Trustees Discuss How to Fund Route 71 Water Main Relocation

The Oswego discussed Tuesday night how to pay for relocating the water main line along Route 71 to make way for the state’s planned widening later this year.

The project could end up costing the village about $2 million and will allow the Illinois Department of Transportation to widen the road to four lanes from Wolf’s Crossing Road to Orchard Road. Finance Director Mark Horton said the village could “pay as you go” or issue general obligation bonds to fund the project.

The first option would require the village to drain its reserve funds, which Horton said he would not recommend. Issuing general obligation bonds likely would end up saddling property taxpayers with the cost through an increase because there is currently no revenue stream to fund the bond repayment, Horton said.

Trustees Terry Michels and Scott Volpe asked Horton whether the $150,000 the village has been paying in annual sales tax rebates for the Oswego Commons shopping center development for the past 10 years and expired in December could be used to help fund the bond payments. That option could all but eliminate passing the cost on to property taxpayers.

Horton said those funds have already been figured back into the budget, but could be earmarked for the water main relocation project.  

Another funding option discussed could be passing along the cost to all water customers in the village in the form of a flat increase to water bills.

Trustees should decide at an April meeting how to fund the project. Village staff will work until then to provide more concrete figures and options to the board, said Dwight Baird, interim village administrator.