Minooka Approves Levy At Same Level As Last Year

The Village Board approved Minooka's 2011 levy Tuesday night, setting the tax rate at 0.705—the same as was requested in the 2010 levy.

"The last thing we wanted to do was raise the taxes," Trustee Terry Houchens said.

Minooka Village Board members set their tax rate at 0.705 last year, but at the end of the year, residents had only paid 0.6772, thanks to the receipt of a road and bridge tax paid by Kendall County.

Trustee Barry Thompson agreed it was important not to raise the tax rate in the 2011 levy.

"We all live here; we all have the same (tax) burden," Thompson said.

Trustees unanimously approved the levy, which would leave them with about $129,504 less than last year. Trustee Dennis Martin was absent.

"We kept the rate the same, so we were asking for less money," Minooka Finance Director John Harrington said.

After Tuesday night's meeting, Village President Pat Brennan said he credits Minooka employees and board members with making the community run with less.

"Our board is a very frugal board and in this economy you have to be," he said. "We don't want to raise taxes."

While the Kendall County road and bridge tax helped lower a portion the tax rate, the village ended the year with less money overall on account of a local business being valued at a lower level.

The Kendall Power company previously was assessed at more than $19 million. After an out-of-court settlement, the village and all other Kendall County taxing bodies agreed to it being valued for the 2011 levy at $100 and for the next ten years at around $100,000 in property value.

The village can operate on less money because it has been planning ahead, Harrington said.

"We have a very good reserve balance," he said. "We cut a lot of expenses in 2012."

In 2010, Minooka saved on the salaries of at least two positions. Two were employees that left the village and their positions were not filled, one was a reduction in force.

Also at Tuesday night's village meeting, board members did the following:

• Approved the purchase of a replacement squad car at a cost of $27,885. $23,000 was budgeted for this and the additional $4,885 will come from the vehicle maintenance fund.
• Accepted a proposal from Ridge Landscape Services, LLC in the amount of $24,962 for trees and shrubs at Summit Park. A total of $19,742 was budgeted for this and an additional $5,220 is being paid for by community donations.
• Accepted a preliminary engineering agreement with Robinson Engineering for $39,500 for Twin Rails Drive, starting at Ridge Road and going west to the east end of the cul-de-sac 2,500 feet west of Ridge Road. Through a bond, the village will be going to bid for the construction of this project in February 2012 and hope to begin construction in March 2012.