Big News at Meeting Last Night

Can anyone report what happened at last night's meeting and if there was any BIG news?

Yes. The village spent a million dollars on different things. They borrowed another $330,000, approved the village hall renovation, and had no announcements on any businesses coming to town. Sounds like a banner night in good ole Midlo!

How can they keep spending and borrowing and have nothing new coming in. The village hall is just fine, it has done it's job all these yrs it can wait a few more to be redone. Don't keep spending money you dont have

The village hall improvements fall under the capital improvement bond that was already there. As I stated on another topic, this money has to be spent or we lose it and get a penalty on top. The JAWA plan is going forward. For those of you who do not know, we get our water from Chicago. They are trying to pay for their own projects by using our money. The numbers that I seem to remember are 7 out of the last 8 billing cycles they have raised our water rates for a combined total of 120%. JAWA is a plan to have our own water supply. It is a combined project with other towns and the $330,000 mentioned is our part of the study. This bond has no payments due for 2 years and would be payed off by the constuction bond for the project. 2 village vehicals are being replaced, this is normal spending with 3 seperate quotes to ensure the best pricing for us. The last item was replacing the firefighters breathing equiptment. The ones they are now using are too old and they cannot be used after Dec 31. The board got a quote from an another source that really wanterd are buisness and the board got them to give us a price that was almost $80,000 less than our current supplier.

It is not a capital improvement qualifying project! I'm sure they are using a bond but it is definitely not from the capital improvement bond that was borrowed to fund the water and street projects. That is the ONLY thing they can use that for.
It doesn't sound like they made a big announcement as you suggested. I think we all expected some big announcement regarding 147th and Cicero based on your earlier posts.
At least we know of 2 trustees that didn't vote for the renovation. Karen Kries and Don Killillea are a little more financially aware and I trust their opinion on this one.
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/neighborhoo...

So we were lied to again!! There are 2 capital improvement bonds. One is for streets and we are paying a 3 cent a gallon gas tax for that. The other is for water and we pay for that on our water bills. We, the people, swallowed those fees because we knew the work needed to be done. If any of those projects came in under budget then do more street, sewer and water repairs. Lord knows we need that more than we need to make more office space for the unnecessary attorney and his secretary!!

eagleman posted that the renovation does qualify under the bond for whatever reason, but I have to agree with naysayer. There are some ROUGH streets in town that haven't been touched in a long time. Try fixing more streets and such before we pretty up the village hall. I understand it is supposed to increase meeting room space and all, but not busting a tire, rim or axle on a crappy street seems a better immediate use of the funds. But then I will concede that I'm going solely based on what I've heard here as I missed the meeting.

I can't believe the money these guys throw around! How come no body in that whole place thinks there is something wrong? I read in the southtownstar that our clerk resigned. What happens now?

heinrich stechcivic wrote:

It is not a capital improvement qualifying project! I'm sure they are using a bond but it is definitely not from the capital improvement bond that was borrowed to fund the water and street projects. That is the ONLY thing they can use that for.
It doesn't sound like they made a big announcement as you suggested. I think we all expected some big announcement regarding 147th and Cicero based on your earlier posts.
At least we know of 2 trustees that didn't vote for the renovation. Karen Kries and Don Killillea are a little more financially aware and I trust their opinion on this one.
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/neighborhoo...

Well, that story did leave a few things out. Trustee's Kries and Killillea both agreed that the project is needed. They voted no because a cash projection report is due soon and they both stated that they would feel more comfortable voting on this project after they had a chance to read the report. As for being a capital improvement it all depends on the wording of the bond. This project falls under the wording of the bond in question. If this was just a remodel of an office then that would not be a capital improvement. Yes, I was hoping that an announcement of the Cicero plans but there seems to be a paper work hold up on the tenents part. The JAWA thing is still big and full scale work should be starting on the old family pride building by the end of summer/start of fall. Right now you will see some minor work once in awhile, that is part of the devoloper assesing the work.

Whoa wrote:

I can't believe the money these guys throw around! How come no body in that whole place thinks there is something wrong? I read in the southtownstar that our clerk resigned. What happens now?

Right now the deputy clerk has been approved to be the acting clerk.( with no pay change) The Mayor will now take some time to find someone to finish off the term by appointment.

Ok so I've done some checking and made some calls and found out more about this bond thing. It's not the so called "Capital Improvement Bond" that eagleman references.

The money being used for renovations is a General Obligation Bond that DOES have a portion dedicated to Capital Improvement, BUT that portion isn't what is being used. There was $1.8million set aside in the GO Bond to pay the bills for capital improvement. They spent $800,000 on the bridges which left about $1 million for future capital improvements within the village. This million CAN be used for the renovations.

The "Capital Improvement Bond" itself IS just for JAWA (Joint Action Water Agency) to get our own water from Lake Michigan so I think that's where the confusion is. None of this money is going to renovations.

Sorry...I phrased that wrong. I need to read before I submit not after! Haha.

How my 2nd paragraph should have read:

The money being used for renovations is a General Obligation Bond that DOES have a portion dedicated to Capital Improvement, and that portion is what is being used. There was $1.8million set aside in the GO Bond to pay the bills for capital improvement. They spent $800,000 on the bridges which left about $1 million for future capital improvements within the village. This million CAN be used for the renovations.

So, lets let the street just get worse, but have a top of the art village hall that houses what 20 people. If we drive down on of the streets that are in bad shape and blow a tire maybe the village should pay for it. Yes, the bridges are nice by the creek and hopefully will work to stop flooding don't want to lose everything in my basement again and then be told from the village there is no help.

livehereforever,

The point I was trying to make is that the money allotted for street repairs isn't being at all used for the renovations. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

One thing I do remember hearing earlier this month was that the bids for the street work came in lower than expected and would likely allow us to do double the work we originally budgeted for. So here's to hoping some of those streets I'm talking about (and if you've ever been on em, you know where they are!) get fixed.

Oh, and I did find out there is time left on the GO Bond so it isn't about to expire as past posts might imply. So for my two cents, I'm not sure renovating the village hall right now is the way I'd go. If we have time left (I think it's around 3 years?) then I'd hold off a year, 18 months (whatever is feasible) just in case something else comes up that is more pressing. But by then construction costs could go up too so there are definitely many factors to consider if we're going to be fair about this.

5yr Midlo Resident wrote:

Oh, and I did find out there is time left on the GO Bond so it isn't about to expire as past posts might imply. So for my two cents, I'm not sure renovating the village hall right now is the way I'd go. If we have time left (I think it's around 3 years?) then I'd hold off a year, 18 months (whatever is feasible) just in case something else comes up that is more pressing. But by then construction costs could go up too so there are definitely many factors to consider if we're going to be fair about this.

5 year, thanks for clearing my post up. I could't remember the name of the bond. The last few meeting I was at they kept bringing up the fact that our auditers needed to report movement with that money or else we could get in big time trouble with the Feds. Also don't forget that part of the improvement would be higher energy efficiant lights and HVAC equiptment. The village could then apply for rebates with the federal goverment as well as ComEd. That money would then go into the general fund. Sorry , I have been cleaning out my computer and forgot to log back in until I type this whole thing.

There were two capital improvement bonds in 2010 but no general obligation bonds but the village manager said in the paper that this was the 2010 bond money being used. Could he be wrong and eagleman be right??

When I got this update yesterday the only part I wasn't sure of was the year they got the GO Bond. The year I think was 2009, but that wasn't double checked, so I didn't post it. I could probably find out, but no, eagleman was not right about the monies coming from the bond labeled "Capital Improvement Bond." They came from this "General Obligation Bond" which was intended to pay village bills with the $1.8mil set aside for "capital improvements" such as the renovations or the bridges,etc.

5yr Midlo Resident wrote:

When I got this update yesterday the only part I wasn't sure of was the year they got the GO Bond. The year I think was 2009, but that wasn't double checked, so I didn't post it. I could probably find out, but no, eagleman was not right about the monies coming from the bond labeled "Capital Improvement Bond." They came from this "General Obligation Bond" which was intended to pay village bills with the $1.8mil set aside for "capital improvements" such as the renovations or the bridges,etc.

Hey, I was atleast half right( along with being half baked). The monies are for capital improvements, its just not a bond that was set up only for capital improvements. And sorry 5 year, I did not bring a camera for the fireworks.

Haha! Hey it's all good. You were trying to help. I was just confused by that and made some connections to find out. I didn't want people to think they were skimping on the street work for a renovation. And that's a good point about the rebates. Hopefully they'll inform us when they get to that point.