Thanks for 'help,' but we'll take pass

There are active plans to expand Route 45 between Route 120 and Washington Street in the Grayslake area. Everyone agrees the road needs expansion. However, a bad road plan introduced in the early 1990s was opposed due to a raised median that would have a negative impact on the 27 small businesses that operate in this corridor. Now, virtually the same plan has been reintroduced and is again being opposed.

Let's cover a few facts: During a meeting with business owners, Sen. Bond and IDOT on 7/24/09 the median was to be a raised, 18-inch median. In a similar meeting on 9/11/09 the median design went from 18 inches to 30 inches. Please tell me where else in the county, in the state, do we have 30-inch medians? Business owners were also told that construction would begin in October of 2010. Now, according to the senator, construction could begin as early as April or May. The latest design plans include some businesses giving up all frontage parking property to make room for an access road that the senator and IDOT seem to be the only ones in support of. Then again, Mr. Bond did refer to some of the buildings as "ugly."

Serious question Mr. Bond, do you really support small business in your district, or do you have a preference which ones should survive? Mountable medians and five-lane roads are highly efficient and safe in many towns and villages. Yet the senator maintains we must break ground now, or risk losing the funding. Is this really how the stimulus was supposed to work? On a stretch of the road where the speed limit is 35 mph and there are stoplights closer than 1/2 mile apart ... safety ... really? The Lake County Board, state representatives, mayors and many others are in support of continued access to the affected businesses. Why then are the senator and IDOT the only two elements in this equation that continue to push for a raised median? Business owners have united against this plan. We do not oppose the expansion, just the steamroll job that's trying to be pulled. Evidently Mr. Bond and IDOT do not have a vested interest in protecting small business, because if they owned a business in this corridor I'm sure they'd feel differently about the proposed plan. If the original plan that was opposed in 1994 had been revised, we would not be in this position. They have had 18 years to re-engineer a plan that would support small business, instead, we've been told it's take this plan or risk the loss of funding. So I guess, a bad plan that's paid for is preferable to the livelihood of more than 200 employees that work for these businesses. Sounds like (and feels like) there is an effort to strong-arm access to small businesses and cast them aside if they do not meet your approval.

Sorry, Mr. Bond, we are not going away and we are not giving in and don't even try to blame the project delay on us. You've had 18 years to change the plan, and now you expect us to swallow the same sad plan. Not happening.

Lisa Smith

Grayslake