“It’s obvious that we need more information,” she said. <\/p>\n
Officials said the new agency could give Homer Glen and other communities the leverage they need to buy the Bedford Park water pipeline now owned by Illinois American. That line supplies Lake Michigan water to Illinois American customers, Niemiec said, and has been estimated to be worth roughly $50 million. <\/p>\n
However, that price tag could change if a bill sponsored by state Rep. Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox) to change how utilities’ assets are valued makes headway in Springfield. <\/p>\n
“The statute right now is all over the place,” Niemiec said after Tuesday night’s meeting. <\/p>\n
Homer Glen in the past has looked into forming a commission to pursue buying the water and sewer system, and trustees ordered a feasibility study to study the matter in 2006. <\/p>\n
Mayor Jim Daley said he felt “optimistic” after this week’s meeting with the potential water agency partners. <\/p>\n
“I think we’re going to see some real positive things out of it,” he said. <\/p>\n
Homer Glen and Illinois American have been at odds for years over what many village officials and residents see as unfairly high water rates and subpar service. Those rates would increase further this year if the Illinois Commerce Commission approves Illinois American’s pending request to raise rates. <\/p>\n
An ICC law judge on Monday released a 200-page report containing his recommendations on Illinois American’s proposed rate hike. <\/p>\n
Homer Glen officials said Tuesday that while village attorneys are still combing through the report, it did appear that the ICC supported some, but not all, of Illinois American’s rate increase. The ICC is expected to make a final decision on the increase in April. <\/p>\n
A second request from Illinois American to tack a surcharge onto customers’ bills to pay for capital improvements is also awaiting a decision from the ICC. <\/p>\n
An Illinois American spokeswoman could not be reached Tuesday night for comment. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n Homer Glen is considering forming a water agency with several neighboring towns that might eventually allow them to wrest control of local water and sewer services from Illinois American Water. Homer Glen officials met this week with representatives from Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Woodridge, Plainfield and Shorewood to draw up guidelines for a water agency, village officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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