Trustees: More Details Needed on Road Referendum

Libertyville trustees say they would like clarity on what the proposed referendum to fix streets would be asking residents to vote on.

“It should be crafted so there is information in terms of ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ about what they are voting on,” said Trustee Donna Johnson, who chairs the village’s Street Committee. “We just need to be clear about what it is we can do and not overpromise.”

Trustees say that while asking for specific roads would be too much detail, they would like to know exactly how much money the village would need to fix how many miles of roads, or what types of improvements certain areas of roads would need.

The road rehabilitation project includes three elements: Reconstruction, rehabilitation, and patching concrete streets, according to Public Works Director John Heinz.

“What we could do is attack this in a way where we find those pavements that are on the verge of (needing) reconstruction and quantify how much we need to do to stay on top of that,” Heinz said during the meeting.

Of the $32 million need to fix Libertyville-maintained roads, $8 million would be used for reconstruction; the remaining $24 million would be used to maintain the streets.

“As far as organizing and prioritizing the (road rehabilitation) it really is a function of how much money,” Heinz said.  “We will have to determine how much we would like to ask for — I don’t suspect that you guys would want to ask for the whole enchilada of the $32 million.”

Village staff will present Street Committee members with specifics on how money would be used in the proposed road rehabilitation program at the Oct. 25 meeting.