Road District Transfers Property To Village Of Homer Glen

HOMER GLEN, IL — The Village of Homer Glen now has a public works department after a transfer of property from the Homer Township Road District, interim Village Manager Matt Walsh said.

The transfer comes after an April 7 decision from Judge John Anderson confirming the township road district commissioner had the authority to convey property to the village, Walsh said.

"The court has no say in whether the highway commissioner should transfer property to the village of Homer Glen," court documents read. "This court is only called upon to determine whether [the commissioner] is statutorily permitted to make that decision while he is in office."

Homer Township, which had filed the lawsuit against the village over the transfer, has appealed the decision. It also filed an emergency motion to stay the transfer pending the appeal, but that was denied.

Walsh said the village recorded closing documents on April 19 with the Will County Recorder of Deeds, which made the transfer of property official.

"The acquisition of the property allows the Homer Glen Village Board to control the maintenance, budgeting and planning of its own public works department," Walsh said. "The Village Board is accountable to the residents of Homer Glen and will operate this new department as efficiently and conservatively as all other Village departments."

Employees from the road district who wanted to be employed by the village have started the onboarding process, Walsh said.

Homer Township Supervisor Pam Meyers said there are no previous instances in case law of a decision where township assets were transferred on the decision of "one township official alone and hastened to be completed prior to the expiration of his term of office."

Meyers said residents in unincorporated areas of the township have asked the road commissioner and the village to acknowledge their portion of financial contributions to road district assets.

"Because Village officials do not legally represent them and they do not agree with the Commissioners autonomous decisions, they have requested their elected representatives, the Homer Township Board, to represent their interests in the courts," she said.

A new township supervisor and several new board members will be sworn in after the results of the April 6 election. Meyers said the current board believed the decision to appeal "would objectively provide a fair opportunity for the new, incoming officials to receive more information about the legal dispute and to decide how to proceed on behalf of all their constituents."