On January 1st, the City of Chicago and DuPage Water Commission increased the price of water that is pumped from Lake Michigan to the City of Darien and all other surrounding suburbs.  This is the third of four large annual increases.  As the City pays more for water, it needs to charge more to the end user to recoup these expenses.  This year, the proposed cost for residents per each thousand gallons of water will increase from $6.40 to $7.75.  Unincorporated residents are charged 20% more than Darien residents in our system.  The fixed fee, which pays for infrastructure items such as water towers and billings, is going from $5 to $10 (unincorporated homes will pay $12). The goal is to minimize the impact of any rate increase by finding efficiencies in our system and keeping the rate as low as feasible.  If you have any questions, please call Assistant City Administrator Scott Coren at (630) 353-8104.

 Additionally, there is another scam where the caller claims to be a representative of the Internal Revenue Service. Over 20,000 complaints have been received nationwide in the last few days. A person calls saying they are from the Internal Revenue Service and attempts to gain your personal information or tells you that you owe money to the IRS and to pay immediately. Caller ID on your phone may show the caller is the IRS or another official government agency. These calls are NOT legitimate. The IRS does not contact you by phone to demand payments. If you receive this type of call, please hang up immediately and contact your local police agency immediately to report the incident. 

As part of our on-going effort to engage and partner with the community, we are rolling out a new initiative next week. The new initiative will involve a registry for private and commercial surveillance video.  The purpose of the registry is to allow the Darien Police Department to share personal video surveillance that a resident or commercial business may have captured of a crime or other activity requiring police attention. The way the program will work is that once registered, if an incident occurs near the location that has been registered, the Darien Police Department will contact the registered owner and request to view and copy any captured data relative to the incident.  This practice is currently underway in other departments and will enhance our community partnership and also increase our chances to apprehend offenders.  Please contact Stacy Sherman at ssherman@darienil.gov if you are interested in participating.

We often get questions from residents about the total cost of the property tax in the City of Darien.  The DuPage County Treasurer has put out a helpful new tool that demonstrates the different tax requests from different taxing districts such as schools, fire districts, and libraries.  The City of Darien accounts for less than 5% of your property tax bill, with the exact amount varying on the school districts and fire district that serve you.  

Just visit their website and enter your address.

Driveways                     $5.90 per square foot

Sidewalks                     $3.93 per square foot

Apron                           $3.93 per square foot

Apron w/fiber mesh        $4.23 per square foot

Curb & gutter                $12.70 per square foot

Sealer                          $1.00 per square foot

Resident wishing to replace their driveways should call Suburban Concrete directly at 847-837-8805, and inform them you are a Darien resident.  Suburban Concrete will invoice you for the work.

Residents wishing to replace the sidewalk, apron or depress their driveway curb should call City Hall at 630-353-8102.  The City will invoice you for this work.

The deadline to participate in this year's program is July 3.