Homer Township residents should expect to see an increase from the highway department on their 2013 property tax bill, the commissioner announced this week.
“It will probably be less than $10 a household,” Homer Township Highway Commissioner Mike De Vivo said at Monday’s township board meeting of his plans for a roughly 1.7 percent increase. The increase will be for the 2013 property tax bill, which is paid in 2014, under the Homer Township and Homer Glen Road District line item.
“It’s my first increase in five years,” De Vivo said.
Costs of equipment have gone up due to inflation and expenses have increased, he said, explaining that the highway department recently purchased a $132,000 plow truck, a $6,000 salt belt and added a new employee. In an effort to be frugal, the highway district has only paved about half the amount of road in recent years as it used to, which is bound to “catch up with us,” De Vivo said, explaining that it may only be 30 cents per square foot to overlay a road but if that preventative maintenance is not done the road eventually needs repair that could cost $30 per square foot.
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“I’m not getting frivolous,” De Vivo said. “I’m not doing things I don’t think we need.”
Trustee Vicki Bozen at Monday’s meeting asked De Vivo to reconsider the increase.
“I hope that you will look very hard at your budget before you decide to do that,” Bozen said.
De Vivo confirmed in an interview that he plans to go through with the increase, explaining that he is allowed to raise taxes every year, which he has not done in five years and that he views the increase as necessary.
In other news, Homer Township on Monday completed its installation of energy-efficient lighting for the township’s administration building and town hall, Homer Township Supervisor Pam Meyers announced. Meyers had expressed concern this spring over the former lighting potentially becoming obsolete and out of supply.
Plans to install energy efficient exterior landscape lighting at the administrative building were recently nixed due to the cost of the Village of Homer Glen’s permit review process and ordinance requirements, which would have included a $163 per hour bill for electrical engineer review, Meyers said in an interview following the meeting. In addition, there was no guarantee that the process would be completed in time for the township to receive an additional 10 percent discount, she said. Plans to install energy-efficient lighting on two flag poles were also pulled because energy-efficient solar bulbs were already in place, she said at the meeting.
Earlier this year, Homer Township Clerk Linsey Sowa estimated that the total cost of retrofitting the administration building would be $13,274, but would only cost the township $5,895 after a grant that it qualified for. The total cost for the town hall was estimated to be $3,442 but was expected to cost the township $2,202 after the grant, Sowa said. The township anticipates that it will receive an additional 10 percent discount for having completed installation by Oct. 31, Meyers said. There will also be a deduction due to the portion of planned lighting installation that was canceled, but Meyers could not provide details on what the deduction would be.
Also, township officials authorized trick-or-treating in unincorporated Homer Township from 1 to 8 p.m. on October 31.