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City Council Minutes 2004 10-04-04 (special cc) Page 1 of 10 APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS 2/8/2005 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE IDOT MEETING Monday, October 4, 2004 5:15 P.M. City Officials in Attendance: Mayor Art Prochaska Alderwoman Rose Spears Alderwoman Val Burd City Administrator Tony Graff City Engineer Joe Wywrot Public Works Director Eric Dhuse Guest Speakers in Attendance: State Representative Patricia Reid-Lindner State Senator Chris Lauzen IDOT District 3-Project Engineer, Rick Powell IDOT District 3-District Engineer, John Kos Others Present: See Attached Sheets Mayor Art Prochaska called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. He started by thanking everyone present for attending tonight's meeting. He went on to explain that later in the meeting there will be a time when the floor will be open to all for comments and/or questions and for now he would like to follow the agenda and keep the meeting flowing. The main idea is to do as much brainstorming as possible to get this issue resolved. He did also ask all to please sign in on the guest sheet for record of who was present this evening. 1. Introductions by Mayor Prochaska: Mayor Art Prochaska asked for introductions from all seated in the Council seats. They were as follows: Rick Powell-IDOT, John Kos-IDOT, Rose Spears-Alderwoman, Val Burd-Alderwoman, Mayor Art Prochaska, Sheila Teausaw-Minute Taker,Patricia Reed-Lindner-State Representative, and Chris Lauzen-State Senator. 2. Identify need for Rt. 47 and 34 improvements: Mayor Art Prochaska moved the meeting forward to here stating that he would like to begin the conversation and then will open up to get comments and suggestions from all of those who were previously introduced. Mayor Prochaska started by explaining that the improvements needed seem pretty obvious in being that Route 47 & 34 need to be widened. He then stated that the needs have evolved over the years and now they are looking at widening Route 47 from Rt 71 1 Page 2 of 10 to Countryside Parkway and hopefully even north of that. He pointed out that the area north on Route 47 up by Galena Road and Route 30. The importance too of this area to the north being widened also has to do with the safety of the public. He stated that the trucks and other big vehicles are in such a narrow roadway there that they have no where to go to in the event of trying to prevent an accident. They will either go into a swale or even Rob Roy Creek. He is hoping to expand this project to go up to at least the County line and he believes Sugar Grove is looking in to getting from the County line and north widened as well. Mayor Prochaska moved on to discussing Route 34 as far as widening and dealing with the speed the traffic is being allowed to travel. He pointed out that the surrounding Communities that Route 34 flows through has four lanes of traffic and the speed limit there is only 45mph, where Yorkville is 55mph, 2-lane road, with drives and roads emptying onto it, in an area with no shoulders. Mayor Prochaska feels this is creating a very dangerous situation. Mayor Prochaska also spoke about the Bristol Ridge Road intersection with Route 34. He knows the City has requested the developers to work with IDOT in improving that intersection due to the need that will be coming for control and signalization there. He was also questioning IDOT as to where this situation stands since he believes this has been sent down to IDOT for approval. He wasn't sure if this was conflicting with IDOT's current engineering project or why it wasn't moving along faster. Alderwoman Spears moved the meeting on stating the issue she had was just getting Route 47 widened. She feels it is a Public Safety Issue due to the Construction that had recently been done by the bridge caused such a stand still in town. She also wondered how the construction traffic will be controlled when Route 47 is going to be widened. She pointed out that there is a need for another north/south river crossing and feels the proposed Countryside Road would be appropriate. She moved on to say that she knows that Yorkville is a rather small town, and they are not expecting all the State funds, but a good portion would be appreciated. As far as the last construction done on Route 47, school busses were running 1-1&1/2hr late. This brings up the point that getting emergency vehicles through during the proposed construction will be quite a hard thing to do. No one should have to wait for them to get through. Mayor Prochaska stepped in at this point thanking Alderwoman Spears for her ideas and thoughts. He stated this brought up another issue with Route 47 regarding the tall wall on the west side of Route 47 just south of the river. Residents from that area are very concerned with its condition. There are parts of the sidewalk is caving in from the dirt behind that wall moving which caused the sidewalk to sink. The Mayor stressed the point that this troubled him deeply and he doubts the stability of the wall anymore. He requested at this point that IDOT please stop and look into this right away, due to the importance of this safety issue here. Mayor Prochaska at this time asked Representative Pat Lindner if she had any comments she would like to make at this time. Pat Lindner began stating the widening of Route 47 2 Page 3 of 10 has been an issue that's been with her for a long time. She stated that in the district that she represented before to the north she knew it took a long time to travel on Route 47, especially when driving behind a large truck. She went on to state that she had no idea until she started representing in Kendall County what traffic was like on Route 47. She said that in all her travels around and down to Springfield, it takes her the longest to get through the town of Yorkville than anywhere else due to Route 47. She is making this one of her big projects to focus on in Springfield. The big part is to get the funding. She knows everyone agrees that it is a need and IDOT has done some preparing to get ready to widen the area already. She stressed that this meeting is to try and find out how everyone can work together and what can everyone due to get this project accomplished for the citizens that deal with it everyday. Every time she sees Tim Martin, the Director of Transportation, she states first to him that the widening of Route 47 must get done and in the plans. She was glad to be a part of this local meeting and has found through the years that these meetings do help get things done by all working together. The floor was opened for Senator Chris Lauzen to speak next. He started by stating if we were setting up the agenda for a meeting like this his approach would be to line up the priorities as follows: 1. What should we do as a Community here to convince the people in Springfield? He added that he felt that John Kos with District 3 IDOT is very committed to the progress in the need for the work. Mr. Lauzen added that it has always been a pleasure to have worked with Mr. Kos on previous various projects in the past. Mr. Lauzen asked the question of how to persuade folks that live 100's of miles away from here that this area has a definite need for this widening. 2. How do we get across the message about our fair share? Mr. Lauzen went on to state that we have a unique set of political assets from this area. The first being that this is a united community, meaning everyone is on board with this idea and need. The second is the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Tom Cross and part of the Leadership team with Pat Lindner, as well as having Dennis Hastert in putting together the Federal Road Plan. Mr. Lauzen went on to state that there was an issue before that he and Mr. Hastert had to work through together when Kane County did not get its fair share, he believes those dollars got moved along with the above support and work. Mr. Lauzen explained how the dollars are being allocated and it is not felt that is the fair way to allocate. All together Mr. Lauzen feels here we have a lot of the right people to help get this done. 3. Why do we not have in next year's plan or in a seven-plan that the job of getting this done? Mr. Lauzen stated that we should have these improvements in a plan as well as the funding for it, and hopefully we can plan out the funding just the same. Mayor Prochaska is looking to walk away tonight with an idea of how we can all work together and get things done to help the situation. He added that as we move the meeting from item#2 to item#3, he brought up that originally the plan from IDOT year's ago was to have a freeway going through the area which caused a lot of dissension in the people 3 Page 4 of 10 of Yorkville. He feels over the years in working with IDOT they are all trying to preserve the integrity of the downtown, park, and the main parts of town. Mayor Prochaska stated at this point that 4 lanes is as wide as it gets without tearing into buildings even more so. He stated that he believed that as it stands the drawings show now that 7 homes and I building would have to go at this point. The building could stay but with the road being 3 feet from the building the owner felt that removing and working with developing in way to blend with the existing buildings downtown. Mayor Prochaska went on to state that the traffic has increased dramatically over the years while working with IDOT in the planning stages. He pointed out that now the intersection of Route 34&Route 47 has gotten up to 74,500 daily,which is incredible for a town this size. He went on to reiterate what Alderwoman Spears had talked about earlier in looking at having an alternate route ready before construction begins. He spoke again about the recent construction done on Route 47 by River Road and pointed out with doing some of the work at night the traffic was backed up 2 miles. This is a big sign to all those involved that there better be a plan for the traffic when the work begins. 3. Current engineering and financial progress: Mayor Prochaska opened this item by stating explaining where the City was on their end of the engineering and financial progress of this problem. He explained that they have identified the Countryside Parkway area as a potential river crossing to the east that would ultimately connect Route 34, 47, 71 and Orchard Road if the whole plan is put through. They have requested some funds to do preliminary engineering on this which will be down the road. With being that this is a City project this will take a while, so Route 47 is still a high priority need to be filled. The City, by working with Developers in the area, has created a network of intra City collectors to keep the traffic flow from having to go on the main highways to get around town. These were meant mainly for the residents to use. East and west are in abundance, but obviously north and south are limited with the river flowing through the center of the town and a bridge is involved. Mayor Prochaska's main question to IDOT is where they are with Phase I engineering with Route 47 and 34. At this point Mr. John Kos, IDOT-District 3, District Engineer, took the floor. He began by thanking the Mayor for inviting them to come out and join this meeting and being allowed to help be part of the Community in working this out. He stated that IDOT has been on board with the engineering since the late 1990's and there was a Public Hearing held in 2000 where they laid out the framework of what the intended improvement was going to be. Since then there has been no funding to begin the construction, but the engineering in terms of the planning concept is ongoing. He added that they have brought that back on to the table to conclude the Phase I engineering to keep up with their commitment they made to the town in doing so. In finishing that portion, IDOT can then establish exactly what the right of way deeds will be for the project. On top of that, IDOT has what they call a Phase II consultant on board who is developing the contract plans with special provisions which are necessary for the contract documents. Rick Powell, IDOT-District 3 Engineer, stepped into the conversation to say that usually Phase II doesn't start until Phase I is completed. IDOT was able to risk manage the Phase II so 4 Page 5 of 10 they were done concurrently. Mr. Kos pointed out that not too much has been done with the contract plans. Mayor Prochaska asked if Phase II will include bid documents. Mr. Kos answered that it did, as well as it will be looking at the construction delays that will occur. He pointed out that this widening will definitely cause delays, there's no way around it. But IDOT will look into doing the best job they can in setting up a plan to keep 2 lanes as free as possible during construction. Representative Pat Lindner asked what Phase I &II were funded under what? Mr. Kos replied that they had been funded previously and that they have the dollars set up to do the engineering in terms of the planning documents, which IDOT has yet to complete, and complete the contract documents, so they can have what's available. Mr. Kos stated what is not funded is the Land Acquisition deeds, which is estimated at approximately$5 million, and anything in terms of construction yet. Mayor Prochaska asked for clarification in what the current area the engineering and focus is on now. Mr. Powell stated it would go up to Kennedy Road, not changing the intersection as is now, and down to Route 71. Mayor Prochaska brought up the fact that we need to start looking at the areas north of there as well. He pointed out this will be quite pricey, especially with the creek crossing at Blackberry and the Underpass at the railroad tracks, and then the most expensive portion will probably be at Route 30 where the creek runs under Route 47. Mayor Prochaska then asked the question of where IDOT is with the engineering of Route 34 east of Route 47. He stated that he knew there had been engineering that has begun there as well. Mr. Powell replied that they have some form of engineering going on now from east of Route 47 up to the Kane County line. He did add that this is another one of IDOT's unfunded stretches of road. Mr. Kos stepped in to state that they are planning on picking up the intersection of Route 34 &47 for approximately l 000ft east and west to get that where it should be. Mayor Prochaska asked again for IDOT to get Route 34 under way with the engineering steps at least due to the fact that Plano to the west and Oswego to the east on Route 34 have either begun widening or are completed and Yorkville in the middle hasn't begun the process. With the traffic building just to the west of Route 47 and 34 at the intersection of Game Farm Road, IDOT still has not begun engineering that portion to be widened. He stressed that they are seeing the traffic growing in the area faster than the City is growing which is a big concern. He then asked if IDOT can get the engineering in these other areas going as well. Mr. Kos stated they will look into it. He isn't sure where IDOT is on engineering as far as west of Route 47,but east is in an engineering process. He then stated that IDOT is aware of all the needs in this area. Mayor Prochaska then asked where the financial process stands for this now. Mr. Kos stated that there are no funds available at this point. 5 Page 6 of 10 He stated that unless something changes dramatically in the funding process, it is going to take a while for funds to become available for all the work needed in the area. Representative Pat Lindner stepped in at this time to go back to Route 47. She stated that it is $5 million for land acquisition, so would that be a sum that we should try and get first and how long does the land acquisitions take? She knows that the entire project will be $18-$20 million for construction, plus the land acquisition process. Senator Chris Lauzen added that the definition of this project is from Kennedy Road at the north end and then to just south of Route 71. That will make it 5 lanes, except 4 lanes though town. The grand total will be approximately$23-$25 million with land acquisition and construction. Mr. Kos stated that was correct. Mr. Lauzen then asked what pieces did they as a group, need to put in place first. 4. What remains to be done: Mr. Kos started by giving the schedule as IDOT has it set now. They are trying to wrap up their Phase I documents. They had a serious of discussions with businesses owner's at the corner of Route 47 & 34, as well as meetings with the village. They will continue to coordinate the project in this respect to reach what they call `design approval'. They anticipate this to probably happen in some time in the winter of 2004-05. At that time they will have the Phase II proceed with his plan preparation for contract documents. Which he has already started some already and been on board doing survey work. But they don't want that consultant to truly begin until the planning portion is completed. That takes any where from 18-24 months to complete. They typically buy the land at about the same time frame if possible. Pat Lindner stepped in to verify that the land acquisition will take place at this time. Mr. Kos agreed it would, except they do not have the $5 million ready to fund that portion and will delay the start of construction until the funds come to acquire the land. Mayor Prochaska at this point asked who do we all need to convince to try and get this money allocated. Mr. Kos stated that this community has done a great job already keeping this project on the front as far as the IDOT District office is concerned. Having a meeting like this and inviting the public is important as well. He then went on to say that IDOT right now is in a very economical time as far as funding projects. He explained that the entire District 3 Budget for construction in this fiscal year is $40-$45 million which covers 11 Counties. That budget goes to maintenance and congestion relief throughout the entire area. The bulk of the money goes to making the sure the roads are serviceable and making sure the bridges are safe to cross. After those needs are taken care of then the rest of the money can go to roadway expansion. He at this time sees no movement to gain$20 million for this project. Clarita Lao, Program Development Engineer in District 3, stepped up to explain that they are an 11 County district and they have about 16, 851 miles of highway and streets to maintain, as well as 3,750 highway structures to look over. This gives an idea of there amount of responsibility the district has in terms of length in miles and numbers of structures. They also have 1,165 railroad crossings, with another 596 crossings they handle. She stated she wanted to step in to give all here at the meeting an idea of what their money has to be budgeted to handle. 6 Page 7 of 10 Senator Chris Lauzen stated that Mr. Kos gave all here very valuable information as far as what % can go to new construction under the current plan. He went on to state that part of the pressures that they are talking about today is toward the Capitol Budget which they are going to be talking about when they get back to Springfield in November. He also stated that there is $1.3 Billion of 2005 Budget where it is committed. He knows the folks in this room are familiar with$15 million going to a Study for the Outer Beltway, and all we need is 1/3 rd of that money to get the land acquisition part done to complete this necessary project. He went into the facts of how the money is diverted at a constant from the budget to specific projects, and this is a problem that needs to be addressed. He stated we all pump the gas into the cars and are paying a gas tax which we all figure is going to the roadways. Unfortunately, $400 million is going to other stated funding, because decisions in the current administration in the government. He stressed that these things just should not happen so that the money could go where originally attended. He went on to figure how much of the seven year plan the $5 million is to do the first stage, land acquisition. He stated that out of the $5.9 billion is in the seven year plan, the $5 million necessary is only 8/100ths of a penny is what this project needs. If we look at funding the entire project, we only need 4/1 Oths of a penny to fund the entire $25 million. He also stated that with all the important people that are involved in this and the people from IDOT here tonight should be helpful in pushing this through for funding. He summed up his statement by saying that now that we've figured we only need approximately 1/2 of a penny to fund the project, how do we go about getting it. Mayor Prochaska stated he believed it was the General Assembly that passes the amount of funding the District receives for their projects, but questioned if they too decided on what projects got funding first. Mr. Kos replied they make recommendations on what projects they feel are necessary and important to be taken care of first, but the last thing on the list is expansion of existing roadways (the big ticket items). Since these big expansions,that are needed, take up most of what the District is budgeted;they usually don't make the list to be done. Mr. Lauzen asked what percent of the budget goes to new construction. Mr. Kos responded that he is not sure if there is any guideline on that, but it does depend on how many dollars are available. Then Mr. Lauzen asked out of the current seven-year plan how much goes to maintenance vs. new construction. Mr. Powell stepped into the conversation to say that right now some of the big projects like the Dan Ryan in Chicago and down state on I-74 are taking most of the funds for new construction. Pat Lindner questioned Mr. Kos as to how is his track record as far as getting the projects he recommends to be done, getting done right away. Mr. Kos started by saying that he has only been with District 3 for approximately 4 months now, so he does not yet have a record with them, but as far as in terms of his experience, he feels that the staff is listened to well when it comes to their recommendations. He also feels there is a bit of conservatism in all this due to the Federal Transportation Bill and the unknown that is out there. He believes this has been suspended for another 6-8 months. Also being that Illinois was made a Donor State,they only receive 92 or 93 on the dollar for budgeting. 7 Page 8 of 10 Mr. Lauzen stated that he heard that the Federal Bill might not be passed before the November Election. He does not like the fact that the current Federal Administration that is controlled by one party would wait for even the outside risk that the either the Senate could go on Partisan lines to the opposite side or that the White House could go to the opposite side. That should have been done way before these changes could have come around. Now if the Political balance has a possibility of changing, things may not go through. He then asked what the people at IDOT are seeing from this. Mr. Powell responded by saying that he has never seen so many re-authorizations of an existing bill before. 5. What parties need to do to complete project: Mayor Prochaska jumped into the conversation stating that we need to build an argument for this project to get underway that all people involved taking to the people who make the decisions. He feels that the main argument should be the public safety issue that is building will the level of flow that is going through this City. He brought up the fact that Route 47 is one of the few roads that goes from Wisconsin border down to the middle of the State, causing massive traffic congestion. He went on to state that there was an opportunity to have a limited access route 15 years ago and at this point we still don't have one in the area. Even the route that is being looked at now, does take into consideration that Route 47 is already widened. The City has major issues with making sure there is public safety to the areas throughout the County even. He brought up the fact that the wall on Route 47 was built back in the 1940's or around that time. Mayor Prochaska stated that he talks to the people of Yorkville, and no one here wants to prescribe to the fact that it's going to wait until there are so many deaths or injuries before something will get done. No one wants that to happen. This should definitely be used for one of the arguing factors for when we take this back to fight for the funding. Mr. Lauzen asked if the public safety and congestion concern having any effect on what pace the developing is happening in the area. Mayor Prochaska responded by saying that the City is trying to maintain a balance, but is hard with all the growth in the area right around Yorkville as well. The City's Fire Department just did a study looking at the growth also. Yorkville as a Community is developing at about just over 2 units per acre, which is a relatively low density. They are looking at ways to work with other groups to try and take land out of development. An example being the Boy Scout Camp, they were able to preserve that land and take out of development. They are also looking at intra-city roads put in. One example being the Marketplace Shopping Center,the developer had access to both Route 34&47 and the City went in and negotiated to build a road behind the stores to limit highway use. The second example being working with Menards and building what is now the only 4 lane highway in town and is a City street which a developer built to lesson highway traffic. The road is now being looked at to continue on in the future as a City project too. Mr. Lauzen came back to say that with Mr. Kos' 25 years experience, he is the most knowledge of anyone here. With that in mind, how would he line up the to-do list knowing how the system works? Mr.Kos started his response by stating that Mayor Prochaska has done a lot of good things, by bringing a consensus of support for an improvement like this, which is a number one priority in all the projects that IDOT does is to make sure that there is for a most part a consensus that an improvement is necessary. 8 Page 9 of 10 That doesn't mean has to be happy or satisfied with the results, but for the most part the community is behind it. He went on to say that the engineering has begun, which is another key component to complete a project and in getting the funding for the rest of the project. Pat Lindner came in to state that the contract document phase has not been started yet. Mr. Kos replied stating it has begun, but the mass of the work will continue when the planning documents are done. Mr. Kos went on to state that the next step will be land acquisition, which is the smaller piece of the total$25 million price. With all this done, you would have even more of a valid argument to getting the construction funded. Alderwoman Spears stated she had a question, that it appears that the project planning is a no win situation and she would like to know how they can have IDOT readjust there priorities. She stated that it was told that most of the dollars are allocated to the maintenance of the roads and they want to keep them safe, but she believes that if they have more lanes and expanded, each lane would be traveled on less and they would be in better condition. She also asked who she gets the petition that is encouraging that this does get funded. She also asked if the petition even helps, or makes an impact on anyone. Mr. Kos responded that the petition does in fact help due to the point that it is more reassuring from a highway engineer's perspective in working with a town who wants it done. Mr. Kos stated that it has been a pleasure working with the community and agrees there is a need for transportation improvement here. Mayor Prochaska once again pushed the point that the public safety issue is bigger than the expansion for traffic ease. He says when looking at 74, 500 through an intersection with just under 10,000 in trucks alone a day, he has to believe even as they widen that road it will fill up quickly. His main issue now is with all the traffic flowing through and how it works there is even a greater need for the public safety issue building. Now there is the idea of a new quarry coming into the area, with an increase of 120-150 trucks and with those added to the numbers, the traffic issue is just going to get worst. He stated he knows the County is working on putting a bridge approximately 2&1/2 miles away from Route 47, but that will still cause delay in traffic. He stressed we really need to get this done before all these other changes come into place. Representative Pat Lindner asked to bring the conversation back to funding sources. She stated that we have the Capital budget in the Stated with maybe a possibility of some of the Federal Transportation money. She went on to say that she wrote, and is sure the other local representatives wrote to Mr. Hastert requesting money for Route 47 widening. She did bring up that the Governor has new program, which is on hold until the veto session, Opportunity Returns. It is her understanding that there may be road projects funded from that program. She asked if the IDOT representatives were aware of this and where the money would go to from it. Mr. Kos responded they don't and explained the program is the Governor's initiative from the Department of Community and Economic Opportunity. A series of economic opportunities, whether they are road projects or other things to help stimulate long term jobs, not just construction. They did suggest Route 47 as a potential project, and Mayor Prochaska wrote to them about it. She then asked if there had been any indication to them that it would go through. Mr. Kos responded that 9 Page 10 of 10 they had no indication, but since they all wrote and suggested Route 47 they were all on the same page as far as where they stand with that funding option. Senator Chris Lauzen asked how big the impact of the Federal Bill to Illinois is. He also asked with the Opportunity Returns, how big is the plan they are talking about? Mr. Kos stated that Mr. Lauzen probably knew more about it than he did, so he can't answer the specifics on it. Mr. Kos stated at one point he knew they were talking about a$1.5 billion state-wide. Mr. Kos then said in terms of the Federal dollars they use that as part of the budgeting process. Mr. Kos gave an example that if Illinois were to gain a penny it would make a significant increase as far as them being able to fund more projects. Mr. Lauzen replied that he was speaking about what dollars come out of the Federal Gas Tax money that goes to Washington and are getting only 92 cents back. Mr. Lauzen stated they want to improve on that based on some of the power houses that they have. He went on to say that one the things the Governor was putting together is Illinois First where a certain portion of this money will be set aside for specific projects that are important in different areas. He further explained that some times the money never gets set aside for these projects and wanted the public here to know how hard it is to get these types of projects funded sometimes. He also compared where in percentages of where the money out of the State budget went to. Mayor Prochaska asked again if there is something that all of us as a City can do further to get this done? Mr. Lauzen stated that the he feels that the City's case has already been made that the need is there, now they need some of these powerful players from the area to speak up for the funding. 6. Comments and questions: At this time Mayor Prochaska moved to open the floor for the public attending to speak to the guests asked to be here tonight. 10 PLEASE SIGN IN MEETING: DATE: 4 �Oo� NAME STREET ADDRESS CITY r 7 � d0 E. Norris Dr)ve, E wa ��- 6ol3So PQ �i 01�0 s�.3 ,/-/U le4Eu-) 7'vl14jeA 7�cj I, S-7 G/ G .0 42EA O 1 a IL Z. ' PLEASE SIGN IN MEETING: =p O T1�e DATE: NAME STREET ADDRESS CITY NJ Ck Stei b e.PC qod- 3 � t go ' ��