BY MIKE CETERA
The city of Aurora's seemingly open wallet when it comes to the Sho-Deen site in southern downtown always has struck me as a bit frightening. After all, this site has a track record for failure.
Neither the City Council nor Mayor Tom Weisner has ever publicly set a ceiling for what the city is willing to spend (that would be your tax dollars) to ensure success on the moribund site along the Fox River. For a project with such a large public commitment, Aurorans should expect their leaders to draw a proverbial line in the sand and proclaim they will not cross it. But that hasn't happened.
The city already has once amended its agreement with Sho-Deen to increase its up-front stake. Earlier this year, the city agreed to increase its commitment from $6 million to $11 million. Where does it stop?
The question -- which has been asked before by both this newspaper and opponents on the council -- has renewed urgency with news that all isn't going according to plan with regard to the environmental remediation.
Most concerning is that nobody seems to know how much site cleanup is going to cost.
(Sho-Deen President David Patzelt) said that there has been some give and take between Sho-Deen Inc. and the IEPA over the cost of the remediation. There is no set total for the remediation costs, and the city will split the cost with the developer, after the city's initial $3.5 million investment.
At the beginning of the decade then-Mayor David Stover publicly set the price tag for environmental work at $10 million. More than a year ago, project cheerleaders tried to assure me that the cost would never approach that figure. Yet they wouldn't then, and haven't since, said what the final cost to taxpayers might be.
My question is, why not?
When will the spending end?
Well, we can't expect Weisner to stop it. We very well can't expect the majority of our aldermen to grow spines (or brains) after all these years. And the only local newspaper hasn't quite been jumping up and down about the issue either. (Heck, they can't get me the paper before 8 a.m. so far this week.)
I'd say the next opportunity to close the checkbook in April 2009.
To answer your question. When will the spending stop? When the public begins to hold us accountable or April 2009.
The Beacon news reported about the Shodeen development; I thought the money increase, from 6 to 11 million was for a bridge or something like that, I didn't think the whole 11 million was going for environmental clean up. Alderman Lawrence said Tuesday night that over $6 million was going for environmental clean up. What is the real information? I am a bit confused.