Wildcat Ridge subdivision residents accuse Dixon City Council of deceit

DIXON – Dixon City Hall’s Council Chambers were filled Monday night as residents of Wildcat Ridge subdivision off Palmyra Road voiced concerns about a nearly $8 million sewer installation project they believe is going to be coming into the neighborhood without their prior knowledge or input.

City officials, however, said the project is not happening and the residents are misinformed.

“There are no plans for running sewer lines out there. There is nothing that’s been done under the table. There is nothing that’s being planned without notifying any of [the residents] in that area,” Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said to the crowd Monday.

In 2021, under the leadership of former Mayor Li Arellano, the city applied for the Unsewered Communities Planning Grant available through the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

The grant program is intended to “assist unsewered communities with inadequate or nonexistent wastewater collection and treatment systems.” Communities that applied for the grant and chosen by the EPA were awarded funding “to develop project plans that identify solutions to wastewater collection and treatment needs.” The city of Dixon was among 37 recipients and was designated to receive $24,000, according to a news release from Illinois.gov issued May 17, 2021.

With that $24,000, the city conducted a feasibility study and put together a project plan to provide sanitary sewer service to two unsewered areas adjacent to the city: Wildcat Ridge and Frog Hollow, the neighborhood off Route 2 behind the Shell gas station. Those areas currently utilize a private septic tank and absorption fields for wastewater treatment, according to the project plan.

On May 6, a public hearing was held at city hall and the results of that study were presented.

Based on the results of that study, “logistically and financially at this time that project is not feasible,” Hughes said on Monday.

A part of such a study’s work includes taking an in-depth look into the scope of the project, with each aspect discussed, investigated and vetted. Then the city makes a decision as to whether to move forward with it. Another aspect of a study includes development of the costs to complete a project. If this project was going to move forward, the study determined, it would cost about $8 million, Assistant City Manager Matt Heckman said.

The city hasn’t pursued funding for the project and has not received $8 million in funding, city officials said.

“We don’t have a project,” Heckman said.

Susan Buccola, spokesperson for the residents of Wildcat Ridge subdivision who attended the meeting, claimed she watched the City Council meeting May 6 as it was being livestreamed on Facebook when she “all of a sudden heard Wildcat Road mentioned,” she told the council Monday.

She claimed none of the residents knew the study was being done. “Is that transparency, folks?” Buccola asked.

Buccola presented a number of main points, one of which was that when the city put out a public notice for the hearing in the April 12 publication of the Dixon Telegraph, the notice stated the public hearing would discuss “the construction of sanitary sewers in unsewered areas on the northwest side of Dixon.”

She claimed the city was not being transparent because the exact address was not given.

Another factor in her argument was that 42 properties in the Wildcat Ridge subdivision are under a pre-annexation agreement with the city and that agreement expires July 17, 2026, Buccola said.

“Is that deadline a factor in why all of a sudden this grant was important,” Buccola asked.

That agreement was signed in 2006 by city officials who expected the woodlands in that area to be developed into “upscale nice homes,” but that property has since been purchased by somebody else, City Manager Danny Langloss said.

“The annexation agreement is going to expire and it’s going to expire. I know the city, this council, doesn’t have any intention of pursuing anything in that area,” Langloss said.

Buccola also argued that Dixon does not qualify for the Unsewered Communities Planning Grant Program because it is for small and disadvantaged communities that don’t have wastewater treatment systems.

“We are not disadvantaged. We currently do have wastewater collection and we already have a healthy life where we live,” she said. “This is deceiving, outrageous and appears to be a backdoor way to get a land grant for your real-estate taxes to keep these poor people in more taxes and more taxes.”

Langloss said one of the reasons the city determined the project is not feasible is because it wouldn’t be financially beneficial to the city.

“The property tax won’t come near to touch what it’ll take to maintain those roads that quite frankly are in terrible condition, to get water out to that area on top of sewer, for police service, like it’s not contiguous,” he said.

“If there is something that needs to be done in that area, or the city considers doing something in that area, there will have to be hearings and public input,” Hughes said.