Township to Maintain New Sidewalks on Route 21

Libertyville Township trustees voted to assume responsibility for a portion of sidewalks that will be constructed as part of the Route 21 widening project.

On March 24, Libertyville Township Trustee Richard Mittleman, Terry White and Supervisor Kathleen O’Connor, approved assuming responsibility for about one mile of sidewalk from south of Casey Road to village limits. Trustees Sari Hurtig and Robin O’ Connor were not present at the meeting.

Previously township trustees declined to assume responsibility for the sidewalks due to budget constraints, but after reviewing cost estimates from Lake County Forest Preserves and the Village of Libertyville, which are also responsible for portions of the sidewalk, township trustees decided the cost would be manageable.

“Initially my thought was ‘Wow, this would be really expensive, I don’t know if we could tackle this,’ then my other thought was once I started getting more information together and I talked to several people, it seemed like more of a manageable situation,” said O’Connor during the meeting. “I’m much more open to it now than I was before.”

The Lake County Forest Preserve District recommended the township budget $1,000 annually to maintain their portion of the sidewalks. The estimate includes mowing, sweeping and staff hours but does not include costs for repairing sidewalks, according to O’Connor.

In order to assume responsibility of the sidewalks, township trustees had to rescind the previous vote—which stated all sales were pending removal of the requirement that the Township Road District maintain the proposed sidewalks—and vote again to sell township land and assume responsibility for sidewalk maintenance.

The township will be selling four parcels of land near Casey Road and Milwaukee Avenue to the Illinois Department of Transportation for a total of $217,000.