Are you serious? Road maintenance is covered by our property taxes and I'm sure the city gets funds from other taxing (state/federal) bodies to pay for road maintenance. How can a road fee be tacked on to our utility bill? What about non-residents that use our roads? They are getting a free ride. I'm sure we will not see $1,000,000 in road maintenance as a result of this new money grab. I'm registering my vehicles out of state.

By the way nice photos of our current road conditions. Can we bill the city for the amount repairs required on vehicles due to damage caused by the deplorable roads in this city?

Can we quit giving money away to potential businesses so they can avoid the unpleasant realities of starting up a business in a town that will see not much income coming in? I can see the increased speed of the traffic as it speeds through Yorkville from north to south on the improved Rt. 47. I can point out roads in my older part of town that are so full of pot holes that some residents have ponds in front of their homes after a bit of rain or snowmelt. And I laugh at the little bit of fill that is placed in one of about 10 or 15 holes, (chosen at random by our city workers), and then not even pressed down! So the next time I pass by, it has been pushed out onto the rest of the street and scattered. Walking around the sidewalks is incredibly unsafe for we who do use them to walk on. I like Scott Harmon's comments. And there must be more people reading this article who can point out many reasons why this plan is needing much more discussion before it is dumped into one of the many, many potholes!

Another worthy comment, Scott. The math doesn't add up. Using assumptions: 17,000 residents divided by 4(ave size household) = 4,250 households times $96/yr($8 * 12 mo) = $408,000 fees in best case scenario. Now let's take away the $4/mo and based on above the income and it's only $204,000. Oh, but I forgot the "grants-free money". This city has taken so much out of my left pocket to put into my right pocket that I have a hole in both pockets now. Whose pockets are left? All I find in my pocket hole are the family jewels. Guess that's all that's left to take?

I commend you Scott: I thought I was the only one thinking this. Come on City of Yorkville, we do already pay for the roads through our RE taxes, lets see a reduction in the administrations salary to help pay for these roads or find it in the budget. I see there is a proposed 2% increase for City workers, most others have not seen a raise in light of the economy, so maybe the City workers should not either

Scott, some may commend you, but I think your anger is misplaced. I like complaining about taxes as much as anyone. But, the problem is the school district, not the city. If you look at your tax bill, you paid $578.17 to the city, $4,850.38 to the school district and $588.90 to the fire protection district.

Even if all you got from the city was police protection and snow plowing/salting, it would be worth the $578.17 you pay each year. You pay more than that to BKFD and what do they provide you? If you call the police to your house just 1 time, it probably costs the city over $1,000 just for that call. From what I've heard, you've had the police to your house many times.

Yes, Fred, I've had to call the police many times since living here for vandalism, theft, trespassing, drug dealing and way more criminal activity than I would expect in this town. Do you have an issue with me reporting crime? Can you back up your $1,000 per call claim? By the way our police are underfunded for the great job they do.

By the way Fred, crime in our subdivision has dropped dramatically as the result of our Neighborhood Watch and a concerted effort between our citizens and the YPD.

I pay more $ in subdivision association dues than I do to the city each year in taxes. My builder was allowed to walk away from our subdivision without finishing the roads. Yorkville has been trying to collect the bond money, but it's tied up in the courts. I would love to see my roads finished, but if I have to pay $8 I would want a promise from the city that they will finish the road in front of my home.

Do you think this is a city staff idea only, all city staff ideas have to be approved by the Mayor and he is the primary person that sets each city meeting agenda. I call this one the Golinski Toll Authority, watch out you just might have to pay a toll to leave your driveway.

I'm not sure if the plan is not well formed or this article is not representing it well? $8 monthly fee on residents would seem to be $8 per resident per month. Is that going to be $40/month for a family of 5? If it's $/mo on residents, what is this business about not having a car and getting an exemption? What if I'm that family of 5 and we have 4 cars? In any case, the city should slash and burn nearly everything they do, cut back government by 45% across the board, lower our taxes and see if anyone complains. I won't.

Looks like we can have a healthy budget by doing one thing...eliminate parks and rec... $2M for 2014? Let's just close out the parks and rec for 2 years. One of three things will happen: Our roads can be repaired. Nobody would miss the programs. People would miss the programs and the "users" would pay the actual costs or they could get a park district voted in. 2 years is a nice round figure since it would coincide with a mayoral election. And for those boo-hooers out there, take away the senior subsidy on garbage except for need based, the healthcare for ALL elected officials, close down the bus service, and get the senior services out of the Beecher Center or make them pay for it with all their "grant" monies. Do this and see who screams the loudest. Equal pain. I'm betting the seniors would accept this graciously compared to the whining, Naperville-lites...

All the aforementioned good comments aside, I for one will be grateful for this road plan IF the City actually uses the money to fix the roads. Good decision-making has not been the forte of our City Councils going back many years to a past mayor who refused to accept the DOT money to widen hwy 47 back in the 90's..guess what happened to the money?? Plano picked it up and had hwy 34 widen through their town. The City Council has had Road Repair on their calendar for over 15 years and has done nothing.....at the very least this idea might fix a few...I for one am tired of replacing shocks and having front end aligned. It might not be the best idea but----it is an idea. If we wait another five years it will cost even more.....Check out the promises of a few aldermen who at their last election ran with the idea of fixing the roads---. The detiorization of Yorkville's infrastructure is entirely on the backs of the City Council.

Hey Todd, who the heck is Fred Taylor? Sounds like he has been hanging with my favorite neighbor. Give me a shout when you can.

I see we are going to do away with the senior garbage discount, add more to the utility bills, add on to the schools, blah, blah, blah. What the hell do you clowns expect someone living on a fixed income that has lived here for 66 years to do? Maybe if I write the other crooks in Washington DC or Springfield they will give me a raise to help me be able to afford all this spending...Yea, right. I am definitely considering getting the hell out of Dodge! Bill Barkley

I received a couple of private emails regarding this topic. Here is my response:

My point is the city utility bill was not intended for collecting revenues for road maintenance. Road maintenance is suppose to be covered by property taxes. Road maintenance is a line item in the city budget.

I would like to see which roads are targeted for repair as a result of this fee.

Since this is a fee and not a tax we can not claim it on our federal income tax.

Our current city utility bill amounts are weighing on our property values in Yorkville. When I tell my friends and associates outside of Yorkville what we pay and the fact the majority of the bill is for debt they cringe.

Tacking on fees not related to utility usage to our utility bills for whatever is another factor on why people would not want to live here.

I hope this clarifies my points.

Let me know why a road maintenance fee can legitimately be tacked on our utility bills.

Thanks everyone else for your positive responses.

Regards,

Scott Harmon
d.scott.harmon@gmail.com

We took a ride to a town in LaSalle county today, to drive past one of several homes we may look into. I like one of them, quite a bit, and guess we may contact the realtor about looking at it. I don't know much about LaSalle County as far as taxes, and such. I don't think it could be any worse than Kendall. I just wonder who (in their right mind), would buy anything in Yorkville. We certainly weren't seeing the future when we bought here. Or we'd have run like crazy right on through Kendall. I had the good sense to warn some other folk to get out in the past few years. Some listened and are happy. Some didn't and lost an arm and leg in their selling price before they left. I imagine we'd have to lose our entire "torso" in order to sell. But if that's what it takes........

Yeah, Scott, we consider that all the time. Unfortunately, we WERE out of this state a few years back. We left Illinois, and then, because of family issues, had to come back. Everyone knows how family issues can impact a person's life. Sometimes there is little choice. Now, with the family issues in the past and no longer a problem, we could get out of this state, entirely. We need to think it over.