Rutland board to revisit sewer system agreement

Less than a month after the Rutland Village Board voted to reject a $5 million grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s Unsewered Committee Construction Grant Program, the board voted Monday to approve a motion to revisit the agreement, much to the dismay of several residents in attendance.

Village President Dan Krischel broke a tie vote at Monday’s meeting to move the motion forward.

Before the vote, village trustees and the public questioned how the issue could be brought to the board again after it had been voted down.

Village President Dan Krischel said he was approached by a board member who had asked him to put the issue back onto the agenda. Trustee Donna Dennis asked who it was that approached him and Trustee Tom Mangan said it was him.

Village Attorney Sheryl Churney said that if a motion is made to reconsider and the motion fails then that is the end of the matter.

“The village president is the person presiding over the entity and he decides whether or not the motion is in order or out,” she said.

Some in the audience were not satisfied with that response. One woman compared the act to a child being told no.

“How many times do we have to vote until he gets the response he wants?” she asked, referring to Krischel.

Some trustees said they already had voted and there was no need to revote.

“So, in other words, we can vote on anything and if it doesn’t pass or it doesn’t go the way one of the board members want, they can bring it back up again and redo it again and again and again, until he decides enough is enough,” Trustee Kathy Knepp said.

“We took in the public’s best interest and what the public wanted,” Trustee Samantha Montgomery said.

Trustees Knepp, Montgomery and Dennis voted to reject the motion, while trustees Mangan, Don Kleppin and newcomer Troy Petrimoulx voted to approve the motion. Petrimoulx succeeded Dorothy Benckendorf, who previously voted against it. Krischel then broke the tie with his vote.

After the vote, Dennis quickly picked up her belongings and left the meeting without a word before the meeting adjourned.

Montgomery said she rejected the grant because she doesn’t believe the village will be able to afford the project.

It would cost about $5,300 per month in maintenance. The village would split that amount among 125 residences, which figures to roughly $43 per month. Other fees were expected to push the sewer bill to about $55. There would be no hookup fee.

Krischel said accepting the grant is what’s best for the health and safety of the residents.

After the vote accepting a motion to revisit the sewer system grant agreement, several members of the public announced their displeasure at what they called a lack of honesty by the board. There were about 20 people in attendance. Many of them questioned the validity of the business the village has considered hiring for the job and the overall cost of the project.

As a completely unsewered community, Rutland’s sanitary service is treated by septic tanks with effluent draining to drainage fields and field tiles, according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.

The village would have to borrow at least $650,000 more for the estimated $5.65 million project.

The Illinois EPA will not let the village use the grant to fix individual septic systems. The agency prefers to work with a single entity (the village) rather than individual homeowners. A requirement of the grant is to create a village-operated system.

The village will conduct a committee meeting to discuss the grant in two weeks.