Village Hall staff recently released recordings from the May 19th meeting of the Roads & Bridges Committee meeting. The link to the menu of edited recordings by agenda item can be accessed here.
The meeting lasted just over an hour and began with two residents making public comments. The first was concerned about “pooling” water on a property on Old Hart Road due to possible culvert issues. The second resident spoke of numerous topics including private property drainage projects leading to water on Village roads, delays on the Cuba Road Bridge project, “cut-through” commuter traffic littering our Village roads and how the Longmeadow Parkway Project will exacerbate this problem.
Both of their comments can be heard here.
Bids for the 2016 roads program brought some good news, since the costs of asphalt is significantly lower than in previous years due to the decline in petroleum prices. As a result, the costs to resurface roads planned for this year will be about $100,000 less than originally budgeted.
Dan Strahan of Gewalt Hamilton then suggested resurfacing the parking lots at Village Hall with the surplus budget money available. This project was originally slated for next year according to a plan recommended by Strahan, but Chairman Cecola repeatedly instructed Strahan to seek other future Village road projects to move forward to this year that will be more beneficial to residents.
It’s perplexing to us why Strahan would make such a recommendation considering he authored a report on the significant backlog of road resurfacing projects in 2014 (as we previously reported here), and he proposed restriping the Village Hall parking lots just last year, which was performed at a lower price than the original bidder Strahan presented after Cecola requested a new proposal.
The discussion of the 2016 road projects can be heard here.
It was reported that Chapel Road is once again flooding in an area near where the new HARPS facility is planned. At times water heights are high enough that the road must be closed. The committee plans to address this issue, and road repair, possibly including raising the roadway, will take place in 2017.
The resurfacing of Spring Creek Road will take place sometime towards the fall now since Algonquin wishes to keep highland Avenue open for summer baseball league play according to the recordings. Also, Cook County officials apparently told some Brinker Road residents who inquired that Brinker will be resurfaced sometime next year, however this has not been confirmed by Village officials.
The Cuba Road Bridge is now tentatively scheduled to open before the July 4th holiday. Work around the bridge, such as cleanup and landscaping, will continue throughout July. The recording of that project update can be heard here.
Under “New Business,” President McLaughlin distributed a rough draft of a request for proposal for providing engineering services to Barrington Hills. He explained this is not a reflection on the services Gewalt Hamilton has been providing, but an effort to make sure the Village is receiving competitive rates. That recording can be accessed by clicking here.
Trustee Cecola closed the meeting with some comments on the Longmeadow Parkway Project as a result of contact he’s had with residents. He reiterated the fact that the Village Board passed a resolution in 2015 opposing the construction of roadway (see “Resolution of Opposition to Construction of the Longmeadow Parkway (Bolz Road) Bridge”), and that the board also declined to approve the latest McHenry County Transportation Plan as drafted due to its specific support of the Longmeadow project. His comments can be heard here.
