If you read the next post down, about halfway through or so, there is a mentioning of having landlords pay the water and sewer bills of those renters who pretty much ignore their responsibility to pay them. I understand that there is a large drive to get some of the abusers of the system out of the project homes in Maple Grove Park, but this is taking that drive too far.
A few years back, the Village Council made it a requirement that landlords transfer the water and sewer bills to their renter upon occupying an apartment. I’m not entirely certain of the reasoning, but I would expect it to be so that the Village could track down non-payers and require them to make their payments. For some in the Village, this required the installation of water meters (at their own cost). This was overall a good move, because it allowed the Village to get their unpaid bills from the people who actually abused the system.
Now the Council is being encouraged to reverse track. Rather than put the responsibility upon the renter than them alone, there is going to be a transerral of responsibility to the landlord if the renter refuses to pay. This is akin to forcing a parent to pay for his thirty-five year old daughter’s credit card bills, rather than forcing her to make some hard decisions in life. We need to be careful that the in the drive to clear out the abusers, we don’t do harm to the longtime residents of the Village. What about the elderly lady who has two rental homes and rents the home to someone she didn’t realize wasn’t going to live up to their responsiblities? Too bad Grandma, you should have been more careful, here’s a bill for $150.00.
I fully understand the desire of many to clean and clear the projects, and really support it. There is little doubt that for this Village to continue to go in the right direction, there must be some very hard decisions made concerning the Maple Grove community. Let’s be careful not to overburden ourselves with Ordinances that go too far and harm the Village.
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