the support you all show the Chamber by coming to events like this. The Chamber continues to put Homer Glen businesses first as they work to enhance the business climate of the community. We appreciate the great working relationship we have with the Chamber and look forward to a continued partnership with them.
It is hard to believe a year has gone by since the last State of the Village address, but even harder to believe that I am entering the last year of my first term in office as Mayor. My time in public office has gone by very fast and I believe it is a reflection of how busy we have been and how much we have accomplished in 3 short years.
As a young community, we face many concerns that more established communities do not. We have inherited a lot of issues as part of incorporation that need to be resolved, such as flooding, transportation needs, control of our utilities, and subdivision and park improvements. We are fortunate however that the administration understands the importance of creating long range plans that establish a vision for the Village. We consistently refer to these plans as a guide for our decision making, however . . .
A vision without an implementation strategy, is just an illusion.
It is important that as leaders we take the necessary steps to realize the goals of the community. Looking back over the last three years, I am proud of the leadership that has been shown to get Homer Glen to where we are today- a fiscally sound, government â�‚��œliteâ�‚��„� community that promises to preserve, protect and plan for the future. The actions we have taken over the past three years have preserved the quality of life for our residents and businesses, protected the strong environmental ethic of the community and planned for the continued growth of Homer Glen.
I would like to bring you up to speed on a couple of important issues that we are addressing right now, including some of the upcoming developments and planning initiatives that staff is working on and then share with you some of our strategies to accomplish our goals for the next fiscal year. There are 3 important issues that are monopolizing headlines these days:
- Illinois American Water and our fight to provide fair and reasonable water and sewer rates to our residents;
- The overcrowding issue at Lockport Township High School and the history of failed referenda to build a new school; and
- The potential of losing home rule status for the Village as a result of the population count generated from the 2010 census.
Illinois American Water
Letâ�‚��„�s start with Illinois American Water. As most of you have read, the Village Board passed an ordinance in March to join the Joint Water Agency for purposes of acquiring the Bedford Transmission Line. Make no mistake, we are serious about this acquisition and to me, it is just the first step in the eventual control of all water and sewer infrastructure in Homer Glen. As I have mentioned several times before, we incorporated to control our destiny and this includes controlling the â�‚��œout-of-controlâ�‚��„� water and sewer rates currently imposed by Illinois American.
Participation in the water agency is the first step in gaining this control. There has been a lot of misinformation sent out by IAW.
There have been statements made by IAW that we will be imposing a property tax to pay for the Bedford Transmission line. That is FALSE. We have actually proposed a statement in the agency agreement that will prohibit the purchase of GO bonds.
The flyers are asking residents to question how we are going to pay for this. The answer is --the same way they do. We will use the revenue from water usage to pay off revenue bonds. These are not government obligation or â�‚��“GOâ�‚� bonds and they are not backed by a property tax. They are paid off through the sale of water to the same customers that IAW sells water to.
IAW has made statements that this will cost customers more if the water supply line is owned by the agency. The key here is we donâ�‚��„�t have to make a profit and we donâ�‚��„�t have to pay the corporate taxes they do. I canâ�‚��„�t promise that rates will be lowered the day after we purchase the system. But I do know this- we cannot control the bleeding unless we apply a tourniquet. The creation of this water agency and the purchase of the Bedford Transmission line is the tourniquet.
We are also fighting other battles with Illinois American Water. We just received the final order from the ICC this last week. Sadly, our success in this area has not been what we had hoped. Our residents will still see at least a 28% increase in their monthly bills. Although they did not get everything they asked for, in my mind they still got too much. The successes that we did achieve however is a result of the public forum we held and the personal testimonies that were made by our elected officials and residents, the support of our state representative Renee Kosel and the lobbying efforts of various special interests groups like Chief Mike Schofield and the state fire districts regarding the fire protection charge.
Our Sewer and Water Task Force and their Chairperson Trustee Niemiec, have worked hard analyzing the rate requests and the possible defenses used in the case. We appreciate the work that they have done, but now is the time for action. The purchase of the Bedford Transmission Line is the action that I believe we need to take to bring the cost of water under control. Just as the ICC noted when reading the recent rate case decision, IAW â�‚��“cannot view Illinois ratepayers as an open checkbook anymore.â�‚�
Lockport Township High School
The second major issue facing the Village is the overcrowding at Lockport Township High School. Last year, Mayor Trivedi of Lockport held a summit on this issue and since that time, I have been meeting with him and Mayor Soliman of Crest Hill, along with representatives from the School Board and their administration. We have created a Steering Committee to address this issue. Trustee Laurel Ward has also been in attendance at these meetings and has participated in the community summits. Lockport recently held the last summit. We held these public meetings to get a better understanding of the issues and concerns of the residents in our respective communities. This issue crosses corporate boundaries. We are united as part of the School District and our goal is to be united in a solution. This is a true collaboration and my hope is that we will find the answer that is best for all of our children. It is my sincere hope that we can find a creative solution to this problem. I have heard of some fairly innovative ideas that will be presented to the school board at an upcoming steering committee meeting. Over the next year, I think we will see some positive steps taken toward resolving this issue.
Home Rule
The third issue of major concern for the Village is retaining home rule status. I believe the special census that we conducted in 2008 was one of the more important strategic decisions we have made as a Village. That and the annexation of the Goodings Grove shopping center, positioned our Village in the enviable fiscal condition it is in today. By achieving Home Rule status, we have greater control of our destiny. Instead of looking for authority through the state statutes we now have greater self governance. We do not expect to reach the population count of 25,000 that we need for home rule with this census. If this is the case, the decision to retain home rule will be taken to the voters at the next general election after the count is certified sometime in March 2011.
One of the powers of Home Rule that we have taken advantage of is the ability to impose a 1% sales tax. This took effect last July, and as of this past month we have collected $1.62 million dollars- representing 7 months of revenue. Next year we anticipate receiving approximately $1.92 million dollars.
During our budget review process this year, it became evident that the Home Rule sales tax provided the Village with some much needed insulation from the recent downturn of the economy. State revenues were down along with building permits;however, we kept our expenditures under control and came in under budget. We finished the year with an operating surplus of $290,000. Our budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 was just approved a few weeks ago. We again presented a balanced budget to the Board for approval. I am very proud of this fact; especially, in light of the current state of the economy and the budget problems we read about in our neighboring communities. We continue to build our capital and land acquisition fund and maintain a level of service that our residents expect. The revenue we receive from Home Rule is an important part in maintaining a healthy budget. The newspapers report every day the need to find new revenue sources in some of our neighboring communities. Many are operating with deficit budgets. There is discussion of property, utility, gas and telecommunication tax increases. In Homer Glen we do not levy a property tax, we do not have a telecommunication tax, a utility tax or a gasoline tax. Instead, we increased our sales tax by 1 cent on a dollar that effectively spreads the tax burden beyond our residents.
We still have one of the lowest sales tax rates in the area and despite some early concerns from our residents and business community, the comments I hear from our residents and business owners is in support of the Home Rules sales tax in lieu of a property tax or any of the other taxing possibilities.
Over the next year, it is incumbent upon myself and the Village Board to provide our residents with information on Home Rule so that if we lose it, which I am pretty sure we will, our residents can make an educated opinion on retaining Home Rule in Homer Glen. Please feel free to contact me, the board members or the village manager if you any have questions about Home Rule.
In addition to these 3 issues we have also been busy with several Capital projects including: drainage, park and bike trail improvements, utility and transportation projects and several commercial projects.
Drainage Projects
Several flooding projects have either been completed this past year or are under way. We are either finalizing or have completed drainage projects in Oak Valley, Meadowcrest, Farmview and Woodbine subdivisions. We have budgeted for additional drainage projects throughout the Village for this next fiscal year.
Parks and Recreation
Stonebridge Park improvements are complete and we will begin construction of the 3.4 mile bike trail this summer that runs along the Com Ed easement between Yangas and Culver Parks. This is the result of a grant award of approximately 1.5 million dollars. We recently purchased a �‚½ acre of property in the Erin Hills Subdivision also with a grant from OSLAD. Trustee Russell Knaack has been working with the Parks and Recreation committee and bike trail task force to finalize our bike trail master plan and identify new opportunities for grant funding for trails, park acquisition and park development.
Utility Improvements
Phase I engineering for the Fiddyment Creek sewer extension was presented at a public open house a few weeks ago. This will go before the Board for approval in May. This sewer extension project will extend the sewer from Cedar Road to Gougar Rd along Fiddyment Creek. We have been working closely with the Forest Preserve District and our engineers, McDonough Associates, and have completed the necessary environmental studies to ensure minimal impact to the creek and forest preserve property. The extension of this sewer will provide for the development of over 500 acres along 159th Street. It also provides for the development of a trail system that has potential for connecting Village trails east of Cedar Road to township trails and the future trail along I-355.
The Fiddyment Creek Sewer extension is an economic development initiative that will allow Homer Glen to remain competitive for quality commercial development. Without this public initiative, this area will not develop. The cost of the sewer will be recaptured as development occurs. With the completion of phase II engineering, our hope is to be â�‚��œshovel readyâ�‚��„� for future stimulus funding and Build America Bonds that will terminate by the end of this year. Our staff recently met with property owners along 159th street that are poised to move forward with their entitlement processes, which includes annexation to the Village of Homer Glen once the sewer line is in place.
Transportation Projects
This past year we received stimulus funding for 151st street and hope to position ourselves for more stimulus money this year. We received notice that the widening of 159th street is in the high priority 5-yr capital plan and will be watching closely how state funding comes along in the hopes of seeing this project move into phase II in the near future. Overall, we have managed to stay ahead of significant transportation issues in large part to the great job that Mike DeVivo does for the Township Highway Department.
Planning
As for planning and economic development, things continue to be slow nation-wide as we all know. We are fortunate that we do not have a lot of built inventory in the residential sector and we should be able to react fairly quickly when the economy starts to rebound.
We are very excited about the Water Fall Place project on 159th street. This 75,000 s.f. commercial center will include a corporate banquet facility, restaurant, entertainment complex geared toward family entertainment and corporate offices. The Board approved the preliminary planned development in March and Legacy Development has been aggressively marketing the site.
Several other commercial projects have also received board approval and are waiting for the economy to get a bit stronger to begin development. This includes Squisto Place on 143rd and Bell Road, which includes 6 outlots targeted for restaurants and a retail center; Homer Town Center on 143rd Street comprised of two buildingstotaling 51,333 s.f.; Glen Oaks office center on 159th adjacent to Crystal Creek subdivision that includes 3 office buildings totaling 25,127 s.f. and Castle Glen with a preliminary plat approval of 36,830 s.f. on 159th St. The new Midland Bank should be open for business shortly. We are happy they have stayed in town and made their investment in Homer Glen. Firestone has all of their approvals and we expect construction to begin this summer. They are located in the outlot at Menards. We are fortunate to have excellent access to I-355, with low Will County taxes that will continue to be an asset for retaining and growing our commercial sector.
Economic Development
We recently participated in an Illinois Tomorrow grant for a corridor study for 159th street and are working with the Will County CED for branding and marketing of I-355. This was an initiative that grew out of the I-355 consortium of the corridor communities. John Grueling has been working with our staff to begin looking at a branding strategy for the tollway corridor.
Our Community and Economic Development Committee has launched a new website, Business Connect, that promotes our local businesses and provides demographic information as a recruitment tool. Trustees Niemiec and Ward Co-chair the committee and they have been working with our Community Development Director Ed Cage to promote Homer Glen.
Ed and our Village Manager, Paula Wallrich, met with developers recently at the ICSC program in Chicago and have reported some good contacts despite the current retail market. Please take the time to look at our new website; there is a link on our main webpage. You will also see the new â�‚��œshop homer glenâ�‚��„� logo and campaign.
Special Events
As a young community we are also working toward creating a sense of community for our residents. We started a Christmas tree lighting program 3 years ago and last year we had our inaugural Homer Harvest Day event. Trustees Margaret Sabo, Mike Costa, and Russell Knaack worked on this committee and despite a rain- out in 2008, it was a resounding success this past fall. The crowd was estimated at 5,000, and planning is already underway for this yearâ�‚��„�s event. We are also celebrating Earth Day â�‚��€œArbor day on May 22 at the Historic Konow farm. Trustee Sabo and the Environment Committee have worked hard on planning for this. This event will provide opportunities for environmental education and provide free family fun. Please check out our website for further information.
Our annual Independence Day parade and fest will be held on Saturday, June 26. Trustees Yukich and Costa have been working hard to make this the best fest yet. We just heard there will be a dunk tank and we are looking for volunteers.
So you can see why this past year has flown by and looking ahead, we have a lot to do this next year. The water agency will begin planning for the acquisition of the Bedford Transmission Line; the Lockport Township High School Steering Committee will present their analysis regarding school overcrowding, and we will be addressing the issues of Home Rule. We will continue to resolve the chronic flooding issues of the community, move forward with the phase II engineering for the Fiddyment Creek sewer extension and investigate ways to capture state funding for road and park improvements.
I want to thank you for the confidence you have in me providing leadership to the Village of Homer Glen and look forward to another successful year of protecting, preserving and planning for our residents.