Sycamore discusses street maintenance program

Various street repair and street maintenance projects are planned for the city of Sycamore this year.

Members of the Sycamore City Council discussed this year's street maintenance program during their Monday evening meeting. The council members unanimously approved a motion during the meeting to allow the city to solicit bids for the street maintenance program.

The city plans to have about $1.2 million worth of street maintenance projects completed this year. About $1.15 million of the cost will come from the city's capital fund, about $230,000 from the motor fuel tax fund and $922,000 from the street maintenance fund.

Public Works Director Fred Busse said city staff has worked hard during the past few months to determine which streets are in the most need of repair. Busse said the streets were ranked based on their condition, the amount of traffic they receive and how often they need patching work.

"A lot of things were taken into consideration when that list was put together, and I feel it's a very unbiased list as far as how they were ranked and what areas need to be addressed," Busse said.

One of the main projects that is scheduled to be completed this year is the resurfacing of Somonauk Street from Waterman Street to Turner Place, which was started in 2008. That project is expected to cost about $210,000.

Repair and maintenance work is scheduled to be completed on 16 other streets including Brickville Road, North Avenue, North Locust Street, West Exchange Street, North Cross Street, North Fair Street, Crosby Avenue, Donlin Court, Somonauk Street, Home Street, West Ottawa Street, South California Street, Vance Street, Foxpointe Drive, Hathaway Drive and Sacramento Street.

City officials also plan to have repair work completed in an alley west of Sacramento Street, an alley west of Elmwood Street and another alley east of Townsend Street.

First Ward Alderman Richard Neubauer said he is pleased with the amount of work that city staff put into determining which streets are in the most need of repair. He said he feels the city has developed a quality street maintenance program during the past few years.

"We, as aldermen, get the occasional compliant, but this time of the year, I kind of feel like Santa Claus, because I know when I present this to my constituents, there are going to be lots of people who are incredibly happy," Neubauer said.

First Ward Alderman Alan Bauer said he agrees that the streets that have been selected for this year's program are in need of repair.

"In some places, the road has turned from blacktop to gravel," Bauer said.

Fourth Ward Alderman Terry Kessler asked if there are plans to repair some of the smaller, lesser-traveled roads.

"I'm not saying they're worse than what's been proposed, but if you're looking at traffic flow, these smaller streets that are peppered in (the fourth ward) and Ward 1, as well as north of town, are never going to have a (high) traffic flow, but yet these citizens have gone without for many years," Kessler said.

Busse said there are plans to repair the lesser-traveled roads in the future.

Mayor Ken Mundy said, because of a lack of revenue, the city was unable to select as many streets as originally proposed for this year's program. However, he said the city has done a good job of repairing the streets during the past few years and even more streets will be worked on during upcoming years.

"I read about the infrastructure woes across the country and across the state, and, at least, we have a realistic approach here, and this was never going to be done in a couple of years," Mundy said. "This was always projected to be, at least, a 10-year and probably a longer program to get done, on the street side, what we need to do."

Members of the city council are set to vote on a bid for the street maintenance program during their July 6 meeting.