Update on Water Tower debacle

Looks like everything has been resolved!

From the 9/12/07 Daily Herald:

Volo, forest district come to terms on new trail
By Lee Filas | Daily Herald Staff


After months of negotiations and threats, Volo and the Lake County Forest Preserve District have agreed on a plan to relocate the Millennium Trail around a water tower the village built in the wrong spot.

Volo Mayor Burnell Russell said the new course would bring the trail closer to a planned baseball field and park on the north side of the tower, which is near Route 60 and Fish Lake Road.

That's slightly north of the older path where Volo officials erroneously erected a water tower on the easement granted to the forest preserve in February 2006.

"We're happy to finally get this done," Russell said.

Forest board President Bonnie Thompson Carter said the village and the forest preserve exchanged land as part of a swap needed to help connect the trail.

She said the village gave the forest preserve a 60-foot by 600-foot easement for the Millennium Trail to link Singing Hills Forest Preserve on Gilmer Road to the Marl Flat Forest Preserve on Fish Lake Road.

In exchange, she said the village received an easement needed to help connect village sewer lines.

"They did not give us this property; it was an exchange between the forest preserve and the village," she said.

The village owns roughly 14 acres at the southwest corner of Route 60 and Fish Lake Road, adjacent to the easement. That parcel is earmarked for construction of a new village hall. The $5.4 million water system project already has been constructed.

However, when planning construction on the site, soil testing to determine a location for the tower showed the planned spot was not stable enough to support the weight of the 1 million-gallon structure, Russell said.

The tower, a water treatment building and two water wells were moved about 150 feet to the west and built, he said.

When the tower was moved, it encroached on the forest preserve land.

The forest district discovered 16 feet of the tower, the wells and three concrete slabs for future improvements were built on the trail easement, Russell said. The treatment building itself is not on the easement.

After the discovery, forest preserve officials threatened to take court action and ask a judge to force Volo to take the water tower down.

The two sides started negotiations shortly after.

Carter said Volo also is on the hook to cover the cost of all attorney fees and staff time spent creating the new easement. She said that would come to between $12,000 and $15,000.

"I'm disappointed that the forest preserve wasn't contacted first, but I'm happy there is an alignment that will work," she said. "This achieves our goal."

She said forest preserve district administrators reviewed the proposal with land preservation and acquisition committees before making the final decision Tuesday.

Russell said the village would begin construction on the Millennium Trail by spring.