News
During the regular bi-monthly meeting Wednesday evening, the Marseilles City Council adopted the ordinance amendment to include the multi-million dollar Grand Rapids Wind Farm in the La Salle-Grundy County 12.5-acre Enterprise Zone.
"We're on board with that. We've made some financial arrangement with them," Mayor Jim Trager said of GRWF developer Invenergy Wind LLC of Chicago.
Trager however, will not make the terms of the arrangement public until the next city council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
"Invenergy is still out there bargaining with other municipalities, and so I'm not going to disclose what we received from them at this time," he said.
The zone extends from south of Ottawa to Marseilles and Seneca in La Salle County, and east through Grundy County to Morris. The GRWF would add about 2.5 acres to the zone, increasing it to 15 acres. Inclusion exempts the wind farm from the state sales tax on construction materials and supplies, but not from property taxes.
During the Nov. 7 meeting, the council questioned payment of an administrative fee by Invenergy to the city of Ottawa, which oversees the Enterprise Zone.
A portion of the fee was for first responder service, such as fire and ambulance services. Commissioner Jim Hollenbeck said at the time he failed to see how Marseilles would benefit with the fee going to Ottawa, making that city the first responder in wind farm emergencies in the Marseilles fire and ambulance protection districts.
Trager said Wednesday it wasn't too difficult to come to terms with the company on the financial arrangement.
"They're a pretty easy company to deal with," he said.
Invenergy will build about 66 wind turbines in the Brookfield-Grand Rapids-Allen Township area during the first phase of the project, which began earlier this month with roadway construction.
The first of the wind turbines are to arrive on site in January. The wind farm is to be operational by early summer. The project will eventually contain 500 to 600 turbines, each consisting of a 262-foot tower and three 143-foot blades.
At a construction cost of about $150 million, GRWF is the second largest wind-based project in the United States.
In other business, the council placed on file the tax levy ordinance for 2007-2008.
Finance Commissioner Bob Davis noted that, depending on the county's assessed valuation, property taxes would go up or down by $5 on each $100 for a home assessed at $100,000 for tax purposes.
Davis estimated the levy would bring an additional $40,000 into the city.
The council also placed on file the amendment to the water meter ordinance, requiring separate meters for each unit in multiple-unit dwellings, rather than a single meter for all units within the building.
Public Property Commissioner Jim Buckingham voted no to the amendment. He said after the meeting the amendment does not take into account facilities such as nursing homes which are on a single meter, although each room has separate bath accommodations Home-based businesses and trailer parks are other examples of single meters, he said.
In other business before the council, Streets Commissioner Cheryl O'Brien announced the second annual Christmas wreath lighting ceremony will be conducted at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2. at the Middle East Combat Memorial Wall.
At the south end of Main Street, just west of the Illinois River Bridge, the Freedom Wall is dedicated to all nationwide military personnel killed in combat during the country's wars in the Middle East since the 1970s.
More than 3,000 names are engraved on the granite panels which make up the wall, the initiative of the Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run, a Chicago-based, non-profit organization.
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