The assembly room on the 10th floor of the County Building has been crowded in recent days. Crowded with lawyers.
The dueling barristers have squared off in public hearings over whether Countryside Landfill near Grayslake should be allowed to expand.
The heavy-hitting Chicago firm of Jenner & Block is representing the Village of Round Lake Park and the property owner, The Alter Group Inc.
Another bigger-than-life Chicago firm, Winston & Strawn, is representing the landfill. (Did we mention that one of the major partners at Winston and Strawn is former Gov. James Thompson?)
No one’s saying how much is being invested in lawyers’ fees, but legal experts say rates for beginning attorneys start at $150 an hour while first-string lawyers get roughly $300 to $350 an hour.
Sometimes each of the fencing law firms is represented by up to half a dozen attorneys and support clerks.
And that’s not to mention that Countryside paid a $250,000 application fee to the county. That money covers the county’s cost of hiring two lawyers and various technical consultants to examine the possible effects of the landfill.
You can do the math.
Despite the high stakes of the landfill hearings, they have been suspended in the last couple of days for lack of a panel quorum.
At least two people from the seven-member review panel are needed for testimony to continue. But it seems that the county commissioners appointed to the panel are having a hard time committing their time.
The county is required by law to review and rule on the landfill’s application within 180 days from its April 8 filing date, and that means the county is facing an end of August decision-making deadline.
The hearings start again at 9 a.m. Wednesday on the 10th floor of the County Building.
Extension dissension : The Corridor Planning Council of Central Lake County will meet Thursday to talk about a tentative agreement with tollway officials.
The local planning body has been considering the pros and cons of the proposed Illinois Highway 53 extension through Lake County, and state transportation officials had agreed to work with the council. But when the legislature last year turned over authority for the road to the Illinois State Highway Toll Authority, many on the council were left wondering just how amenable to suggestions toll officials would be.
In addition, the council has been plagued by dissension. Last month the Village of Long Grove announced that it intended to withdraw from the council.
The meeting gets under way at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Lake Zurich Village Hall.
