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DuPage
water dispute at brink
Chicago Tribune
- 5/15
A
bill in Springfield to let DuPage County take over the local water
commission passed an Illinois Senate committee Wednesday, but
it was put on hold until at least next week as municipal and DuPage
officials agreed to continue bargaining over how to share the
commission's tax revenues.
The
Senate Local Government Committee passed the bill 7-2, unleashing
furious lobbying, said Gary Mack, a spokesman for the mayors whose
towns make up the DuPage Water Commission's membership.
"He has been very recalcitrant in listening or responding
to the proposals that we've put out there," Mack said of
County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom, who has pushed the
takeover proposal as a way of tapping the commission's funds.
In
turn, Schillerstrom expressed frustration with the mayors. "They
don't want to change at all," he said. "This law that
was put in 1985; it's not fair in 2003. But they are resistant
to any kind of change."
The
DuPage Water Commission was formed in 1985 to buy Lake Michigan
water from Chicago and distribute it to member towns in DuPage
County.
The
takeover threat has spurred municipal representatives to talk
about suing to preserve the commission's status. But by Wednesday
evening, calls for compromise were heard.
"Chairman
Schillerstrom has agreed not to move the bill that passed in committee,"
said David Dring, a spokesman for House Republican Leader Tom
Cross (R-Oswego), who has been hosting negotiations in his Springfield
office since Monday afternoon. The board chairman and the mayors
will reconvene in DuPage, Dring said.
What
will be on the table remains closely guarded. Earlier in the day,
Mack said the mayors had offered to share 15 percent of the commission's
sales-tax revenue for the next two years, followed by 20 percent
thereafter, to satisfy the county's financial needs. That would
amount to between $4 million and $7 million a year.
Schillerstrom
initially asked for half of the 0.25-percent sales tax the water
commission collects, according to a press release from his office.
When that suggestion was rejected by mayors--including Thomas
Marcucci of Elmhurst, William Murphy of Woodridge and George Pradel
of Naperville--Schillerstrom proposed abolishing the commission.
Mack
also said the mayors offered to ease the fee that towns not hooked
up to the water commission's mains must pay to get on the system.
Those fees, initially set as incentives to join the commission
when it began, are punitive, county officials contend. They also
wanted the power to appoint the commission's chairman, which would
give the towns a majority on the 13-member board. Schillerstrom
now appoints the chairman.
Most
significantly, the sides wrangled over whether residents served
by wells in unincorporated areas should have to annex to municipalities
to get Lake Michigan water. While not initially a central rationale
for his proposal, Schillerstrom lately has emphasized the plight
of people with contaminated wells who don't want to be forced
to join a town to get clean water.
The
mayors have countered that Schillerstrom resolved that issue through
an agreement he signed last August. It allows extending town water
mains to residents, but in some cases requires annexation of their
homes within 10 years. Mack said the mayors offered to extend
the annexation period to 15 years.
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