THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEEK OF FEBRUARY 11, 2007
Give An Engineer A Chance
By JOHN CRAWFORD
Last Monday was the last day for candidates to file for election to the Village Board, the Park District, the Library Board and the school boards. Fortunately, there will be contests, which will help educate us as to the problems the boards face.
An interesting candidate for the Village Board is Andrew Sarkany, a retired civil engineer, who has had experience as a village engineering inspector and in quality control for builders at The Glen. Most interesting is his service on the Advisory Water Commission of San Joaquin County, California. One of the biggest headaches for our village has been the financing of water and sewer services. We are reminded of our being in the water and sewer business by some paper signs at the entrance to the Village Hall, and on the mailbox near the entrance, identifying us as "North Maine." These paper signs would never be approved by the Village Appearance Commission, and could cause some confusion, or at least puzzlement, for people coming to the Village Hall on village business. The purchase of the North Maine water system a few decades ago was praised by our then-village manager as a money-maker; this was the same mad genius who tried to persuade the board in the early 90s to sign a contract for the village's energy with Enron, just a few months before Enron went bankrupt.
Our new village manager has added things up and found that we have a money-loser, not a money-maker, in our role as a provider of water and sewer services. To his credit, he has decided to do something about it.
The latest move by the Village Board to recoup the expenses of the breakdowns in our water and sewer lines was to adopt a system of fixed quarterly charges for water and sewer services, in addition to the charge for gallons used. The scheme adopted by the Village Board last July results in some homeowners paying more than twice as much in fixed charges as other homeowners, regardless of the amount of water consumed. It seems to me that it would be better for us taxpayers to solve the shortfall in revenues by using general revenues from the village real estate tax, as we do in maintaining our streets and other infrastructure. That way, we would get a break in making the additional cost a part of the real estate taxes we deduct as an itemized deduction on our US-1040, and for which we receive a 5% property tax credit on our state income tax return. Of course, the village does not receive property taxes from water customers outside the village, but their portion of the costs could be paid through adjustment of their rates for water usage, or even through fixed charges which have fairness to the homeowners as an important goal as well as just raising money. Perhaps it would be a good idea to re-privatize the North Maine water utility system, or at least that part of it lying beyond the village boundaries, and sell it to some private enterprise.
I have no idea what Andrew Sarkany's approach to this problem would be. However, we could use a civil engineer's experience to consider this and many other proposals and problems presented to the Village Board. We have enough legal and financial talent on the board. Let's give an engineer a chance.