Village of Lombard Legistar System

Joe Merryman, 509 W. Wilson

Manuel Loeza, 1001 S. Highmoor

Michael Fischer, 515 W. Wilson

Mr. Fischer explained the situation on W. Wilson. The streets are in pretty bad shape.

It's unincorporated and the street is privately owned by three homeowners which is why

nobody has maintained the structure of the street. It has become fairly dangerous.

There's a slope and in the winter it's very slippery. There are bad potholes.

Mr. Merryman explained that when he first moved into the house three years ago he

started talks with York Township. They washed their hands of the situation and

suggested we talk to Lombard. The reason we're talking to you is because if any

government were going to assume ownership of that road, it would be Lombard. All four

property owners have agreed to annex into Lombard when that time comes and we

came up with some mutual agreement about the road.

Rickard explained that Community Development is aware of the issues. Sebby asked

about the condition of the road. Rickard-It's routinely poor. Sebby-How long is it? Mr.

Merryman-It's about 550'.

Burg-It was vacated in 1960, it was a half road. When there's a situation like that it's

vacated to the homeowners. The Park District has nothing to do with the property.

We've been told by the attorney that we probably have prescriptive easement out there

because we did do some minimal maintenance. Rickard-The Park District has agreed

to donate some land for a road. Sebby-What are we talking $150,000?

Rickard-Roughly, it would be like Kenilworth. Dratnol-It flattens out the slope and puts

an asphalt surface on it. It is not a full improvement. Mr Merryman-We're not looking for

a fully improved road at this point. Mr. Fischer-My driveway turned into a speed bump.

Something is causing it to move upward. Sebby explained that there's nothing the

committee will be able to do tonight.

Arnold-There's a lot more than the four residents using the street. Mr. Merryman-We

understand with an improved road the traffic is going to increase. Arnold-How would

that effect you if that were a 3-way intersection and didn't go through? Mr. Merryman-I

would be very happy. Mr. Fischer-That would be fine. Dratnol-There's a problem with

doing that. As John said there may be a prescriptive easement. The traffic pattern has

existed and been allowed. If that road were to be closed, the people using it would

probably object. Rickard-If you move that traffic to the south it's going to be difficult to

get out at Edgewood.

Sebby-I would like to have some feedback from Public Works and Community

Development. I want to see what kind of implications and cost would be associated with

it. Rickard-It's fairly straight forward. It would be a simple transaction. Once that's

consummated we will annex. Sebby-between now and next Public Works Committee

meeting put together a short report of pros and cons.

Rickard reviewed the background. President Mueller asked that the sidewalk report

come back to the Committee.

Worst First was implemented in place of the general sidewalk program. Sebby pointed

out that the situation on Morningside, there's a huge amount of these situations in the

village. Rickard showed the committee the map from Public Works that shows all the

absent sidewalk.

Rickard reviewed the current trip hazard list. The trip hazard policy states that within 1

year we fix them. To be in compliance with that policy we'll have to get out next spring

and jump on the first part of this list. Sebby asked if we couldn't work on some of these

that summer. Dratnol explained that we could if we have money. Sebby-So what do

you need $100,000? Dratnol-That would be closer to what we need over multiple years.

Rickard pointed out the general sidewalk list which would fall under worst first. These

locations will be ranked and we'll do the worst first. Dratnol-We used up all the money

available for trip hazards, so none of the general sidewalk locations were done this year.

Sebby-So your looking at $100,000 for the trip hazards and $50,000 for general

sidewalk? Dratnol-Yes.

Rickard-We didn't come back tonight with any recommendation to change the "3"

property gap rule. Arnold-We said that when we do the street, that's when we would do

the sidewalks, street lights, etc. Sebby-In this area I take it the street is recently built?

Rickard-These are old streets. We probably did a resurfacing here in the early 1990's.

Frerichs-There's sidewalk on the other side. It doesn't look like a priority at this point.

Sebby-What does staff want? Do you want to know if we want to address it?

Rickard-The logical extension is if the committee wants to change the "3" property rule.

It's an incremental approach to solving our sidewalk problems. Then staff will run

around town looking for all those "5" gaps and complete those. Arnold-When are these

streets slated for reconstruction? Dratnol-They're not programmed for the next 10

years. Sebby-We don't have an option that if the homeowner wants to put sidewalk in

we'll participate? Rickard-When the 50/50 program was eliminated, the Board wanted to

do a worst first program. Sebby-Is there money for Fill the Gap? Rickard-There's no

money budgeted because we've taken care of all the "3" gaps. Sebby-So if we want to

address it further we need to do a larger gap. Dratnol-If we were to do these sidewalks,

we would get a better price to do a defined project. Sebby-Then would we need a

separate line item on the CIP? Rickard-Yes, it would be a stand alone project.

Dratnol-Or you could equate it to the street lighting program. We wanted to do the

whole village, you program "X" dollars per year for sidewalk. Rickard-The problem is the

sidewalk money is competing. It's going to be very difficult to find large chunks of money

to go into an area and do it, and if you do find the money where do you start? Frerichs-I

think that it's more important to fix what we have to take care of first. I don't know if it's

considered a top priority. Sebby-Do you think it would make sense to reinitiate a 50/50

program for a homeowner that wants to put one in? Rickard-That was the beauty of the

50/50 because you could buy your way to the top of the list. It was very successful.

Sebby-I can see the plus, but the down side to it is all the people that are in line are

going to get pushed further down by the people who participate. Rickard-The 50/50

program worked for a long time. It was a way for an owner to get their project done.

Dratnol-It is still a budget consideration. One consideration for a possible funding

mechanism would be a special assessment for sidewalks. It's similar to the 50/50

concept. A special service area can be rejected if more than 50% of property owners

object. A special assessment could be done at the Boards desire. Sebby-I think that

may be a more fair approach to allow these larger sections to be built. The people that

benefit the most would be paying for it and the village could contribute some money and

that way we're not changing what we already have established. Rickard-The policies in

place are fair, but there are no big chunks of money.

There was a consensus among the members in attendance not to change the policy

right now. If the people are interested they can do a special assessment or special

Dratnol reviewed the performance specifications for the concrete light poles. One is the

straight base and one is the flared.

Dratnol-We've taken the spec for the pole we've been specifying and used that as our

guideline. The pole manufacturer needs to demonstrate at least a 10 year track record

in the Chicago area, in at least three municipalities. There are some things we have

some flexibility on. They would be purchased by project. Sebby-When we implement a

street light program we'll be buying more poles. Dratnol-When we do that, we would

probably buy the poles ourselves and say we'll buy "X" poles. Sebby-Do we open

ourselves up to liability of damage of poles? Dratnol-We do open ourselves up to the

risk of damage to poles. At the time the contractor picks up the poles we would have

somebody checking them. Sebby-Do we have storage space for poles? Dratnol-Once

the Garfield site is up and running we may, but we would probably order them to be

delivered to a site. Sebby-The only thing that bothers me is the additional risk for the

contractor making a claim that we can't finish this project because your not supplying

materials. Dratnol-The way our contracts are set up is they would be entitled to

additional time not money. We build in a damage provision with the distributor.

Arnold-So if you put out a performance spec you have to get bids from more than one

company? Dratnol-Yes. Sebby-Would we do that every year? Dratnol-We could set it

up as a multi-year contract. You're looking at a larger number of poles so they can

forecast what their manufacturing needs will be. Sebby-It's as fair as possible, and the

best bang for our buck.

There was discussion regarding the straight base Stresscrete being 7" shorter than

Centrecon. On a full block it's not a problem, if you have a knock down, there could be

a problem. That's not to say that Stresscrete wouldn't make a form. Rickard-We need

to have a spec on the straight poles. We have 1500 of them in town and if you have a

knockdown you don't want to put in a flared base. Dratnol-We've only speced one

manufacturer, or approved, so if Stresscrete wants to come in and make one, they can.

Sebby-It's better to list at least two. Arnold-Do we buy these poles direct from the

manufacturer? Dratnol-Right now the contractor buys the poles from the manufacturer

and the luminaires from a supplier. Sebby-I'd like if you could find at least one more

manufacturer. It would be nice to list three. R Mahal-Is it worth talking to Stresscrete?

Dratnol-That's what I'll do. Sebby-It looks like you've got a real good draft. Dratnol-This

is only one part of the street light policy. We still have not really established the "Main

Street" pole or the luminaire. I'm having staff put together a performance spec for the

luminaire. In that case it will be one name, one product. Sebby-I would prefer that we

list more than one manufacturer. Dratnol-That's very hard to do.

Rickard-I would like to point out the color (item G), John Kaforski had mentioned a rose

colored pole and we do have some out there, however, every pole we've put in since

I've been in town has been gray. I'm a little concerned about switching to rose because

you are going to see mostly gray poles. Dratnol-We also have the anti-graffiti coating

on it. If you look at the pole in front of Public Works, it's shiny, that's the coating.

Rickard called the committee's attention to the difference in weight between the flared

base and the straight base. It will cost more for material and shipping. There's some

cost associated with a flared base.