Addressing the need to improving an existing deteriorating drinking water system and providing capacity for projected growth in Lake in the Hills, Illinois, would necessitate almost $4,000,000 worth of capital water system improvements.

The improvements set forth by engineering consultants, Wight Consulting Engineers, Inc., 127 South Northwest Highway, Barrington, Illinois 60010, in a December, 1990 report needed to go forward.

After several referendum attempts the Village Finance Director Russ Nockels, and late Village President Barbara Key, Village Administrator Milt Faurot, Public Works Director Dave Gregoria, Village Attorney Richard Flood, and other Village representatives looked for an alternate source of funding to provide these necessary improvements.

The Illinois Development Finance Authority was selected as being a logical financing choice because of their straightforward details and background in municipal/lease purchase programs.

The Illinois Development Finance Authority was a pleasure to associate with, approving the project with a minimum of paperwork in record time.

IDFA held a local government financing seminar in Chicago in March, 1991 that gave Village Administrator Milt Faurot an opportunity to present to an audience of village officials the procedures that made the IDFA program so successful in addressing a critical problem many small communities experience.

Wight Consulting Engineers, Inc. then proceeded with the design and the awarding of contracts to construct the 750,000 gallon elevated storage unit, two additional shallow sand and gravel wells, a series of water-main reinforcements and water feeder lines. Currently we are working on water treatment, primarily iron removal and an addtional well that looks toward the population that was incorporated in the recently approved Comprehensive Plan of the Village of Lake in the Hills that is to be 17,000.

IDFA has been the primary source for funds to provide the drinking water, fire protection and business uses with potable water. IDFA will eventually be repaid from Lake in the Hills connection charges that are assessed against all new residential, commercial, and industrial construction.

There has been herculean effort by Village elected and appointed officials to upgrade the drinking water system and IDFA has been a partner in these improvements.

Lake in the Hills now has five operating wells, two elevated storage units, totaling 1,250,000 gallons and 38 miles of water lines from 4" to 14" in diameter that greatly enhance the reliability of its potable water distribution system.

Now that the improvement program is in process, the Village has improved the quantity and quality of water available to its citizens for all water uses without affecting the Village's statutory bonding limits thanks to creative installment financing. •

July 1993 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 19