After learning that accepting $435,000 in federal funds to resurface Delaplaine Road would likely result in the removal of at least four (and possibly seven) stop signs, village trustees on March 19 decided to take a pass on the opportunity.
Back in October, Public Works Director Michael Hullihan explained that it might be possible for Riverside to obtain federal funding for resurfacing the village’s longest street, which runs in a wide arc from Woodside Road to nearly Ogden Avenue, by having the road designated as a collector route.
Riverside has previously taken advantage of the collector route designation to help pay for resurfacing Addison Road, East Quincy Street, East Burlington Street, Ridgewood Road, Forest Avenue and Woodside Road.
But residents and trustees at the March 19 meeting spoke out against going ahead with the collector route designation for Delaplaine Road, saying it would compromise safety.
“I’ve lived on North Delaplaine for 14 years and have seen a dramatic increase in traffic,” said resident James Schraidt, who also appealed to the village board as a member of the Elementary School District 96 board.
Schraidt attributed much of the increase to drivers seeking a short cut from the Desplaines Avenue/31st Street intersection to Harlem Avenue. He added that students walking to Hauser Junior High School need the stop signs for safe crossings. He also referred to the 2001 death of a 12-year-old Riverside boy who was struck by a car driven by an out-of-town driver in the 300 block of North Delaplaine Road.
“Consider this as you chase $400,000 and think of who you’re representing, the people who live here or people who cut through our community and add nothing,” Schraidt said.
According to a traffic analysis performed for Riverside by James J. Benes and Associates and dated March 7, rules for designating streets as collector routes would most likely result in the loss of stop signs on Delaplaine Road at Northwood Road, Nuttall Road, Eastgrove Road and Lawton Road.
In addition, stop signs at Addison Road, Olmsted Road and Lionel Road were also potentially at risk for removal. The only existing stop signs likely to be approved, the report said, were the ones at Woodside Road, Longcommon Road, East Burlington Street and East Quincy Street.
As a result, there would likely be no stop signs between Woodside Road and Longcommon Road.
“Where are those kids going to Hauser going to cross?” asked Trustee Candice Grace, a former president of the District 96 school board. “It doesn’t make any sense. You could offer me $10 million, and I’m still not going to do it.”
Trustee Kevin Smith argued that the village should at the very least be able to argue for keeping stop signs, such as the ones at Nuttall, Lawton and Olmsted roads, which are located adjacent to parks. He added that the village could also defend the inclusion of signs installed ostensibly as school crossings, such as the ones at Eastgrove Road and Northwood Road.
“I think we should able to make the public safety argument for the stop signs,” he said.
But Hullihan stated that moving forward with the application for collector route status would entail significant expense, and that “if it’s not palatable to residents and the board, you want to save the work and money.”
As a result, Delaplaine Road will go back into the village’s regular street improvement schedule. North Delaplaine Road is slated for resurfacing in 2011, while South Delaplaine Road isn’t on the list until 2015, according to Hullihan. The estimated cost for resurfacing the entire 6,262-foot length of the roadway is $700,000.
If the street had qualified for collector route status, the village could have received two-thirds of that funding from the federal government.
“I understand the intuitive desire to slow people down,” said Trustee Thomas Shields, who called the decision to abandon the application process “disappointing.”
“When we have the opportunity to obtain federal funds for something, we should not pass it up without a fight. I think we should exhaust the arguments with respect to public safety. If [those arguments fail] we should seriously consider removing those signs.”