VILLAGE GOING $4.8 MILLION MORE IN DEBT

By Joseph Wiszowaty

SAUK VILLAGE |  The Village will soon be getting a $4.8 million loan from the State of Illinois to install air strippers to treat the contaminated drinking water.

Well # 3 on the village’s north side of town adjacent to the YRC (Roadway) property has been shut down since 2009 when a known carcinogen vinyl chloride was detected in the village’s drinking water at well #3.  This prompted action by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and litigation brought by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office to force the village to take action to clean up the drinking water and get well #3 back up and running or connect to another source.

Mayor David Hanks announced during his report Tuesday night that the village “signed all the paperwork Friday” for a loan of $4.868,900 in the form of a loan from the State of Illinois at a fixed rate of 1.9%.  The Village will proceed with the contract which has already been awarded for $4.1 million within 60 days according to Village Engineer Jim Czarnik of Robinson Engineering.  

Village Trustee Lynda Washington, who was once an advocate for Lake Michigan water,  was so excited about the $4.1 million dollar loan she began clapping stating “when I borrow money from people I want what I want right there” prompting Trustee Derrick Burgess to remind Washington “you’ve got to pay the money back though” eliciting some chuckles. 

After well #3 is complete the village will complete the installation of the permanent air stripping towers and new iron removal system for wells #1 and #2 at the location on Sauk Trail according to Czarnik.

In other business the residents learned there has been more money moving around village hall after Burgess questioned Hanks on the matter.  Residents discovered that Hanks authorized borrowing  borrowed an additional $140,000-$150,000 from either the “water fund or other funds” so that the Village could make payroll according to Hanks.  There was no action by the Village Board on the transferring and borrowing of the funds and Hanks was not clear on the exact amount or which funds these were borrowed.   According to Hanks the Village will repay these funds in addition to the $449,000 previously borrowed when tax revenues come in sometime in March.

Burgess also advised the Village Board that he had spoken with United State Senator Dick Durbin during his visit that the Village needed some financial assistance with the water situation.  Burgess reminded Durbin that former Congressman Jesse Jackson obtained federal funds funds for neighboring Ford Heights to obtain Lake Michigan water and they were not facing a contamination threat to their drinking water.  Durbin remained noncommittal according to Burgess but was well aware of the Village’s water plight because of news media reports.

EDITORIAL NOTE:  This would be the village’s largest water improvement project since 1988 when the Village installed the Iron Removal System and issued bonds for a total of $1.2 million (about $2.3 million in today's dollars when adjusted for inflation) following a referendum which passed November 4,  1986, by  1010 yes to 470 no.

In March, 2012 the residents of Sauk Village went to the polls and voted to abandon the 55 year old wells in favor of bringing Lake Michigan Water to the Village by 740 yes and 670 no.  In fact 1410 voters came out to the polls that day, only 50 more voted in the 2013 mayoral race in Sauk Village.

The residents of Sauk Village did not approve any referendum on Hanks’ water improvement plan and whether it should have included a upgrade to the iron removal system.  The plan was presented to Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office who agreed with it but stated that the Village needs to find a long-term alternative to their well water in the Consent Decree.

According to Robinson Engineering’s leak detection study,  the water loss has decreased from nearly 50% to some 20% according to Czarnik during a previous village board meeting.

Some residents have privately filed a class action lawsuit against YRC(Roadway) for contaminating the Village’s water supply.  A similar lawsuit filed against the Village of Sauk Village was dismissed in 2013.


Original material copyright 2014 Sauk Villager News; all rights reserved.

SENATOR DURBIN ADDRESSES FORUM IN SAUK VILLAGE

US Senator Dick Durbin arrives

By Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE | Sauk Village played host Friday, January 24th to the quarterly meeting of the Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation’s Winter Forum.  Never before has a United States Senator attended a function in Sauk Village, however, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was not there to address the residents, he was the guests of honor along with Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-IL2nd).  Both were introduced by the organization’s Executive Board Chairman Michael Scholefield who served as master of ceremonies for the event.

About 200 were in attendance at the Quarterly Forum which generally draws from 150 to 250 people on average according to Scholefield.

Durbin was greeted by a standing ovation as he came to the podium.  “I’m not going to forget this turnout in Sauk Village, Mayor Hanks congratulations, you have a beautiful Village Hall.  It took a little investigation to figure out the key to his political success, but I’ve got it!  10 Kids” Durbin quipped. 

Durbin talked about Congress’ budget success.  “Something happened that was just miraculous in Washington last week.  We passed a budget” Durbin said to a round of applause.

“The Speaker of the House John Boenher said I’m going to support this bi-partisan budget and I thought praise the Lord.   I hope this is the beginning of the efforts on some bipartisan developments” Durbin said.

Durbin spoke about the Marketplace Fairness act that sales tax will be collected on internet sales which will come back to the local municipalities   Durbin supports sales tax on internet sales so that the revenues are not lost.  When someone makes a purchase online the local communities will get the revenues Durbin said.  Durbin feels that this will level the playing field with local businesses and online businesses.

“Something that is critically important to the state of Illinois.  We are smack dab in the middle of this nation” Durbin said.   Durbin spoke about the Transportation bill that the government needs to develop ways in which we need to increase revenues for improving infrastructure for roads.

Durbin said that Amazon wants to build logistic centers all across the state of Illinois once the Marketplace Fairness Act passed.

“I never ask what your political affiliation is.  I work with mayors from both political parties and we treat everyone professionally and I hope they feel they have been treated professionally in my office” Durbin said.  “When it comes to creating jobs and moving our state forward party is second.  The first obligation that we have is doing the very best for our state” Durbin said.

Gene Williams Mayor of Lynwood & Robin Kelly

Other speakers included Congresswoman Kelly, David Hanks, Mayor of Sauk Village the host community  Brian Quigley of Dermody Partners who spoke about the success of the LogistiCenter of Sauk Village, Mike Wojick, Senior Vice President of the Horton Group who spoke on the Affordable Care Act, Rusty Winchel who told the organization about the advantages of the South Suburban Mayors and Manager Broadband Networking offering to businesses in the Southland .  Finally, Michael Jasso addressed the group and discussed strategic planning coordination with Cook County. 

who discussed the history of the Village and the business environment.

Anthony Deluca & Robin Kelly

Local mayors from other communities were in attendance including neighboring Lynwood, Richton Park, Olympia Fields, Lansing, Country Club Hills, Mokena and many other elected officials and representatives from communities in the South Suburban area.  Illinois State Representative Anthony Deluca, representing the Southland was in attendance. “These typically have a good turnout and it is good to see Senator Durbin here in Sauk Village” Gene Williams, Mayor of Lynwood said.

“We’re glad he (Senator Durbin) and (Congresswoman) Robin Kelly could make it” Ed Paesel, Executive Director of South Suburban Mayors and Managers said following the forum.



Village officials in attendance included Village Clerk Debbie Williams and Village Trustees Derrick Burgess, Lynda Washington, Rosie Williams, John Poskin and Ed Myers.

"This was a good thing for Sauk Village.  I've been to many of these and they always have good turnout" Burgess said following the event.  

Original material, including photos, copyright 2014 Sauk Villager News; all rights reserved. 

A Bright Spot Offers Economic Development Opportunity

Copyright 2014 Sauk Villager News; all rights reserved.

By Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE |  Many in and around Sauk Village may not see the economic growth in terms of new job opportunities, many tend to see only what is in front of them, not what may be off the "beaten path".  There is a diamond in the rough in Sauk Village and one they can be proud to boast about.

The LogistiCenter Business Park at Sauk Village is a 325-acre Class A business park, bounded by Illinois state highway 394 on the east, Cottage Grove Avenue on the west, Sauk Trail on the south and the CN on the north. Located within the heavy industrial Calumet Expressway Corridor, the park has immediate access to IL-394 and is within six miles of I-80/I-94, making it one of the areas most desirable location for serving the tri-state area of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.to the west of Illinois 394 and Sauk Trail began to grow wings as the economy was in full throttle until 2008.  

Despite the economic downturn the opportunities are huge for Sauk Village and possible Industrial development.

What was once nothing but the field belonging to Vincent Sauter back in the 1840s is now home to WinPak a worldwide maker of the “K-Cups” one might use every day in the Keurig coffee maker and a warehouse facility for Behr Paint.

The equalized value of the land in 1994, when the Tax Increment Financing District was first begun was a messily $281,916 generating roughly about $30,000 in property taxes.  Today the equalized value of the property is over $21,500,000 according to the office of the Cook County Clerk (the actually value is significantly higher) and generates $2,977,687.25 each year in property tax revenue for the village.  

So where is all that property tax money going some may wonder?  Well first there are those pesky bonds to pay!  The bonds were taken out to make all of the necessary infrastructure improvements necessary to get this multi-million dollar project off the ground.  Streets, water, sewer mains and of course rail access something many communities can envy.  Sauk Village's port to the world is now open with the Canadian National Railway offering rail service to the LogistiCenter.

Wayne Steel was the first business to move into the outskirts of the property in the late 1990s.  Former Mayor Roger Peckham inherited what seemed like a “boondoggle” when he became Mayor in 1997.  By 2000, the Village had lost an inter-modal facility and things didn’t seem too rosy for the property the village was now owner and it began to weigh on Peckham's shoulders.

Peckham through marketing connections brought in Dermody Properties/DP Partners to develop the “LogistiCenter at Sauk Village” in March of 2005.  Since that time, Dermody Properties/DP Partners has developed three facilities totaling 1,531,630 square feet.  When completed, the 325-acre LogistiCenter Business Park will accommodate approximately 5,000,000 square feet of high-cube distribution and manufacturing space and attract between 500 and 1,500 jobs to the Southland Region.

LogistiCenter Business Park at Sauk Village offers the maximum in facility flexibility. Build-to-suit buildings are custom designed to meet the most demanding specifications of users. Dermody Properties/DP Partners is also developing single- or multi-tenant speculative buildings for immediate occupancy. All facilities in the park are built to Class A quality specifications, designed to protect the investment of tenants, the owner/developer, and the Village of Sauk Village.

The LogistiCenter had begun bringing in tax revenue to cover the cost of the bonds issued in 2002 for the initial improvements.   Property tax revenues increased in 2005 to $422,778 far less than the Sauk Pointe Industrial Park which seemed to reach its pinnacle.  By 2006, property tax revenue took off to $1,197,884 as additional development started up.  

By the end of Roger Peckham’s term in office in 2009, property tax revenues that year $2,074,000.  Peckham had some loose ends to tie up and negotiating on one of these was the Village’s long-time attorney Louis Vitullo.  Peckham credits Vitullo for landing the WinPak project for Sauk Village before he left office.  Peckham's creativity and vision for the LogisiCenter helped it take flight, during some good economic times despite the debt left behind, the financial picture of the LogistiCenter is very strong and revenues are more than adequate to cover the long-term debt service.  Peckham, Vitullo and Mary Thomspon from Kane, McKenna and Associates, Inc and the others involved with the creation of the Tax Increment Financing District set it up for long-term success.

Lewis Towers came to office ill prepared for the enormous financial debacle that was unfolding in the world economy, let alone the small tiny microcosm of Sauk Village.  With the reduction in state revenues and the shortfall of revenue anticipated from the Logisticenter Development, Towers faced a massive $1 million budget short-fall for the first time in the Village’s history.

Turnover in the Village’s finance department and within Towers’ administration exacerbated matters.  Towers’ fell out of political favor quickly with this fellow running mates and his supporters turned on him and blamed him for the financial woe and mismanagement.

On May 4, 2011, Governor Patrick Quinn’s office announced a $1.6 million business investment package for WinPak to help fund the new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, which complimented the company’s $30 million investment for land, building and equipment.
.  “Sauk Village is a good fit in these times as most communities are losing jobs, especially in the area of manufacturing. We welcome this opportunity to bring economic development to our community,” Towers said following Quinn’s announcement.

Plans were finalized by WinPak and they broke ground in September, 2011 on a multi-million dollar new facility.  WinPak’s new facility would be a massive 267,000 square foot which is expandable to up to 600,000 square feet with rail access on 28 acres.  

Lewis Towers was elated when WinPak was completed and the village then recovered monies from the company for the start up costs in 2012.  Many businesses through the tough economic times have still looked at Sauk Village because of their desire to work with their developer and the businesses as well.  The lack of business capital during the financial crisis made start up capital a bit tougher to get, but things have since begun to improve.  

Since WinPak completed construction, there have been no new construction within the LogistiCenter, but the opportunities and economic incentives are available.  Dawn Foods was considering locating in Sauk Village in early 2013, however, choose to move to Merrillville and built a brand new state-of-the-art facility but Sauk Village was definitely a contender for the multi-million dollar project.

Sauk Village has a long history of welcoming business opportunities.  Mayor David Hanks and the Village of Sauk Village are playing host to the Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation’s Quarterly Forum on January 24^th at the Sauk Village Hall.  

The Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation is a not-for-profit which works with municipalities, the private sector, utilities and other groups to analyze regional economic development factors, business clusters, and development corridors to identify significant development opportunities and market those sites to the private sector. 

Original material copyright 2014 Sauk Villager News; all rights reserved.  

VILLAGE MAY OUTSOURCE WATER BILLING

SAUK VILLAGE WATER DEPT.

By Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE |  Mayor David Hanks revealed that the severely cash strapped village is owed some $100,000 in delinquent water bills and he wants those who owe to pay up.

“Under the previous administration they stopped turning off water on renters” whose bills ran delinquent Hanks said but added that that practice has now come to a halt.

“I am getting regular complaints from landlords who are stuck with huge bills from their tenants” Hanks said.  The Village’s ordinances hold the home’s owner, not the tenant’s responsible for the water bill, however, the Village does not and currently with its software cannot generate two bills for the same account.  “I don’t blame them (the landlords).  If we were in their shoes how would we feel?", Hanks said.

While Hanks empathized with the plight of the landlords, he also wants to toughen up on placing liens on the home’s owner for delinquent and unpaid bills.  There are currently 190 homes where the village cannot turn off the water because the properties lack a “B-Box” or “Buffalo Box”.  

The Village heard a second presentation from Rita Miotti at Tuesday night’s Village Board Committee-of-the-whole meeting on outsourcing the water billing.

Miotti is recommending going to a monthly billing cycle to make the bills easier to budget for the consumer.  Miotti said that her company, Municipal Solutions, will do the billing for the village’s water, sewer and garbage service and will charge a nominal $1.25 fee on each bill for the service and $0.75 per second notice.  The figures are tenatative..  

The Village’s operations of providing the data into the village’s system will be unchanged.  The only change will be that the person responsible for running the water bills will no longer be doing that job function.  The administration’s hope is to “free up” the employee’s time to work on other tasks.  Trustee Rosie Williams said that while this may “free up” the time the employee spends on running the water bills, they will now be spending more time at the window servicing twice the number of customers who usually pay their bills in person.

Currently the Village runs on two cycles where 1,000 residents are billed one month and about 1,100 are billed the next month.  Miotti proposes billing the entire village’s 2100 water users each month.  This will also increase the work for the meter readers it was pointed out as well.  

The Village employees’ union filed three grievances to which Hanks added all three have had final resolutions and the Village will not hear them.  “The Village has a right to look into outside contractors and we denied their (the village employee's) grievances" Hanks said.

Willams wanted a “cost benefit analysis” provided by Mohan Rao, the village’s finance director.  Hanks had thought that he would have that available for the meeting Tuesday night, however, none was provided.

Village Trustee Derrick Burgess reminded the board that in order to make all these changes, ordinances would have to be changed including the village’s “minimum bill” which is established for a bi-monthly billing cycle not a monthly one.   Burgess also asked for an analysis on how much the minimum monthly charge would be if the Village switches to a monthly cycle in addition to sewer and garbage collection.

WALK SOFTLY NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Opinion Editorial

By Joseph Wiszowaty

First of all, I want to commend Village Trustee Lynda Washington-House on her tenacity to move forward with the Neighborhood Watch Program.  She has dived full-force into her efforts of trying to implement a new program village-wide.  Raising funds to purchase signs without a cost to the taxpayers, well done Lynda!

While her enthusiasm is applauded, the effects felt by some have left a lot to be desired.  Trustee Washington-House needs to walk a little softly when dealing with other areas who have established their own Neighborhood Watch programs or those who do not have neighborhoods who have anyone participating in the program altogether.  These would be those imaginary protestors who did not show up at a Village Board meeting Tuesday night and did not have any intention of protesting anything.  This was nothing more than journalist and political sensationalism run amuck!  I felt sorry for the reporter who got caught up in this.

Additionally, the logo selected by the Village’s Neighborhood Watch Committee is not the National Organization’s official “Boris the Burglar” logo (see photo below)  Instead some claim that the Village adopted the “Kanye the Crook” which depicts a criminal black man in prison garb.   Now Kanye the Crook is not the National recognized logo, it is now the Village’s official logo for the Neighborhood Crime Watch.

BORIS THE BURGLAR "OFFICIAL LOGO"

or the Watchful Eye logo (see photo).

THE WATCHFUL EYE "OFFICIAL LOGO"

 HERE is the Village's "Official Logo" Kanye the Crook:

Sauk Village's Logo "Kanye the Crook"

I think it was a poor choice for a logo, why not just simply use the tried and true one of the two national logos instead of trying to reinvent the wheel and using an alarm company logo?

While it is nice to have a Neighborhood Crime Watch program, you have to have the support of the neighbors in the hood, not just a handful of volunteers to force a program onto residents who do not want to participate in the program and force them to have signs.  Signs do not deter crime a strong pro-active police department does!   Many successful Neighborhood Watch Programs are managed and work closely with their local police departments and do not have a “political flavor” such as Sauk Village’s program.

I prefer to take the politics out and once again reiterate, I applaud Trustee Washington-House’s efforts.