In a small, aging subdivision in a pocket of western DuPage County between Lisle and Naperville, it isn’t some proposed cellular tower or other modern development that has neighbors upset.
In fact, it’s not a technical innovation at all.
At issue is a push by some residents of the unincorporated Naperville Country Estates subdivision to have sewer lines installed, and that has many of their neighbors up in arms.
Some residents of the 100-home subdivision of 1950s and ’60s ranches and bilevels near Diehl and Naperville Roads want to pay for sewers, but others say they are quite happy with the septic systems they have lived with for years and that sewers could be a huge waste of money–up to $1,000 a year for 15 years.
“There are a lot of people who live here who are retirees and living on fixed incomes,” said opponent Madeleine Crebs, 46. “Things here have been fine so far. We don’t really see the need to replace all this.”
But in a measure being considered by the DuPage County Board that has many, like Crebs, upset, homeowners would be forced to pay for sewers unless 51 percent of the homeowners and registered voters write letters to the county in opposition.
“If you don’t do anything at all, it’s counted as a yes vote,” said Ken Zenisek of the county’s Department of Environmental Concerns, staff agency overseeing the measure.
The county’s proposal, passed by the Public Works Committee, would create a special service area to build the sewers. The plan comes after three informal survey votes in the last two years in which residents opposed the proposal by 70 percent.
“When 70 percent are against it, it’s obvious the neighborhood doesn’t want it,” Crebs said.
But county leaders have decided to push forward with the plan despite the votes, in part because of continued pressure by other neighbors who support the sewers, including Ron Gorringe.
“Having sewers is just the thing you do in a civilized society,” he said. “It’s simple: When sewers become available, you hook into them.”
Gorringe, a former Village of Lisle trustee and Republican Party committeeman, was the first to lead the effort for sewers in 1997 after a neighbor’s septic tank pump failed and waste seeped into a drainage ditch in the subdivision near his house.
“It is a health hazard,” he said. “And that was not the only incident.”
Other neighbors, Gorringe said, also became upset about the chance that more septic tanks would fail. He started a petition and turned in roughly 60 signatures from residents who said they were interested in following up on the possibility of installing the sewers.
But when the county told the residents the work could cost upward of $800,000–a figure that remains about the same today–homeowners said no.
A second attempt by Gorringe to install sewers in a smaller section of the subdivision also proved unsuccessful, as did a third, he said.
This fourth attempt does not include the entire Naperville Country Estates subdivision, Zenisek said.
If the County Board approves the vote for the special service area, Zenisek said, registered letters will go out to homeowners and registered voters living in the subdivision.
If the measure is rejected, Zenisek said, the proposal cannot be presented again for two years.
“If people are that much against it, they have to vote now,” he said. “Then it won’t be discussed for two years.”
Such a promise has Crebs and others who oppose the measure planning to go door to door reminding residents of how they voted in the three surveys.
