Heavy equipment, tons of clay arrive on site of proposed Homer Township facility ahead of ‘solid’ plans for development

By Michelle Mullins

Daily Southtown

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May 02, 2023 at 4:36 pm

Steve Balich Editor Note: The cost to bringing in the clay is ZERO. If we never build anything all we need to do is put the top soil we stockpiled back and plant seed. ZERO cost to taxpayers except spreading the topsoil. The fact is we will not raise the Levy. People are hurting with the cost of everything so unlike those complaining your Township Board will not take a bond because that will raise taxes. We will do this project with no increase in taxes! The same people who complain now are the same ones that complained that we were doing nothing that the people asked for in the Referendum.

Ground work is underway at the Trantina Farm site in Homer Glen in preparation for a parking lot and road for a future civic or community center, Homer Township officials said.

The farm, 15744 W. 151st St., is part of the Homer Township Open Space Program, and excavation work is expected to last for the next several months.

Some residents said they were concerned when they saw work being done on the site since no plans for the future civic center have been unveiled.

Supervisor Steve Balich said the township is working with Wight and Co. to provide design options for a civic center and write grant applications to help fund the project. He said he wants to have designs presented to the public for a workshop in June or July.

“We are brainstorming about it, but nothing is solid yet,” Balich said.

In the meantime, the township received an offer from a firm looking to move clay from a job in Orland Park and is depositing it at Trantina Farm at no cost to the township, Balich said. The clay is expected to be the base for a future parking lot.

Township highway commissioner Brent Porfilio told the Homer Glen Village Board recently that the 5,000 cubic yards of clay fill is expected to save the township about $200,000, and work will last about three to 3 ½ months.

“We are cutting $200,000 off the price of the civic center,” he said. “… We are going to public comment this summer, either in June or July, for public input on the development. It’s going to be a wonderful development and we will coordinate it with the village.”

The permits for the current groundwork have been secured with the village of Homer Glen, village manager Carmen Maurella said. The farm lies within village boundaries.

Balich said the township has been working on ideas for the civic center after residents passed a 2020 referendum proposal that asked if the township board should pursue grant funding for the purposes of constructing a multipurpose, pole barn style structure to be used for educational, environmental, recreational and social community activities.

About 64% of residents approved the referendum in November 2020, according to the Will County clerk’s office.

Balich said while the township does not have plans for the center, amenities under consideration include a basketball court, a stage, a kitchen and a large multipurpose room.

Ideally, Balich said, the township would like to have a place for people with special needs to play basketball, an area for theater groups to perform, space for cooking classes and a room for seniors to play bingo or gather for coffee or lunch. The township would also like to have after-school programs for kids, he said.

There is no budget for the project, but Balich said it could cost about $2 million.

Residents said they are concerned that groundwork is being done before a plan is in place.

“People are concerned about the plan,” said Gail Snyder, who was secretary of the Homer Township Land Acquisition Committee for Open Space. “They don’t know what it is, how expensive it is and how it will be paid for. It seems to have commenced without a proper process.”

Snyder, a former Homer Glen trustee, said voters approved seeking grants for a pole barn structure, and it seems the project has grown without input from the public.

The pole barn “seemed like a modest proposal,” she said. “They altered the original intent and spirit that the referendum was presented to the public. Making decisions without the public understanding what is happening, it’s bad government.”

Snyder said she doesn’t feel as though work for a parking lot should begin without plans for the entire site. If an entire plan was submitted, then it would take into consideration how all aspects of the project interplay, from drainage and water management to traffic, she said. If the plans for the civic center aren’t complete, then the size of the parking area to serve it wouldn’t be known, she said.

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Margaret Sabo, a former Homer Glen trustee, said at a recent Homer Glen Village Board meeting she was concerned work on the farm site was being done without consideration of drainage or wetlands, and that it would have an adverse effect on the farm and the immediate area.

Balich said eventually the site will have a road and a parking lot, and the township is taking advantage of an opportunity to receive free clay. He said the site work isn’t beginning prematurely. If the civic center doesn’t get developed, the clay won’t hurt the ground, Balich said.

Residents have been at odds with township officials over the open space properties for about a year.

Last fall the township board sought to sell two of its open space properties — the Purdy and Paul farms — to pay for a community center. The board received an offer for the 86-acre Purdy Farm and agreed to sell it, angering residents who protested the sale. The buyer for the property subsequently pulled out of the deal.

Snyder said she hopes lawmakers enact measures under consideration in the state Senate requiring any future sale of designated open space land to go through voters via a referendum. She said the only recourse residents had to stop the sale of open space property was through a lawsuit, and residents were prepared to do so last year.

“This legislative solution is better than a judicial one,” she said.

Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.