Winfield trustee keeps pressing for street repairs

It seems regardless of the issue before the Winfield village board, the discussion returns to its deteriorating roads.

Three unrelated agenda items all crumbled into disagreements Thursday over whether relatively new revenue streams should be immediately earmarked for the village’s road maintenance program.

Although the board ultimately approved a seemingly innocuous change to an AT&T contract, a tree survey contract and two engineering contracts for an ambitious riverwalk project, none of them passed without Trustee Tim Allen first making an effort to divert some money into the cash-strapped road repair fund.

All three efforts failed with the village president casting the deciding vote twice.

The AT&T contract will add three new cellular antennae at the village’s water tower for an additional $10,800 per year and the tree survey contract came in $12,600 below the budgeted amount. Allen asked the board to move those amounts to the road fund.

“(The money) not going to go very far but it’s headed in the right direction and I think it’s the responsible thing to do,” he said.

But Trustees Erik Spande, Jack Bajor and Jim Hughes voted against the move because they said committing the village’s money to any fund before its budget process was not a smart move.

Spande bristled at Allen’s suggestion that a vote against the amendment meant a vote against fixing the roads, which has been a hot political potato in Winfield.

“Voting ‘No’ on this amendment does not mean you are against roads,” Spande said. “It means you are trying to balance priorities and, at this point, we should not tie our hands.”

A third effort by Allen to bolster the road fund by tying a significant portion of projected red-light camera revenues to the fund also failed with Trustee Jay Olson joining Spande, Bajor and Hughes in opposition. The $208,020 matched the total amount of the two engineering contracts.

Then discussion once again turned to an ongoing dispute over whether the Riverwalk was a good idea. Trustee Tony Reyes and Allen have consistently asked whether committing to such an ambitious long-term project was prudent and did so again Thursday.

“We are making a statement about what is important to this village board,” Allen said. “If we don’t have the money to put aside for roads, then we really don’t have the money to put aside for the Riverwalk.”

But Riverwalk supporters argue that the two issues are not the same because a not-for-profit agency will reimburse the village for most of the $208,020 in engineering costs through private donations.

Ultimately, $48,000 in tax-increment funding will be used, and $100,000 impact fees paid by a developer when Shelburne Crossing came to town have been set aside.

However, those totals do not include possible future costs associated with developing the Riverwalk and construction costs.

While Allen struck out in his effort to increase road funds, the board did agree at its committee of the whole meeting Thursday night to vote in two weeks on a construction contract for this year’s road repairs.