Krishnamoorthi secures $1 million earmark for Rosemont’s gated community — even though it’s not in his district

Rosemont has never gotten a congressional earmark as large as the one U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi secured — nearly $1 million — even though it’s for a public works project that is technically outside his district.

The $959,752 grant, part of the government spending bill passed by Congress in March, will cover the majority of the $1.4 million cost to upgrade an aging sanitary sewer lift station in Rosemont’s gated residential community.

The existing lift station, built in 1960, is at Granville and Scott streets in the gated subdivision south of Higgins Road. It’s where most of the village’s 3,806 residents — many of them village employees — live.

Despite a recent redistricting, the neighborhood is still within the 5th District represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago.

Rosemont’s new and old village halls, however, are in the 8th, represented by Krishnamoorthi, a Schaumburg Democrat.

Officials are confident the check will clear because residents of both districts will benefit from the sewer system upgrades.

“This funding is all set,” said Will Baldwin, a spokesman for Krishnamoorthi’s office. “Member requests don’t have to be specifically within the confines of their own district.”

“This is one that will benefit and serve 8th District residents even though the specific project site for those services will be outside the district and also serve residents outside the district — which is very fortunate with Illinois’ district line,” Baldwin added.

Krishnamoorthi and Mayor Brad Stephens — who doubles as the assistant Republican leader in the Illinois House of Representatives — were all smiles as they posed for photos during a check presentation Monday at the first village board meeting in the new village hall, 9501 Technology Blvd.

Both extolled the values of bipartisanship.

For Stephens, he said the congressman has been “overly responsive” to the village’s needs.

“I don’t remember anything like this,” Stephens said of receiving as large of an earmark in the past.

For Krishnamoorthi, he’s bringing home the bacon to a Rosemont neighborhood that has traditionally been deep red. Voters in Leyden Township precinct 12 — the village’s gated community — favored Donald Trump over Joe Biden 69% to 29% in the 2020 election.

Krishnamoorthi said the lift station upgrades will reduce the likelihood of sanitary sewer overflows, and improve public health standards throughout Rosemont and surrounding communities.

“I was proud to secure this federal funding to keep the residents of Rosemont safer and healthier and to keep its sewer system where it should be — out of sight and out of mind,” he said.

The village board must still approve an intergovernmental agreement with the state — as a pass-through entity — to receive the federal funds.