Kaptain, Elgin council get down to business

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Newly-elected Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain talks to an employee Thursday at Douglas Street Sports Bar about a local complaint during an interview with The Courier-News. May 12, 2011 | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: September 29, 2011 12:37AM

ELGIN — The city’s new mayor, Dave Kaptain, found himself sitting at a table in the back of the Douglas Street Sports Bar downtown on Thursday afternoon when a reporter introduced him to a waitress working the lunch shift.

Polite while expressing her frustrations, the waitress told Kaptain that a carnival — set up for almost two weeks in the parking lot normally used by the establishment — was cutting into business.

“My tips are way down. We’re normally busy when the (Chicago) Bulls are playing, and we haven’t been. And some seniors who often come in said that the lack of close parking has made it hard for them to stop by,” she said.

Kaptain listened patiently to her concerns. He told the waitress that although it might be too late to make any changes for this year, what she mentioned would be taken into consideration when the City Council discusses putting together a better policy about carnivals held in the city — one of many topics that might come up at the council’s retreat set for June 3 at the Hawthorne Hill Nature Center.

Attending such a retreat is nothing new for Kaptain, who was first elected to the City Council in 2005. And as a grass-roots campaigner, he is used to people bending his ear.

He also stopped by the carnival in question the weekend before. While there had been some controversy prior to the event — raised by an online publication and heightened by the event’s planner Anthony Pedote, making the police blotter for a scuffle prior to it — Kaptain said things appeared to go well.

“It was nice to see kids and families having fun,” he said.

As exemplified by his lunchtime encounter, the difference between being mayor instead of a councilman is “Now, I’m sort of the answer man,” Kaptain said with a laugh.

In Elgin’s system of government, the mayor has no more power than the other council members. Kaptain did note that he intends to respect that process, trusting and leaving staff to do its job.

But serving as the council’s de facto leader, another change Kaptain has noticed tied to his rise in rank: “I told my wife we need a sooner ‘leave’ time.” By that he meant it takes extra time to exit an event now as more people want his attention.

And in the next few months, his attention — and the rest of the council’s — will be drawn to a number of unresolved issues as it prepares for the retreat, which helps set direction for city staff as it readies Elgin’s next budget.

As he ate lunch Thursday, here is what Kaptain had to say about some of those items.

ROPE house project

A controversial project to convert what had been a troubled property — albeit one with ties to Elgin’s past — into a ROPE (Resident Officer Program of Elgin) home with state-of-the art green technologies appears to be nixed.

In early 2009, the city paid a landlord more than $222,500 for the house at 302 W. Chicago St. According to a memo from Budgeting and Purchase Officer RuthAnne Hall to City Manager Sean Stegall dated May 4, at that time, “A request was made by the neighborhood group to move the (ROPE) residence (at 111 Union St.) to a more central location.”

“When purchased, 302 W. Chicago St. was a rental property that had been converted to five apartments and in significant disrepair,” the memo notes.

The home was built in 1846 for two sons of Elgin cofounder Joseph Kimball. According to reports, by the time the city bought the house it was a nuisance property, known by police for drug and prostitution calls.

In 2010, it was proposed to put a good deal more money into the home for significant improvements. Funding would come from the city’s share of Grand Victoria Casino money and energy grants. Bids were submitted by April 22. According to the memo, taking all low bids, with project management fees, insurance and $48,000 in “construction contingencies” the work would cost $610,000. So, including the purchase price, the project would total more than $832,000.

“It should be noted that total combined low bid was approximately $150,000 over the initial estimates provided to the city,” the memo states. The memo notes the bids would be discussed at the May 25 council meeting.

Kaptain had campaigned against the project. With the new information contained in the memo, Kaptain said he felt the conversion project was dead. The next step will be to decide as a council what to do with the home to honor its past safely, he noted.

East-side roundabout

Kaptain also campaigned against plans for a roundabout for the intersection of Dundee and Summit avenues.

During the election cycle, “I didn’t hear a lot of support for this from the community,” Kaptain said.

On Wednesday, City Manager Sean Stegall told council members to expect a status report with new recommendations about the project within the next few weeks.

Changes to the intersection have been under consideration for at least 10 years. At one time, Stegall estimated the project would cost $3.58 million to complete, and said most of the construction costs would be covered by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The city has an agreement with the owners of the closed Dunkin’ Donuts site at the northeast corner and had been working to secure purchase agreements with owners of the nearby BP station, CVS, KFC, McDonald’s, and dry cleaners for portions of those lots needed if the project were to proceed.

City-owned houses

Over the past few years, the city purchased properties with $2.16 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a good many of them old and large.

Four of the homes were turned over to Habitat for Humanity, one was demolished, and two won’t be rehabbed until money comes in from the sale of the four homes being rehabbed with the federal funding.

Kaptain said a report is being prepared concerning a contractor for the project, J&B Builders of St. Charles, encountering between $15,000 and $20,000 in additional expenses on the homes awarded to it. Those homes are at 318 South St., 457 E. Chicago St. and 463 E. Chicago St.

The city has yet to sell any of the homes. If and when it does, money will be put back into the program.

Kaptain believes the city should have bought smaller, easier to fix bungalows with such funding. H:e intends to suggest this type if any more homes are purchased.

“The positives we have gotten out of this work are the relationships we have built with contractors, with Habitat for Humanity and with other organizations,” Kaptain said.

Hydroelectric power

Last year, the council approved paying close to $29,000 to San Francisco Bay-area company ORENCO Hydropower for a feasibility study for converting the dam on the Fox River near Kimball Street for use in generating hydroelectric power. The idea was championed by Kaptain and came about from his work with the Elgin Sustainable Master Plan Committee.

Kaptain said a report will be presented within the next few weeks, presenting options for such work. One option might cost as much as $4 million, Kaptain said, while another would be close to the expected $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

According to Kaptain, the city could recapture those upfront costs in 10 to 12 years by using the electricity for its own buildings downtown, such as The Centre. The city also is talking to the Gail Borden Public Library about partnering with that entity to supply it with power, Kaptain said.

Hiring a communications director

While Kaptain did not offer comment, the city’s effort to find a communications director remains, at the very least, in limbo. At a press briefing for the council Monday, Stegall said several interviews had been conducted, including one recently with an unnamed Elgin resident. Stegall noted that no decision had been made yet in a process that has been ongoing since last fall, when Sue Olafson was transferred from public information officer for the city to working specifically for public safety departments.

Stegall said what was weighing on him making a choice is spending the posted $100,000 salary the job carries, given the financial challenges the city continues to face in the aftermath of the recession.