March Survey Results: Road Costs in Naperville and Unincorporated Naperville
UPDATE April 6, 2016 / Under the leadership of Naperville Township Supervisor Rachel Ossyra, the Board of Trustees met at 6PM, Wed., April 6, and postponed its approval of the budget for its highway district until its next meeting at 6PM Tues., May 3. The delay will give officials from the highway district more time to meet “in good faith” with City officials to further consider cost savings and the proposal to consolidate services with the City of Naperville.
The Naperville Township Highway District sets its own budget and currently is under the leadership by Commissioner Stan Wojtasiak.
The Wednesday meeting was held during the first week of April instead of its regularly scheduled meeting on the second Tuesday of the month to accommodate the Annual Township meeting on April 12. In May, the township will resume its regular schedule.
FROM APRIL PN / In early March, the PN website posted a nonbinding survey from the City of Naperville with information available at Naperville Township regarding its Highway Department.
To provide the community with an opportunity to offer opinions, PN took a chance at civility and welcomed anonymous feedback. What we received were many enlightening comments, pro and con, currently listed under “Feedback includes thoughtful dialogue” at www.positivelynaperville.com. Perhaps readers will do “some homework” and try to gain a better understanding of the issue that impacts some 34,000 property owners served by Naperville Township.
Mindful that the feedback reflects reasonable disagreement, PN called the Highway Department Commissioner directly to weigh in on the comments. We wondered when and where the commissioner would give his proposal and offered space for his response. His reply dated March 30, 2016, provided his scenario. He also said the topic was on the agenda for the 2016 Annual Naperville Township Meeting that begins at 7PM April 12. Registered voters in Naperville Township can sign up to speak beginning at 6PM.
Some notes about Naperville Township
Naperville Township is a 36-square mile area— bordered by counties Kane and Will to the west and south and by townships Winfield and Lisle to the north and east respectively—that encompasses parts of the cities of Naperville, Aurora and Warrenville as well as the town of Eola.
Naperville Township has approximately 34,000 properties. (Another 24,000 property owners in Naperville are served by five other townships including DuPage, Lisle, Wheatland, Winfield and Milton.)
In the spirit of taxpayer cost savings that follow the lead of the Illinois Governor’s Task Force to identify ways to help local governments consolidate and eliminate duplicate governmental bodies, school districts and taxing authorities, the City of Naperville and Naperville Township have begun to address possible ways to cut costs.
The Naperville Township Road District is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of roughly 20 miles of unincorporated Naperville Township roads.
The City of Naperville has submitted a proposal to provide road district services to the unincorporated residents at the same level of service the City is providing the incorporated residents.
The “Survey” as it appeared at www.positivelynaperville.com in March 2016
At issue: The Naperville Township Road District is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of unincorporated Naperville Township roads. The 2015 budget for the road district was approximately $1.8 million levied to the Township taxpayers to pay for these services.
The City of Naperville has submitted a proposal to provide road district services to the unincorporated residents at the same level of service the City is providing the incorporated residents. The proposed amount for the services is approximately $1 million or about a 43% reduction in costs.
Shall the Naperville Township Road District enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Naperville for the delivery of services traditionally provided by Naperville Township Road District to achieve a significant annual cost savings to taxpayers?
Results
| Yes | 506 | 82% |
| No | 108 | 18% |
| Total Responses | 614 | 100% |
Small Sample of Resident Road Consolidation Feedback
All feedback has been submitted anonymously
Let me get this straight. Illinois has 1,433 townships by county. Seventeen (17) counties of 102 counties in the state do not have townships. The City of Naperville is overlapped by six different townships. Now I know.
The unincorporated areas infrastructure is much different than that of Naperville, as I’ve lived in both. In unincorporated areas on many of the streets they have a single storm inlet, unlike Naperville. This presents a problem when it rains and all of the debris from every tree on the street drains to that single inlet. As the inlet fills up, they nearly immediately clog – causing water to back up across the parkway and into our front lawns. Often times, it’s rendered the street closed and impassable.
How about this…? Residents pay for their own services like a restaurant-menu style; if you desire private services that do not benefit the community overall, you order it…if you want leave pick up you order it. At the end of the day, you pay for your desired services. Personally, I don’t like picking up the tab for others goods and services.
I did not realize all of the township residents (both incorporated and unincorporated) pay for the unincorporated services. This is an archaic system of government. Even though this will have minimal impact on my tax bill, we still need to consolidate services and eventually eliminate some of the unneeded levels of government.
What about duplication of services in DuPage, Wheatland, Winfield and Lisle Townships that serve Naperville? I just searched online and found there are 1,433 townships in Illinois and that every county has the option to adopt or remove townships. Let’s be thoughtful and get started.
My question is how will Naperville mitigate this permanently if they plan to reduce the service? The township is fully aware of all of the problem areas and address them immediately when they know heavy rain is in the forecast. I fill my 90 gallon toter 20 times a year at a minimum and still don’t get all the lawn refuse disposed of before the season is over. On the lots of the unincorporated areas there were no landscape plans or restricted trees. Therefore, the trees and debris that fall present an ongoing problem which is why the pickups are scheduled like they currently are. It’s not as a means to over-serve, but it’s a necessity to ensure health and safety on our roadways. As far as free mulch which is produced from tree pruning, this is offered because the township has to pay to dispose of this refuse. This is a service that Naperville use to offer back in the 90’s. The township will only provide if it’s available from tree pruning in the unincorporated areas. Since there are a lot of trees, there is a great deal of mulch generated – which is offered to the residents for free. The township offers the mulch service as a means to recycle and re-use the refuse created from trimming trees – which isn’t what’s being presented hers. It seems that it’s being presented as the township is being wasteful, when in fact they are just recycling – which has always been a part of Naperville’s core values. It’s shameful that the truth isn’t being presented here, only a slant of the truth to the public. No one in our neighborhood was surveyed or asked ahead of time that this was in the works.
I’m told that if we continue to receive the same level of service that we currently receive, it will cost an additional $70,000 per year on top of the current city proposal. If we divide that by the number of unincorporated residents it’s about $80 per year more than we currently pay. I am personally willing to pay $80 more property tax to maintain the current level of service. I think it is reasonable to accept the city offer to achieve savings for all residents, but unincorporated residents should be given the opportunity to retain (for a cost) the higher level of service.
The best solution is to tax the unincorporated township residents for municipal services so everyone pays proportionately for services they benefit from. This proposed solution is a good first step, but is still inequitable.
I am all in favor of ways of reducing the redundancy in units of government in Illinois. Combining the two road services department seems like a very smart idea.
All government bodies should be looking for cost savings for taxpayers.
Please share all of the facts on this important issue before doing a survey.
1)Need to get Townships input on true cost of Road district services including abatements paid to the city.
2) Please clearly identify level of reduced services for unincorporated Naperville township in any survey question.
3) What is the rationale for reduced services on the homes in unincorporated township?
4) Did the city seek input from those residents directly affected by the reduction in services?
5) Why is this proposal coming from the City of Naperville instead of the township road district if this decision rests strictly with the Naperville road district?
6) In any survey please include all of the other efforts the city of Naperville undertaking to reduced tax payer costs including the cost of running a electrical department and paying above market rates for electricity?
The premise of this money savings is not based on taking over the services and achieving economies of scale, instead it is being accomplished by cutting services. Some of these services are very valuable for my neighborhood. I live in Green Acres neighborhood is very different compared to most neighborhoods in Naperville. Each one of our properties is 1 acre in size as well as being densely populated with trees. Every year, I have a large number of limbs that either fall or need trimming. I have 2 choices, burn them which is not allowed or have the township pick them up. The amount of leaves that I need to pick up every year is extensive. Many of my friends which live in Naperville constantly say they would never want to deal with the amount of leaves or the time I spend taking care of them. With the amount of leaves I have, the process usually takes many weekends due to the timing of the falling leaves as well as the size of my property. I will generate a leaf pile which is usually 4 feet wide by 3-4 feet tall by 50-100 feet long 2-3 times per season. If I had to bag these leaves it would take 100’s lawn bags to accomplish this. If the pick up is done in the intervals that I see other Naperville neighborhoods collections, the leaf pile would be even larger and unmanageable. … My neighborhood does not have street lights, curb and gutter or sidewalks. I DO NOT WANT THESE items in my neighborhood. The city does not have to maintain any of these items and are not costs of the city on a yearly basis. I feel that the leaf and tree service should not be cut and doing so would greatly affect the quality in living in the great town of Naperville.
