Back in August 2016, the Naperville Township Road District and the Lisle Township Road District combined forces under an intergovernmental agreement in which Lisle would maintain Naperville’s 15 miles of township roads for $275,000 over ten months.
However after the election, new leaders at the Naperville Township pulled out of the agreement.
“I terminated the agreement because I felt that there was not going to be a productive working relationship,” said Richard Novinger, Naperville Township Highway Commissioner. “The agreement bound us to send a check over every month to Lisle Township Road District in the amount of $22,916 a month, and I felt that we’re just paying too much.”
Novinger says there were many inefficiencies in the agreement, citing the loss of ten hours of work a week just in the time to travel from Naperville to Lisle.
Per the binding referendum vote in April, Naperville and Lisle Road Districts must combine forces and elect one highway commissioner by Spring 2021- and those at the Naperville Township say it’ll take all that time to figure out a deal.
“Time is needed to work this whole thing out. Time is needed to get a board together. Time is needed to put a structure all in place, and then time is needed to eliminate or liquidate all the equipment. Or, will they need the same amount of equipment to do what needs to be done to maintain the services,” questioned Eddie Bedford, Naperville Township Supervisor.
Those at Lisle Township were unavailable for an interview, but Lisle Township Highway Commissioner Ed Young said he didn’t understand why the Naperville Township Road District violated their existing agreement by cancelling it. However, he did agree that the details of the merge should be reviewed.
Regardless of how it will be done, because of the binding referendum both sides will need to work through differences in order to save what’s been projected as approximately $800,000 to $1.4 million a year.
About 56 percent of voters in Naperville Township and 54 percent of voters in Lisle Township voted yes to the consolidation.
Naperville News 17’s Alyssa Bochenek reports.