Nearly a year after getting word that it was receiving grant money for upgrades at the Prairie Avenue train station, the commuter parking lot behind village hall and the long-closed Brookfield Avenue foot bridge, the Village of Brookfield looks to be closing in on getting that cash and getting to work.
Village trustees at their May 29 village board meeting approved an agreement with Metra that paves the way for a $200,000 grant in exchange for promises from the village to maintain the railroad property and commuter parking lot and give Metra the right to approve parking fee increases for a period of 40 years.
The grant money is coming from both Metra and the West Suburban Mass Transit (WSMT) board.
Exactly when work on the parking lot and station area improvements is expected to begin is not clear. Village Manager Riccardo Ginex said that the timing depends on how quickly the village receives agreements back from both Metra and the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad. He hoped that the work on those parts of the deal could be completed in 2007.
Some $150,000 has been earmarked for improvement to the commuter parking lot behind village hall, 8820 Brookfield Ave. Another $25,000 has been set aside for concrete repairs and the installation of bike racks and an exterior sprinkler system at the Prairie Avenue train station.
In addition, $25,000 will go to engineering fees for the replacement of the pedestrian bridge over Salt Creek on the south side of Brookfield Avenue. The bridge, which provided safe access to the Prairie Avenue rail crossing on the south side of the street, has been closed since April 2004, when it was deemed unsafe.
Estimates for replacing the bridge topped $200,000, and it wasn’t until 2006 that the village received a $176,000 federal grant to help make that happen. The new grant will help pay for the village’s share of the cost for replacing the bridge. The 21-year-old bridge is expected to be replaced in 2008, Ginex said.
The Metra/WSMT grant followed in the wake of an attempt by the Village of Brookfield in 2005 to increase commuter parking fees from $1 to $2 per day. At that time, officials said that the $1 per day fee was not generating enough revenue to cover the costs of maintaining the railroad station property and the commuter parking lot.
While the village’s contract with the BNSF railroad allowed Brookfield to charge up to $2.50 per day per space, the village’s contract with the railroad stipulated that the BNSF had to approve the increase. Metra, which has its own agreement with the BNSF, argued against the increase. The grants from Metra and the WSMT authority were negotiated in the aftermath of that dispute. Brookfield, in exchange, was allowed to charge $1.50 per parking space.