Holiday Hills sewer project on pace to start this spring; residents’ connection fees won’t change

A project to install sanitary sewers for more than 300 homes in Holiday Hills is moving forward, with the start of construction slated for sometime this spring, officials said.

The project’s first phase will make sewer lines accessible to 108 homes, according to a news release from the Northern Moraine Wastewater Reclamation District. Once completed, the project aims to eventually connect more than 300 homes in Holiday Hills and the adjacent Le Villa Vaupell subdivision in unincorporated McHenry County to the new sewer network. The area broadly sits on the east side of the Fox River.

Officials from the Northern Moraine district, which is leading the project, said the project’s total cost has spiked between 40% and 50% because of rising labor and material costs, as well as inflation. Residents’ connection fees, estimated at just less than $11,000 a home, will not increase, officials said.

About two years ago, the total project was estimated to cost less than $10 million, officials said. Now, with the increased costs, the final price is expected to be about $16 million.

The project’s first phase will cost about $8.8 million alone, District Manager Mohammed Haque said. Construction will start in the spring.

The project itself has been in the making for at least three decades, Haque said. Most houses in the project’s area are using septic tanks, which Haque said has caused a lot of flooding issues because of soil and groundwater conditions.

“They’ve had a lot of … issues with that related to septics,” Haque said.

Northern Moraine currently provides wastewater services to about 5,000 homes in the areas of Lakemoor, Island Lake and Port Barrington, Haque said. Holiday Hills will be added to that list once the project is complete. As part of the project, the district has created an intergovernmental agreement with the village.

Although officials in both the wastewater reclamation district and the village have said the project is necessary, it hasn’t prevented residents from feeling burned over the connection costs.

Earlier this year, several residents said they were alarmed at the cost of hooking up their homes to the new sewer network. This led a few to say the village should have looked for more ways to pay for it and limit costs to residents.

Holiday Hills Village President Lou French said a lot of work and research went into the decision to move forward with the project. Reflecting on the decision Friday, French said the village at the time was being offered the funded project and officials weren’t sure such an offer would come around again.

He added that a referendum on the project, which some residents said they wished had taken place, would have taken too long and resulted in them losing the funding.

French said the village was able to lock in a cost, meaning even as prices have gone up for the project, residential costs have stayed the same.

“Everybody knew what the deal was,” he said. “I truly believe this project will save Holiday Hills.”

Despite some displeasure, many said they still support the sewers being installed, which French also said was the case.

Once the new sewer system is complete, residents will have to pay a connection fee of almost $11,000, officials said. That cost is broken down into a fee of $10,822 with a one-time $100 inspection fee.

Additional costs could include individual homes connecting their showers, toilets and sinks to the sewer stub and decommissioning their existing septic tank, which officials estimate could cost between $3,000 and $8,000, depending on the home.

The Northern Moraine Wastewater Reclamation District is offering a financing option to residents to help with the cost, officials said. The financing option comes at a 4% interest rate, leaving them to pay about $52 a month over the course of 30 years.

If this option is chosen, the average resident will see their monthly bill go from an average of $41.50 to $93.50. However, residents also can finance it independently or pay the fee off altogether.

The financing option is not available for connecting individual appliances to the sewer stub, officials said.

Residents will have 15 years to connect to the sanitary sewer once it becomes operational. However, the financing deal will expire after three years, officials said.

Moving beyond the first phase, Haque said, the scope of the second still is up in the air and will depend on what kind of funding the district receives for it. As it stands, the district has a couple of grant applications pending with McHenry County, he said.

“The funding has been the biggest issue,” Haque said. “And finally we’ve gotten at least some funds to get us started for now.”

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that the Le Villa Vaupell subdivision is located in unincorporated McHenry County.