Thursday, December 21, 2006

GUEST COMMENTARY-- Trustee Thoughts on Dawn Marie

NOTE: In my magnaimous nature, and of course becuase he asked, Trustee Michael Blum is being allowed to adress the blogging public on his concerns and issues with Dawn Marie. He is also not my first guest blogger either! John Gutknecht was the first.

I would like to take a minute to address my recent vote on the Dawn Marie Sewer Reimbursement program. At the December 4th board meeting I voted "No" as I did not believe paying for the sewer hook-up was in the best interest of the village. I felt that the village should not be in the business of paying inconvenience fees to residents caused by village expansion. I said in the 12/4 meeting and reiterated in the 12/18 board meeting that Dawn Marie is a village street and the village has every right to run sewer down it. That does not entitle the home owners to free hook-up.

In the time between the 12/4 and the 12/18 meetings, I became aware of a letter sent out to the home owners on Dawn Marie by the prior Village Administrator (Bam Peterson) letting them know they would be connected to the sewer at no-cost and felt that this was a promise made to those homeowners. It may not have been approved by the board or been an appropriate letter to send, but it was a promise. At the time the letter was sent and the deal was made I was not a trustee. If I were, I would not have voted in favor of paying the difference in the connection cost nor would I have agreed with paying to extend the sewer in the loop. At the 12/18 meeting, I subsequently reversed my vote because of the "promise" that was made to the homeowners. It is unfair to penalize them for the the actions of our prior administrator. Again, I would like to reiterate that the village should not be paying for inconveniences and that the village needs to learn from this. I truly believe that with the new additions to the village staff (all village department heads have been changed in the last year and half) we will be more on the ball when it come to issues such as these.

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