BATAVIA
Council holds off on downtown tax plan
The Batavia City Council this week continued a public hearing on a proposed property tax on downtown businesses until April 21, keeping the tax out of the 2008 levy.
“I’ve had enough calls to know that there’s enough opposition out there to kill this thing,” said Mayor Jeff Schielke as he recommended the continuance Monday. “If we go about this the wrong way, we’ll send a negative message to the community.”
The city had proposed levying a tax of 75 cents per $100 equalized assessed valuation on commercial properties in the central business district through a special service area. Forty cents of that 75-cent rate would generate about $75,000 per year to support Batavia MainStreet, a nonprofit agency set up to promote downtown redevelopment. The other 35 cents would raise about $66,000 per year to help pay for downtown infrastructure improvements.
Officials have planned about $7 million worth of downtown projects over the next five years, including rebuilding North River Street, West Wilson Street and Houston Street; expanding the North River parking deck; and interconnecting the traffic signals that govern the Illinois Highway 25 jog at Wilson. Most of those projects will be funded by tax increment financing districts and general revenues, said Assistant City Administrator Randy Recklaus.
Business owners who packed the boardroom Monday said that while most of them support MainStreet’s efforts, they do not feel they should be forced to subsidize the agency.
“MainStreet should be funded by the entire community because the entire community benefits from an improved downtown business district,” said Wendy Lee, who owns a professional office building on Island Parkway.
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They also emphasized that they have lost too much business and revenue during the Wilson Street Bridge reconstruction project to be able to pay any new taxes.
“This couldn’t be a worse time to add a tax to downtown Batavia,” said Gerry Dempsey, owner of the Batavia Enterprises development firm.
Denise Linke
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KANE COUNTY
Bar association set to mark 150 years
The exact date of the founding of the Kane County Bar Association “is not truly known,” according to the organization’s own account of its history.
But the year was 1858 — just 22 years after the Illinois legislature formed a new county and named it for Elias Kent Kane, a drafter of the state constitution, Illinois’ first secretary of state and, as the Kane Bar’s history proudly notes, a “highly respected attorney.”
Now, in observance of the St. Charles-based association’s sesquicentennial in 2008 and to highlight its history, the bar group is laying the groundwork for a yearlong series of projects and events, ranging from the planned publication of a book chronicling the practice of law in Kane County to the staging of an 1858-vintage mock trial.
The events will be geared to appeal to both the group’s membership as well as the public, said association executive director Jan Wade.
From the association’s founding nearly 150 years ago, when there were 32 lawyers and four law students listed in Kane County, the roster of attorneys increased to 122 by 1908 and nearly 1,400 by 1998.
The current membership of the Kane Bar is more than 1,100, according to the group.
William Presecky