Dear Vernon Township resident:
Today I am happy to report that we continue to make progress in streamlining your township government while offering more services to our constituents. On October 10th we approved our preliminary recommendation for our tax levies. I am happy to inform you that we will be reducing the overall tax burden in Vernon Township for the third year in a row. As of fiscal 2020 we will be reducing the highway levy by 5% while freezing the overall township levy at its current level.
While other forms of government are raising your tax burden we have been able to reduce this burden by assuring that: 1) we assure that every tax dollar we spend is spent efficiently. And 2) that we are able to tap into other funding resources available to us without impacting the levy.
On the highway side of the equation, we have taken advantage of both our consolidation efforts and tapped into state highway grants so that we can efficiently service our roads in an economically efficient manner. Our consolidation efforts were swift with a new structure being implemented just a week after the Governor signed legislation allowing us to do so. As of fiscal 2021 we will also realize another $100,000 in savings by eliminating the Highway Commissioner’s salary from our books. We have also re paved the following roads this year Pet Ln, Juneway Ave., Lita Ave., Frank Ave. and Pope Blvd. Commissioner Lofstrom will remain in office in an advisory capacity until the end of his term. Effective immediately, all highway department inquiries should be directed to Township Manager, Todd Gedville.
On the revenue side, we were able to secure $500,000 in road funding and $500,000 in funding for township building infrastructure from the State, with Representative Didech and Senator Link’s assistance, assuring that our fair share of state revenues are returned to the district. All this adds up to our ability to reduce our tax burden significantly.
We have now entered into a joint partnership with the Village of Buffalo Grove and the Buffalo Grove Park District in obtaining further grants to support sustainable energy programs, improved public transportation and improved park programming. We hope that our efforts to obtain available grants will help us continue our trend to return needed tax dollars to you.
On the services side of the equation, we continue to offer more to our constituents. As of October we have provided $5663.24 of general assistance dollars to our most needy residents. The Vernon Township Food Pantry has provided 27,482 pounds of food worth $49,774.94 to our constituents. Our newly minted Vernon Township Garden provided 189 pounds of fresh produce to the food pantry.
On a programming side, the first three Township Feastivals offered entertainment in the form of food trucks, free swim and musical entertainment to over 2,000 residents. These programs were so well received that we plan to expand this form of programming next year to include an Octoberfest event and open mic night in 2020. As for senior services, we ran 48 programs for our residents including a special visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Our skunk abatement program has been a tremendous success. As we all know, the skunk overpopulation has posed a significant threat to our residents and to the skunk population itself. With no natural predator’s left in Northern Illinois the skunk population has become unsustainable bringing the threat of rabies to our community and potential starvation to the skunk population. As of October over 133 residents have participated in the skunk abatement program.
I look forward to continuing to report our progress to you in making township government more efficient and robust over the next year. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a good holiday season.
Jonathan Altenberg,
Vernon Township Supervisor