Developer eyes industrial park at I-55, Lorenzo Road

ridge port can suck it. they are brainwashing diamond mayor in thinking they will make his town rich. he is an idiot. they (diamond ) aregoing t annex my clubs property to build a road to connect them to ridge port. money hungry bastards

I agree with stay out, Diamond's Mayor and Board have no idea who they are crawling in bed with on this one. This same pack of crooks ran another north-central Illinois town into the ground for broke. If anyone knows the Mayor of Diamond they need to make sure he knows whats going on. What club are you talking about? Is the golf course a country club now? I haven't been down there in several years now.

Who do they think they are creating a TIF against our school district? Every single Wilmington property owner should be mad as hell that Diamond's TIF creation will prohibit money that our school districts should get. And what about the fire protection and police. We (Wilmington) pay, they (Diamond) profit.

What town are you talking about in north central Illinois? You are all listening to the City and the newspapers. Maybe we need to get a new City staff that can take advantage of these opportunities for our town before they all go to Diamond and Braidwood.

No interest in the deal wrote:

I agree with stay out, Diamond's Mayor and Board have no idea who they are crawling in bed with on this one. This same pack of crooks ran another north-central Illinois town into the ground for broke. If anyone knows the Mayor of Diamond they need to make sure he knows whats going on. What club are you talking about? Is the golf course a country club now? I haven't been down there in several years now.

i looked on the developers web page and googled them and found no reference to a central illinios deal they were involved with. either you know something that no one else does or you are trying to discredit some one by totally mis representing the facts. if you, have not been down here in years, maybe you should spend some time finding out the truth before you make slanderous comments

Wildcat 99 wrote:

What town are you talking about in north central Illinois? You are all listening to the City and the newspapers. Maybe we need to get a new City staff that can take advantage of these opportunities for our town before they all go to Diamond and Braidwood.

why did the staff not present this project to the people of willmington and the alderman. it seems based on coments from the alderman they to are not in the loop that is controlled my the mayor and the city adminstrator.

They may call him a Maverick in the paper but we know what an idiot he really is. He's just an ol' washed up used car salesman that enjoyed the key club while it lasted.

This development may bring our town some money if we are not bankrupt before then. Providing fire protection and police protection alone will cost us a bundle. Then add a new and bigger water and sewage treatment plant and by the time we see a dime we will be so broke we will be paying taxes as high as Plainfield. We have got to stop this before it gets going or get our wonderful mayor to sign his personal accountability on the costs. Why do you think Coal City isn't interested and Wilmington backed off. Not that they're all that sharp, but at least they aren't going to mortguage their future for a couple kick-backs like our mayor.

If ANY member of my Village Board decides to back this loser of a Mayor then they might as well pack their house up and leave too. What has this come to? Now we are bonding our town for the profitability of a developer. He ran his car business in the ground years ago and now he's about to drive the city broke and take the neighboring towns down with him. He better not come here campaigning.

Hey Einstein (Diamond Dan). The Developer is paying for the cost of the police service, and the fire department. They are also paying for plowing the streets and cutting the grass. If you were smart, you would know that the sewer and water charges are a profit center for Villages. I work in the banking industry, and the bonds used for these tif projects are non-recourse to the city. That means there is no risk. Maybe you should spend a little more time reading, and less time writing! And by the way, we know all of the people writing into this blog are from Coal City and Wilmington.

Diamond Dave wrote:

Hey Einstein (Diamond Dan). The Developer is paying for the cost of the police service, and the fire department. They are also paying for plowing the streets and cutting the grass. If you were smart, you would know that the sewer and water charges are a profit center for Villages. I work in the banking industry, and the bonds used for these tif projects are non-recourse to the city. That means there is no risk. Maybe you should spend a little more time reading, and less time writing! And by the way, we know all of the people writing into this blog are from Coal City and Wilmington.

Dear Diamond Dave,
Funny name for a banker. You must have a lot of bling. I am not from Coal City or Wilmo, I am right here in the heart of Diamond IL and if you care to swing by I'll be happy to remove some of that bling from you. I think the other poster is referring to the lack of police altogether here in Diamond. Sure we have the County but we get service like we live in timbucktoo. Most of us just aren't sold on this railyard gig and the sneaky people at city hall won;t tell us anything. We really don;t know if it's good or bad, but we do know the reputation of the leader. And it's not good.

all who were not at the presentation in diamond on wed, the developer made a very clear and concise presenation about the impacts along withthe long term benenfits especially in the area of jobs

the notes i took are as follow
1. police, the developer is entering into a contrqact with the Will County sheriff

2. fire, an agremeent is pending with the fire district where by the developer will cover 100% of the operating costs plus provide a fire station and all new equipment. by the way this will really improve service for us in the area as the current service is so far away

3. sewer & water, they are building new plant and water tower at tehir expense and then giving it to the diamond free with no debt. diamond then will charge all the users for sewer and water and make a profit from the users.

4. schools, willmigton will get their share as the project is in the schools district ...i think they said like $350,000,000. they also said they were going to donate money to the coal city school district as well.

5. traffic maters, they said that idot is working on a massive plan to improve the two existing interchanges and that diamond would not pay a nickel towards those costs.

6. employment... something like 12,000 new jobs and thousands of construction jobs over the next 20 years. all union high paying conastruction jobs and that they would work with the local contracotrs and unions to get their people and our neighbors back to work first.

there were a number of questions regarding the MIners club. lots of confusion and clais that they were going to negatively impact the minors.

i did not get that. the strip of land that they were talking about will not allow the city of diamond or the developer do or change anythng that is going on with the monwers to day....no change. it sounds like the monirs need to do this to protect their property and not have to have naything done onthe rest of their land. I would be more concerned about what coal city and willmingotn are up to based on the coal city mayor's comments about him working with willmington.

the mayor of diamond will not commit to what HE wants to zone HIS portion of the minors club. he WILL NOT promise they will be left alone he will only say they "should" be left alone, which means over time when this ridgeport explodes into a huge cancerous tumor they will have to make the frontage road and i-55 wider which will put it right through the camp grounds and beach area of the minors club ultimatly closing it down after almost 60yrs of people going there to get away from things like this. that is where kids are taught to love, protect and charish the outdoors. not destroy it!!!!! coal city agrees to and offers to zone the club recreational. which can never be touched. why won't the diamond idiot do that for thm if he is so sure nothing will happen to them????? because he is a carsalesman. always will be. al he is worried about is the money. take a ride through elwood, minooka, joliet those towns have been destoyed by this. intermodels are toilets full of drugs, prostition and everything else the low lifes like that come to these facilities to work for 13.50 hr. which that jerk from ridgeport said was the pay for the majority of jobs at this wretch hole. you people in town who are for this are being sold a lemon and will to pay for it with the life style people here love and want to keep. that idiot mayor can't even get us a grocery store or a drug store. wake up man

also to you interested party( has to work for the village or be unemployed or a wanna be republican)why did the village board never come to it's community to tell us what is being offered to us. because he(the mayor) knows towns like these don't want this kins of growth it's literally being forced down our throats if we like it or not. this same type of development was brought to bradley ill. last year. their village board brought this offer to the community after all studies and consulting was done and said "this is what we have before us . these are the pro's these are the cons what do you want me to do??" and it went to a town vote and like smart people they turned away. that is called democracy not this commy crap diamond is shoving down your throat. oh yeah we are getting a fire dept. yeah 10 miles out of town. what about the trains. diamond is serviced by coal city fire, police and schools. if you live in diamond and you need help i.e. fire, ambulance etc. and one of these super trains they are not telling you about but which has already been approved. comes through town but the spur into ridgeport is blocking the only rail which is going to because the spur is only 1/4 mile long and a super train is 4 miles long. the other train will sit and idell out side of town. when the spur clears how long will it take a train that size or any size get to speed??? or does it need to get to speed if it too needs to stop at ridgeport. mean while your house just burnt down your loved one's heart attack just killed them. think long and hard diamond and coal city. we are in a worse position than wilmington was and we are jumping on this all in are you ridge supporters really that blinded by jobs and money that you don't see what WILL really happen??but ridge says"oh that SHOULDN'T happen" but they don't care. they can't answer your questions about trains because it is not their responsibility. the rail company is responsible for getting the trains to ridge to accomidate their needs which will be huge according to ridges sales pitch wed. night. look through the line of b.s. and wake up

Diamond Dave could you possibly be a member of the Diamond Village Board? You certainly seem to know a lot about the project, especially water and sewer topics!

Diamond Dave wrote:

Hey Einstein (Diamond Dan). The Developer is paying for the cost of the police service, and the fire department. They are also paying for plowing the streets and cutting the grass. If you were smart, you would know that the sewer and water charges are a profit center for Villages. I work in the banking industry, and the bonds used for these tif projects are non-recourse to the city. That means there is no risk. Maybe you should spend a little more time reading, and less time writing! And by the way, we know all of the people writing into this blog are from Coal City and Wilmington.

I thought something that Diamond Dave said was a little odd, so I called the Illinois Attoney General's office to confirm my thoughts. Sure enough I was right. If Diamond Dave is who I think he is then he needs to be voted right out of office as water and sewer commisioner. Water & Sewer fees are a public utility, their intent - by law - is to provide needed services to communities. There should never be intent to utilize these services as a "profit center" as you call it. It should be services out, cost of services in and thats it! SO EINSTEIN, get your head checked. You must have the same disease as Rayme where you think it's OK to freeload from everyone else. Hell - he even thinks it's ok to swap wives.

hey diamond dumb dave if your village board would ask it's own residents they would tell you the same KISS OFF DAVE. this sucks fat lady butt. the diamond people don't even know what the heck is going I have personally gone door to door informing people and they are about 9 out of 10 sickened first by the way the village is sneaking this in and second by the project in general. all of these so called improvements are at the other end of town also this will just start the crap if bend over and take it for ridge you will take it from the next whoknows how many groups of scum want to ruin OUR town also.

Keep up the good work stay out! Get as many people as you can to attend the hearing on Monday night. Thats the only way to make sure not only the Mayor, but his Board of loyalists understand that this isn't something to take quickly. The developers will end up developing the plan one way or another, but there is much more to gain having them wait and cough up enough to offset the impacts that will come. Not just for today, but for years to come. Joliet gave up zero $ TIF recapture to the developers recently and thats only 15 miles up the road. Diamond does not need to hand back ANY money to these clowns.

i am in the middle of a double battle here i don't want a develpoment like this here at all and i belong to the minors club where diamond is trying to force the annex on us which i realy don't know what that will do to us and the mayors office will not comment on it so i assume it is bad. also what will happen when we get a growth in population from this ridgeport and the coal city schools where diamond kids go to school get over crowded and all the money deticated to school impacts goes to wilmington?? gee let me guess a propery tax increase

interested party wrote:

all who were not at the presentation in diamond on wed, the developer made a very clear and concise presenation about the impacts along withthe long term benenfits especially in the area of jobs
the notes i took are as follow
1. police, the developer is entering into a contrqact with the Will County sheriff
2. fire, an agremeent is pending with the fire district where by the developer will cover 100% of the operating costs plus provide a fire station and all new equipment. by the way this will really improve service for us in the area as the current service is so far away
3. sewer & water, they are building new plant and water tower at tehir expense and then giving it to the diamond free with no debt. diamond then will charge all the users for sewer and water and make a profit from the users.
4. schools, willmigton will get their share as the project is in the schools district ...i think they said like $350,000,000. they also said they were going to donate money to the coal city school district as well.
5. traffic maters, they said that idot is working on a massive plan to improve the two existing interchanges and that diamond would not pay a nickel towards those costs.
6. employment... something like 12,000 new jobs and thousands of construction jobs over the next 20 years. all union high paying conastruction jobs and that they would work with the local contracotrs and unions to get their people and our neighbors back to work first.
there were a number of questions regarding the MIners club. lots of confusion and clais that they were going to negatively impact the minors.
i did not get that. the strip of land that they were talking about will not allow the city of diamond or the developer do or change anythng that is going on with the monwers to day....no change. it sounds like the monirs need to do this to protect their property and not have to have naything done onthe rest of their land. I would be more concerned about what coal city and willmingotn are up to based on the coal city mayor's comments about him working with willmington.

Interested, in the real world, agreements don't happen in the blink of an eye. Ridge talked about contributions to Coal City schools to mollify the Diamond residents, not because they are committed to addressing the impact they're creating. And what about Wilmington schools? Your figures are so far off - the entire tax benefit of the project for 23 years is less than what you say Ridge will give to Wilmington schools - that I'd have to say none of your "facts" can be trusted.