Development Article in Chicago Tribune Recently

NOTE: I found this on a Construction Law Blog, I have no idea of the veracity of this, but Neumann built about 500-600 homes in the village a few years ago, so its seems of some interest to us.

"Builder chief denies firm is in trouble; 'Most profitable year' for Neumann Homes": Ken Neumann, president of Warrenville, Illinois-based Neumann Homes, lashed out at other builders in connection with speculation the company is for sale or on the verge of bankruptcy. "No, the company is not for sale. I own the company," Neumann said Thursday. "This is the most profitable year in the company's history." Family-owned Neumann, which opened in Chicago in the early 1990s, is one of the largest of the remaining independent local builders. The company is the builder of megadevelopments such as the The Clublands in Joliet and The Clublands in Antioch. The firm is among the 50 biggest builders in the United States, with operations in Wisconsin, Colorado and Michigan as well as Illinois. In 2005 the company built 1,900 homes and had $518 million in revenue, Ken Neumann said. Neumann said he believes the rumors began when someone claimed, at a meeting of officials of rival Centex Homes earlier this year, that Dallas-based Centex was buying Neumann. Dan Star, president of the Illinois division of Centex, said he is unaware of any such statement and does not believe it was ever made. Whether or not that incident occurred, Neumann Homes recently raised eyebrows in local building circles when the company took the unusual step of auctioning 1,000 acres of land in high-growth suburban areas such as Huntley, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.

CSI Round Lake-- Public Works

I have not written here about my battles with Neumann Homes that I have had as a homeowner and as Mayor. So when this issue came up, and it involved something that appeared to have NOT been completed by Neumann Homes I was not surprised and believed it completely. So here are the basics:
Last year some residents of Prairie Walk, complained to me about some construction debris or some type of structure left behind in a retention pond. This retention pond had been wet for well over 60 years so what Neumann did is formalize it as Prairie Walk's detention area. Since it was late in the season we were unable to safely determine what it was, but made a committed effort this spring to get it out of the detention pond first by figuring out what it was.

It was my feeling that we would confiscate some of the money Neumann left behind as a bond on landscaping to pay for the removal of whatever it was. You can see one of our crack nautical public works staff on top of the structure in the above picture.

Once they got on the structure they started to pump it out, after 45 minutes, the water had not gone down at all! Measuring it however showed that it was approximately 5 feet around and at least 13 feet deep, they were unable to determine how much deeper then 13 feet it went however.

So the verdict is it's an elaborate field tile left over from the original owners of the Potter farm in the 1950's.

Needless to say we are probably not going to be removing it, however we are going to remove the wooden planking on it and either welding or bolting a grate over the top of it for safety reasons. There is some more research to go into this but it looks we have solved the mystery, and amazingly enough Neumann Homes is not to blame!