Eastern Will County News

If a Crete police officer takes a second look at your vehicle, it may be to determine if it is sporting a village sticker.

Crete Mayor Mike Einhorn says the police department took over the job of checking on village stickers earlier this summer, estimating up to 4,000 vehicles lack the piece of paper, which this year honors the Lion’s Club.

At $50 a sticker, the resident-motorists are shorting the village Road & Bridge fund $200,000, Einhorn said at the July 28 village board meeting. Even if there are only 1,000-2,000 unstickered vehicles, “it means a lot of money to repair our roads,” Einhorn said.

“The ‘have-nots’ are going to wind up having an issue, he said, noting they’ll also be fined for not purchasing the stickers.

Police Chief Jim Paoletti added that officers had found 90 vehicles without stickers.

3% residential vacancy rate
Trustee Larry Johnston says there might be enough vacant residences in the village to justify asking for a recycling-fee rebate from the scavenger company that serves the municipality.

Johnston estimates dozens of homes remain unoccupied as the housing market rebounds at a snail’s pace.

When homes turned over on a three- to six-month basis, “it didn’t use to be an issue,” Johnston said during the July 28 village board meeting, “but 100 homes makes a difference.”

There are approximately 3,000 single-family homes and a little more than 500 multi-family units in Crete, according to information available from the village Website.

Crestwood-based Allied Waste charges a general fee for residential garbage and recyclable pickup, based on the number of homes in Crete. The cost is added, on a pro-rated basis, to residents’ water/sewer bills.

Einhorn said he and staff are attempting to determine a hard number for the purpose of discussion with Allied.

“We just want to make sure we’re being fair to them and being fair to ourselves,” Einhorn said.

Branches, electricity
Einhorn has a couple of requests for residents:
1. Please put small piles of branches in your yard-waste container instead of at the curb for public works employees to pick up and
2. Please don’t fall for aggressive pitches from people trying to persuade you to purchase electricity through their company. Crete residents continue to benefit from a significant reduction thanks to group purchasing.