On the first day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me a 14% tax levy.
On the second day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me 2 fine generating red light cameras.
On the third day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me 3 new utility taxes.
On the forth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave 4.5% union raises.
On the fifth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me a 5 minute limit when requesting to be heard at a board meeting.
On the sixth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me talk of a $6,000 aluminum water bottle program.
On the seventh day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me 7 good ole boy board members.
On the eighth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me 8 months of Julie Voss in office without following through on 1 campaign promise.
On the ninth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me ordinance 09-11 Granting an Extension for the Establishment of Special Uses, Final Plan Approval, and Filing of the Final Plat of Subdivision for the Wal-Mart Supercenter PUD.
On the tenth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me 10 months of the year without a Planning & Zoning meeting because there has been absolutely nothing happening in the village to warrant one.
On the eleventh day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me a 1.1 million dollar projected revenue increase from our new taxes for 2010.
On the twelfth day of Christmas the West Dundee village board gave me twelve more months of the same ole same thing.
Keeping The Residents Informed
The most recent village board meeting I attended on Monday night was what I would call your typical meeting - approval for St. Catherine's Irish Fest, approval of previous meeting minutes, approval of the daily liquor permit request for Heritage Fest, approvals of new zoning ordinances and discussions about traffic signal upgrades.
One item of interest happened during the "miscellaneous" discussion at the end of the meeting. Trustee Gillam brought up a concern about the meeting minutes not being informative enough; only showing what decisions had been made and not including anything related to the discussions about that topic. She asked whether the minutes could be more informative. The general consensus from what I could ascertain was that the minutes only needed to include the final decision and that if people wanted more information they should attend board meetings. Trustee Voss even mentioned that one of her neighbors was asking her similar questions about how a certain decision had been made. Trustee Voss then told her neighbor that she should come to a meeting to stay informed.
Well Julie, how many meetings did you attend before you decided to run for the position you currently hold? While we're at it, didn't you say while you were running that you wanted to "be a voice for the people"? Well here's your chance to step up and become that voice. We have busy lives and the residents of this village expect the board to keep us informed and not just through your completely uninformative meeting minutes or by having the entire town show up at a board meeting. Get out there and talk to us. Continue to improve the utilization of the village wide e-mail alert system. Have those neighborhood meetings at resident’s houses (you know the only campaign promise you didn't steal from other candidates). Be a voice for your people Julie.
One item of interest happened during the "miscellaneous" discussion at the end of the meeting. Trustee Gillam brought up a concern about the meeting minutes not being informative enough; only showing what decisions had been made and not including anything related to the discussions about that topic. She asked whether the minutes could be more informative. The general consensus from what I could ascertain was that the minutes only needed to include the final decision and that if people wanted more information they should attend board meetings. Trustee Voss even mentioned that one of her neighbors was asking her similar questions about how a certain decision had been made. Trustee Voss then told her neighbor that she should come to a meeting to stay informed.
Well Julie, how many meetings did you attend before you decided to run for the position you currently hold? While we're at it, didn't you say while you were running that you wanted to "be a voice for the people"? Well here's your chance to step up and become that voice. We have busy lives and the residents of this village expect the board to keep us informed and not just through your completely uninformative meeting minutes or by having the entire town show up at a board meeting. Get out there and talk to us. Continue to improve the utilization of the village wide e-mail alert system. Have those neighborhood meetings at resident’s houses (you know the only campaign promise you didn't steal from other candidates). Be a voice for your people Julie.
Village of West Dundee grants Walmart an extension
This past Monday night the village board voted unanimously (that's a surprise) to grant a one-year extension to Wal-mart for their planned 24-hour 186,000 s.f. Super Wal-mart.
The extension was given to allow all the work that was previously done by the planning and zoning commission, the (village) board, Wal-Mart and other petitioners to finish what they started," Trustee Norm Osth told the Courier-News. "We had no recourse but to grant an extension."
Well Norm, the plaintiffs asked for a 30-day extension last year and were told, by you, just to let this pass and then sue. So they did. Please stop complaining about the outcome of the advice you gave them.
We pride ourselves with the quality of buildings in the community and are confident that the building won't be as deleterious to their lives as they may think," Village President Larry Keller also told the Courier-News. "The overwhelming majority of those I have talked to are anxious for Wal-Mart to come to West Dundee."
Hmmm, Wal-mart and quality, isn't that an oxymoron Larry?
That's surprising Larry, the majority of people that I've spoken to are not in favor of this development.
There has been a lot of finger-pointing on the part of the board and its representatives claiming that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are costing the village a lot of money. Not to discount the fees they are paying to the village attorney (who is most likely on a retainer), but I'm guessing Wal-mart is shouldering the burden of cost of the lawsuit. Will the village lose sales tax revenue because the store is unable to generate any? Sure, but it isn't an immediate loss as the village is portraying.
The extension was given to allow all the work that was previously done by the planning and zoning commission, the (village) board, Wal-Mart and other petitioners to finish what they started," Trustee Norm Osth told the Courier-News. "We had no recourse but to grant an extension."
Well Norm, the plaintiffs asked for a 30-day extension last year and were told, by you, just to let this pass and then sue. So they did. Please stop complaining about the outcome of the advice you gave them.
We pride ourselves with the quality of buildings in the community and are confident that the building won't be as deleterious to their lives as they may think," Village President Larry Keller also told the Courier-News. "The overwhelming majority of those I have talked to are anxious for Wal-Mart to come to West Dundee."
Hmmm, Wal-mart and quality, isn't that an oxymoron Larry?
That's surprising Larry, the majority of people that I've spoken to are not in favor of this development.
There has been a lot of finger-pointing on the part of the board and its representatives claiming that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are costing the village a lot of money. Not to discount the fees they are paying to the village attorney (who is most likely on a retainer), but I'm guessing Wal-mart is shouldering the burden of cost of the lawsuit. Will the village lose sales tax revenue because the store is unable to generate any? Sure, but it isn't an immediate loss as the village is portraying.
Motion to Reconsider Filed
The attorneys representing abutting homeowners (some of us) filed a Motion to Reconsider with the Kane County Court today. We didn't make this decision lightly, but after consulting with our attorneys and other attorneys, we felt this was best course of action. The fact remains that we do not believe the Village enforced its own ordinance, and the we think the Judge may have overlooked some issues that were not addressed in his order. We'll keep you updated as things develop--thank you so much for the support!
I attended the village board meeting on Monday, April 20, 2009 and was pleasantly surprised to hear about ways that the village has decided to cut costs in their 2009-2010 budget.
1. No economic adjustment will be given to non-union employees this year (though from my understanding this will be reviewed in 6 months). Union employees received a 4.5% increase per their contract.
2. We have signed a contract for tree services, but the contract is for emergency removals only, there will be no parkway tree trimming this year.
3. A new janitorial company was hired.
Items 2 and 3 should save the village approximately $65,000 this year. No numbers were reported on item 1.
What I was upset to hear about was that they will be raising property taxes 18%. That 18% comes out to about $110 a year on a $250,000 home. I'm glad to see that the village isn't only about raising taxes, but also in cutting expenses, though I was hoping they would not raise taxes in these tough economic times.
1. No economic adjustment will be given to non-union employees this year (though from my understanding this will be reviewed in 6 months). Union employees received a 4.5% increase per their contract.
2. We have signed a contract for tree services, but the contract is for emergency removals only, there will be no parkway tree trimming this year.
3. A new janitorial company was hired.
Items 2 and 3 should save the village approximately $65,000 this year. No numbers were reported on item 1.
What I was upset to hear about was that they will be raising property taxes 18%. That 18% comes out to about $110 a year on a $250,000 home. I'm glad to see that the village isn't only about raising taxes, but also in cutting expenses, though I was hoping they would not raise taxes in these tough economic times.
Village newsletter
I received my quarterly village newsletter the other day and was anxious to read the article on the 2009/2010 Village Budget.
I was extremely disappointed by comments that were made in this article "Additional revenues projected last fiscal year would have included new sales tax in excess of one millions [and that is their own grammatical error] dollars that would flow to the community from the proposed new Wal Mart facility. These funds would have assisted in paying for the increased cost of municipal service levels of this community and eliminated last years' deficit. The construction and predicted opening has been delayed by the litigation initiated by the seven adjacent homeowners. The building plans have been approved and engineering and design is nearly complete for the project."
Wow, I'm impressed that the village was expecting to get the store built and generate new sales tax revenues in excess of one millon dollars in 6 months time because the plans were only just approved in June, 2008. Expected construction time is 18 months. Even with pushing to get the construction finished ahead of that time frame (and when has that ever happened), the village shouldn't expect to start receiving sales tax revenues until December, 2009, but clearly they are counting their chickens before they hatch.
As a member of Dundee Neighbors I would be more than willing to add my name to the lawsuit, unfortunately the law only allows "adjacent" homeowners to litigate.
I was extremely disappointed by comments that were made in this article "Additional revenues projected last fiscal year would have included new sales tax in excess of one millions [and that is their own grammatical error] dollars that would flow to the community from the proposed new Wal Mart facility. These funds would have assisted in paying for the increased cost of municipal service levels of this community and eliminated last years' deficit. The construction and predicted opening has been delayed by the litigation initiated by the seven adjacent homeowners. The building plans have been approved and engineering and design is nearly complete for the project."
Wow, I'm impressed that the village was expecting to get the store built and generate new sales tax revenues in excess of one millon dollars in 6 months time because the plans were only just approved in June, 2008. Expected construction time is 18 months. Even with pushing to get the construction finished ahead of that time frame (and when has that ever happened), the village shouldn't expect to start receiving sales tax revenues until December, 2009, but clearly they are counting their chickens before they hatch.
As a member of Dundee Neighbors I would be more than willing to add my name to the lawsuit, unfortunately the law only allows "adjacent" homeowners to litigate.
Voter registration cards
Did you receive a new voter registration card in the mail recently? Did you look it over to see what, if anything was different? I know I didn't, I stored it and didn't think about again until my neighbor mentioned that our polling location has been changed. I pulled my card out and yes indeed my polling place has been changed. Please take a moment to pull out your card and verify your polling location.
Keller seeks re-election in West Dundee
Ask yourself, is the Village better off now then it was a decade ago? Higher taxes-- both sales and property, no Randall Road business, a divided community, more traffic and congestion, retail outlets moving OUT of our town, budget shortfall. I am not saying this is ALL his fault but the phrase asleep at the wheel does come to mind.
We need new people at the helm of our village. People that are willing to be be a part of a fiscally responsible open government and embrace smart growth.
We need new people at the helm of our village. People that are willing to be be a part of a fiscally responsible open government and embrace smart growth.
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