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Committee approves transfer of county sewer assets inside Lake Villa under county policy
Summary
Lake County committee approved an amended IGA transferring sanitary sewer assets within the village of Lake Villa to the village after staff review and county-administrator approval under a policy the county adopted May 15, 2024 to resolve overlapping sewer ownership and protect ratepayers from disparate bills.
The Lake County Public Works and Transportation Committee on Jan. 7 approved a joint resolution authorizing an amendment to the restated and amended agreement for sewage disposal that will transfer sewer assets located inside the village of Lake Villa to the village.
Austin McFarland explained the action implements a county policy adopted May 15, 2024 designed to resolve overlapping sanitary-sewer ownership so that pipe assets wholly within village boundaries are transferred to the village when an application meets established criteria. Key policy criteria include avoiding any negative financial impact to customers and no significant negative financial impact to the county, McFarland said. Staff reviewed Lake Villa’s application, the county administrator approved it, the village approved the amended IGA, and the state's attorney reviewed the document.
Member Hunter praised the move as long-awaited and noted the change will address cases where neighbors paid different sewer bills because of split ownership by two systems. Hunter said assets had come to the county at no cost from the Lakes Region Sanitary District and welcomed the transfer as an efficiency for taxpayers and the village.
Member Wasick asked staff to confirm that the red area on the map shown was all within Lake Villa’s boundary; staff confirmed the delineation and said the intent is to transfer assets that lie within village boundaries to the village. The committee approved the amended IGA by voice vote.
The vote will allow the village and county to proceed with transferring ownership of the specified sewer assets under the terms recorded in the amended IGA; details of the asset list and the executed IGA were not included verbatim in the transcript.
