Kendall County Times

At the Feb. 27 Montgomery Village board meeting, Trustee Dan Gier discussed reverting the village's mailbox repair and replacement policy to what it once was.

Initially, if a resident's mailbox was inadvertently damaged or destroyed by municipal crews clearing the roads – usually with snow plows – village staff would inspect the mailbox, determine if the damage was done by village staff, and then repair the mailbox.

This changed a few years back due to a staffing shortage, and the village opted to have the residents repair the mailbox themselves and then the village would issue them a check. The village would receive the receipt for damage and reimburse residents up to $75.

Gier wants to go back to the original policy.

“[The village] damaged it,” Gier said. “And this is really the only thing that we do in the village where when we damage somebody's property that we don't repair it in-house. You know, if there’s anything, anything that we do and we damage somebody's property through the course of operations, we either make the repair or we pay to have repair made. And like Director Wolfe said, there's not a lot of them. You know if we had 12 that were found to be our fault ... and it’s a lot of goodwill towards the residents that we're repairing something that we've damaged. That's our responsibility to repair.”

The board uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the village’s YouTube channel.

Gier said that between receiving the call, sending someone out to inspect, issuing the resident a damage notice and walking the resident through the process, and then receiving the repair receipt and issuing a check, he felt it would be more beneficial to just have staff go out and repair them like they used to.

He said in most cases it was a simple and quick fix, maybe $15 of supplies and done in 15 minutes. He was not saying the village should fix every broken mailbox in the community, as some fall because its post is rotted or a strong storm knocks one over, but if it is determined that the village damaged a mailbox the village should be responsible for fixing it.

Board members discussed this concern. Som were concerned over having to take on responsibility for the mailboxes if residents have more elaborate or particular ones, or they chose to get a new mailbox if damage does occur. Others trustees were concerned for their constituents who couldn’t repair it themselves or afford the handyman’s prices, which some said could reach around $200. One trustee said that no change in procedure was necessary because there wasn’t a huge uproar in the community. 

The board ended up tabling the conversation in order to get some estimates from village staff on which way would be more efficient for the village.

The board also discussed awarding Marc Kresmery Construction, LLC, its bid for $316,400 for Fairfield and Farm & Fleet Lift Station Modifications.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. on March 27 at the Village Hall at 200 North River St.