A Debt-Free Town? Burr Ridge May Go That Way

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge may become the rare municipality without debt.

In 2009, the village borrowed $5.9 million to build a new police station. It had expected to pay for much of the project with the sale of the Rustic Acres property. But the sale did not happen.

Since the original borrowing, the village has refinanced twice.

One of the options the village is considering is paying down the entire debt — $6.2 million. Of that, $4.9 million would come from the village's debt service account. The rest — $1.3 million — would be covered by the village's general fund, which pays for the day-to-day operations of departments such as police and public works.

The other two options are continuing to borrow all the money or a mix of paying down the debt and borrowing.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Trustee Russell Smith, a financial adviser, used a can of beans to make his point about his preferred option, paying down all the debt.

He said police pension costs were rising and the village would need a new public works building down the road.

"Why incur more (borrowing) expenses for our residents when we can pay this thing off now?" Smith said. "We can take care of some issues that have been nagging our village for a while, not kick this thing down the road."

That's when he displayed his can.

Mayor Gary Grasso said he did not think the village had been kicking the can down the road, citing "weird" economic times as the reason for the debt.

He said he liked what Smith was saying, but he said trustees needed to closely examine the issue.

"I think we can assume that interest rates won't go lower. The discussion should assume they'll be higher," the mayor said.

Trustee Anita Mital said she was against taking $1.3 million from the general fund to pay down the debt.

Trustee Guy Franzese, though, said he opposed refinancing again. He said the village would be in a lot better position if it paid off the debt.

Officials said they would make a decision at a later meeting.