Monday, July 16, 2012

Red Light Cameras Installed at Intersection of 79th St. & 88th Ave. Go Live on July 23, 2012

The Village of Justice has installed a red light camera at the intersection of 79th Street at 88th Avenue, monitoring eastbound and westbound traffic. The system will go “live” on July 23, 2012.

Be aware when driving.

Monday, May 21, 2012

2012-2013 Village of Justice - Vehicle Sticker

Vehicle Stickers on Sale in the Village of Justice

Residents of the Village of Justice may purchase their 2012-13 Vehicle Stickers effective May 1, 2012. The new rate for a passenger vehicle is $35.00 and $40.00 for a pick-up truck.

Senior-citizens may now purchase more than one sticker at the discounted price of $10.00 as long as proof of senior status and a valid registration showing the vehicle is duly registered to a senior resident of the Village is provided. 

Remember, the deadline to purchase the 2012-13 vehicle sticker is on or before June 30th.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Mayor Wasowicz and 5 Village Board Members Pave the Way for Residents to Pay for Streets

At the April 23, 2012 Village Board meeting Trustee Sue Small made a motion to: "To approve the designation of Special Service Areas for street reconstruction in the Village of Justice and to authorize the Village Engineer and Village Attorney to provide the necessary evaluations to determine the scope and cost estimates of the projects."


Trustee Rusch, Trustee Sparr, Trustee Symonds, Trustee Small and Trustee Kuban all voted yes to approve the motion. (Trustee Bartoszek was out of town and not in attendance.) The motion passed.

Passing this motion is the first step in a process that would allow the Village of Justice to contract for recontruction of residential streets in the Village and bill residents directly for the work on their property tax bill. The cost to each homeowner has yet to be determined. The resident would be billed for this cost for 10 to 15 years on his/hers property tax bill.

The Village has already divided most of the Village into 5 Special Service Areas. The Arbors of Justice, Roberts Park, Sunset Lake and The Oaks of Willow Hill neighborhoods are not part of the Special Service Areas. Streets in the Arbors of Justice were recently repaved using TIF funds and streets in Roberts Park were reconstructed using State funds. The residents of these 2 neighborhoods paid nothing to have their streets repaved or reconstructed.

Look at the maps below to see if your home is in one of the 5 Special Service Areas.


Click on map to enlarge it

                                                   
                                                              Click on map to enlarge it

Friday, April 27, 2012

No More Envelopes from the Justice Willow Springs Water Commission

Please note:
Effective immediately the Justice Willow Springs Water Commission will not be mailing their water bills in envelopes, the water bills will be in postcard format.
                                                                  (as posted on the Village of Justice website on April 27, 2012)

Now that they are collecting more money for water they can't afford envelopes!  Where is the money going?

Mayor Wasowicz's solution for fixing streets: You pay for them!


                                                    Click on article to enlarge it

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Mayor Wasowicz defends water rate increase


Dear Fellow Village of Justice Resident,

Last week at the Village Board Committee meeting I questioned Mayor Wasowicz about why our water bills had been raised so drastically. Since he is 1 of 3 Commissioners on the Board (he appointed himself to the Commission last Februaury) I thought he could give us an explaination. He told me that he didn't understand why the bills had gone up so much and hinted that it was the fault of Millenium (who is contracted to do the billing for the Water Commission). He said "I will go to the Water Commision tomorrow and find out what's going on".  I attended the Village Board meeting tonight to follow up and find out if the Mayor had found out what was going on.  I told him that the letter the Water Commission sent out to Village residents only a week and a half before the new water rates were billed was vague and inaccurate. I told him that residents bills had risen far above what anyone expected and told him that I had done some calculations and found out the following:

The old wholesale rate the City of Chicago charged the Water Commission was $1.75 per 1,000 gallons. The new rate the City of Chicago will be charging the Water Commission (assuming a 25% increase) is $2.19 per 1,000 gallons.

The old rate the Water Commission billed residents was $38.40 for the first 8,000 gallons ($4.80 per 1,000 gallons) and $6.08 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

The new rate the Water Commission is billing residents is $49.92 for the first 6,000 gallons ($8.32 per 1,000 gallons) and $7.90 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

When the Water Commission charged the old rates they were "making" $3.05 per 1,000 gallons above the cost of the water they purchased from the City of Chicago.

When the Water Commission charges the new rate they are "making" $6.13 per 1,000 gallons above the cost of the water they purchased from the City of Chicago.

The Mayor's explaination was that the Water Commission now has fewer employees, fewer vehicles than before. He said that since he and the Mayor of Willow Springs appointed themselves over a year ago to the Water Commission "things are getting done". He said that many water mains in the Villages are 50 years old and that they have had to deal with several water main breaks.  He said that if people don't like the rate increase they should voice their concerns at the Water Commission meeting.  He never really answered my question he just tried to justify the increase.

The Water Commission meets the 4th Thursday of the month at 9:30am. The next meeting of the Justice Willow Springs Water Commission will be on April 26, 2012 at 9:30 amThe meeting will be held in the Justice Village Hall at 7800 S. Archer Rd. (I will let you know if they change the date and time of the meeting.) If you are able to attend the meeting, please take a moment out of your day and voice your concerns about the water increase.  The role of the Water Commission is to provide us with clean water at a fair price. The current rate that is being charged is far from fair. 

Please share this information with your friends and neighbors. 

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

John Koslowski
Concerned Village of Justice Resident