Long road to repairs in Libertyville

Potholes will be filled and pavement patched as needed but substantial road repairs in Libertyville this year basically will involve a single project.

Village officials plan to proceed with the reconstruction of about a half-mile of Dymond Road between Route 176 and Crane Boulevard, a project estimated to cost about $900,000 to $1 million.

“Dymond’s been at the top of the list for years,” said Public Works Director John Heinz. “We were going to do it last year.”

Libertyville has dozens of streets that need to be repaved or rebuilt, but continue to be deferred because of a lack of funding.

Nothing has been determined or decided, but a village bond issue or referendum have surfaced as possibilities to provide funds for a list of road resurfacing and reconstruction projects that continues to grow.

“At this point, in terms of a non-home rule community we don’t have a lot of options as far as revenue sources,” Village Administrator Kevin Bowens said.

Information provided to the village board’s streets committee shows street rehabilitation has been under funded for several years.

Currently, there’s a need for $22 million in reconstruction and $8 million in street rehabilitation — more than 40 miles of village streets overall — an amount everyone acknowledges can’t be addressed at once.

“The point of the exercise was to point out that we have far more needs than we have money. There really are no funding sources out there,” Heinz said.

The state of village streets was first quantified in 1989 and periodically updated. The most recent report shows its condition continues to slip.

“I have a concern that over the years because the economy has been bad, we’ve been deferring all that work. You can’t do that,” said Mayor Terry Weppler.

The village had been spending about $1 million per year on such work but has slashed that amount to about $600,000 the past two years. Funding for roads comes from the motor fuel tax and capital improvement funds.

Funding for the Dymond Road project is included in the draft of 2011-12 village budget. The extent of lighting for the project is to be determined and village officials plan to report to the streets committee and meet with residents before the work begins.

As for other roads, the village in 1998 sold $3.7 million in bonds to be spent over three years in addition to what village leaders budgeted as part of an accelerated road improvement program. But the investment has been tapering off since.

“We did do a bond issue several years ago to increase the amount of road work, but you already have to have a dedicated funding source,” Bowens said.