Riverwoods officials warn quick-moving proposal to dissolve South Lake Mosquito Abatement District could cut services

Mayor Ford warned Tuesday that a proposed ordinance to dissolve the South Lake Mosquito Abatement District is moving quickly through Lake County and could reduce mosquito-control services residents now receive. The village has been briefing trustees about a finance committee meeting that included the draft ordinance; if the county board approves it, the measure would move to the Lake County Board and could lead to a backdoor referendum that would place the question on the ballot for voters, Mayor Ford said. The mayor told trustees that the district currently provides both nuisance control and public-health services — including more traps for surveillance, larvicide treatments, and occasional aerial flyovers — and that duplicating those services through municipal arrangements could cost the village tens of thousands of dollars. "My tax bill shows $24.86 for a year," Mayor Ford said, citing the village's current parcel charge for the district; she said duplicating the district's level of service via local agreements could be "50 or more thousand dollars a year for our small area." Trustees and the mayor said the district’s services are not identical to the ad-hoc treatments municipalities sometimes purchase from private contractors and that municipal budgets typically limit how much of the district’s level of preventive work — such as larvicide and trap-based West Nile virus surveillance — could be maintained. The mayor said she, Trustee Trevino and others attended the finance committee meeting and planned to appear at three upcoming events: the South Lake Mosquito Abatement Board meeting Monday, the finance committee meeting Thursday and the Lake County Board session the following Tuesday. She described a likely referendum as "a very strong likelihood." Trustee Jamerson asked whether other mosquito districts in Lake County were being dissolved; the mayor said this was the last independent district under consideration. She and trustees discussed a "plan B" if dissolution and a failed referendum leave the municipalities to contract for services: an intergovernmental agreement among nearby municipalities or contracting through adjacent abatement districts, both of which present administrative and service-level complications. Randy Merrill of the Riverwoods Preservation Council told the board during public comment that the district’s control products also reduce tick hazards and that the district’s services are important to the village’s wooded areas. The mayor said she has contacted Clark Environmental Services and others to study possible municipal options and emphasized the public-health framing of the issue rather than a strictly fiscal argument. No formal village action was taken at the meeting; trustees said they would continue to monitor the county process and consider constituent outreach if the ordinance proceeds.