From the desk of Mayor Tom Ekle

It is my goal to keep you, the residents, informed of the situations and decisions that are occurring in this Village.  As a means of doing that, the board has approved funds for me to periodically send out an informational letter.

The first 6 months have been very busy and eventful.  Many meetings have been held in order to gather information that would allow for informed, educated decision making.  I assure you that this board is committed to working for the residents of Waterman.

With the mailing of this letter, the Village clerk hours are changing to help better serve the needs of the community.  The new hours are: Mon-Tues-Thurs-Fri-9-1 and Saturday 9-1.  The Village offices will be closed on Wednesday.  This will allow those of you who are not able to get to Village hall on a weekday the opportunity to do so on Saturday and to provide an opportunity over lunch hour.
 

The new Village treasurer is Carol Heiderscheidt and Mark Todd has been hired as a financial consultant to assist the treasurer and the Finance Committee.  This will provide a system of checks and balances to insure that all aspects of our finances meet acceptable standards.  It will also insure that our bills will be paid on time and eliminate late fees thus saving the Village additional monies.
 

As most of you may be aware, the village board has asked service organizations to plan and manage our Summer Fest and Harvest Fest in lieu of the Village board spending time on these events.  With the many issues facing this community, I feel it is pertinent that the board and myself spend our time focusing on the needs before us.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Business Association and the Lions Club for a successful Summer Fest and the Business Association for an outstanding parade and Harvest Fest at Homecoming.  I believe these are beneficial events for this community.
 

Greenridge Subdivision: Since Kennedy Homes filed Chapter 11, the streets and roads were not finished and 3 houses were left partially built.  When the annexation of this subdivision took place a band was set up in the amount of 2.5 million dollars.  This bond, put up by Kennedy, has been used to demolish the 3 houses and is being used to complete the street work.  It is expected to be completed within the next week or two.  At the time this development was approved, the board required this bond so that we are not now burdened by the cost of repairs.  I would like to make it clear, there is no cost to the village for this project.
 

Deerfield Crossing: We are currently working with the developer and our Village attorney to reinstate the Bond that was let expire last February.  The developer is diligently working with the Village to insure continued success of this development.

Water & Sewer: The board voted down a 4 million dollar project that started last February to update the sewer plant.  After gathering information, it was determined that this project is not necessary at this time and doing so would tremendously stress the financial situation in the community and would certainly cause sewer rates to increase.  As such, it was determined that we would not proceed with this project at this time.
 

Well #4 has been completed with the filtering system in place.  The filtering system is in the final testing stages to insure that it is bacteria free and is ready to deliver arsenic free water to our village.
 

Public Safety has a plan approved for railings in the downtown area to insure sidewalk safety.  We hope to have these installed soon.
 

The police department has applied for a grant that could be used for equipment needs that they have and have also begun the grant process for a new squad car.
 

Streets and Alleys: MFT money was approved by IDOT to repair 200 feet of sidewalks.  Sidewalks have been repaired and Grant Street has been repaved.  Patching of other places for water and drainage control is also in process.  Gravel will be distributed in needed areas. We hope to complete these projects prior to winter.

Finance and personnel: The entire board met with the Village auditors to listen to changes they suggested be made to current deficiencies in village finances.  The Finance Committee is currently working on this.  The committee recently stopped the state from withholding it’s share of state sales tax and road/sidewalk money by dealing with a past due bill of $132,000 from over a year ago that wasn’t paid and went to the state bureau of collections.  Between this situation and the overstatement of revenue this has caused approximately a $500,000 plus turnaround in the budget.  The committee has been creatively moving money around to improve cash flow.  The loan to pay for arsenic removal has been modified, payments reworked and as a result will save the village approximately $467,000 over 10 years from its original proposal.

Buildings and Grounds: Bobby Johnson has been hired to do the cleaning for Village offices and the Shelter house in place of Devon White who left for college.  Thank you to Devon for the work she did.
 

Economic Development: We are reaching out and trying to get investors interested in either relocating a business to Waterman or establishing a new outlet.  At this point, the responses have been “warm and open”.  We are still discussing with developers the future of the Nations Pizza Building.  In addition, we have rehired Pam Blickem as a consultant and the administrator of our TIFF district.  Pam will be working to establish a viable village policy for administering and distributing the TIFF funds available to the community.  Her first challenge is to reestablish proper reporting procedures to the state comptroller.  The board’s goal is that in the near future we will be able to distribute funds, not only to help new development, but, also, to aid local property owners to improve our downtown area.

The Village in conjunction with Monsanto has established an Enterprise Zone for Waterman.  This could allow for incentives for business if needed.  More business would increase our tax revenue.
There have been inquiries concerning the building just west of the Waterman State Bank.  The owners and the Village are working together to remedy this situation.

The Kish Health Family & Specialty Care medical clinic at the corner of Rt. 30 and 23 is in the final stages of completion and will open Nov. 11.  The project represents a relocation of the Shabbona practice to better serve the area.  The Waterman Business Association will do a ribbon-cutting Friday, Nov 13 at 11 A.M. Waterman residents are invited to attend to meet the doctors and enjoy refreshments.  We welcome this facility to our community.
 

We are exploring many possibilities to increase revenue for the Village.  Numerous ideas will be looked at in order to determine what will work best for this community.  We intend to seriously consider any and all options in order to make well informed decisions.