Planning for road work on track

Special assessment notices expected soon on Center, Church streets

About 20 property owners attended an update meeting last week on village road reconstruction projects planned for next year.

The work will involve the reconstruction of Church and Center streets, as well as sanitary sewer work on Highway W.

Senior project manager Sean Sullivan of Ruekert & Mielke, the engineering firm working on the project, said the meeting covered planning for the work, which has reached the 60% stage.

“The meeting went very well,” Sullivan said. “I believe the tone of the meeting was much less confrontational than the first meeting (held in March).

“The residents were polite and asked very good questions. The residents seemed to understand the importance of the work needed.”

After a presentation of the project summary, residents were invited to ask questions about how the project will affect their individual properties.

Concerns were raised about storm sewer flooding and whether new sidewalks are really needed.

In addition to repaving some of the older roads in the village, the work will address the inflow of storm water into the village’s sanitary sewer system.

Along with relining sanitary sewer laterals from the sewer main to individual properties, residents will be required to connect their sump pump crock discharges to new storm sewer laterals.

Households without existing sump pump crocks will need to prove to the village that their foundation drains do not connect to the sanitary sewer lateral. That will require hiring a plumbing contractor to videotape the existing sewer lateral in the basement.

If there is a connection with the sanitary sewer, a sump crock will need to be installed and connected to the new storm sewer. That issue was particularly contentious when Linden Street was rebuilt two years ago.

“We agreed to try and work with the residents as much as possible to keep the cost of the project as reasonable as possible,” Sullivan said.

According to Sullivan, design details are being finalized, that will lead to the determination of what special assessments will be made.

Preliminary assessment notices are expected to be sent to property owners in early September. The village will host an assessment hearing in late September or early October.

Sullivan said the work will be let for bids in December. Presuming those numbers come within budget, construction would start in March or April and take three or four months.