Arlington Hts. plans to spend to fix streets

About 66 percent of the almost $20 million Arlington Heights plans to spend on capital improvements in the next budget year will be on streets and a chunk of that is expected to come from grants.

The village board gave preliminary approval to the budget for the year that starts May 1, as well as a five-year plan for improvements.

Two big street projects skew the numbers for the coming year. Improvements at the intersection of Northwest Highway and Davis and Arthur streets are expected to cost almost $6 million, with more than $2 million of that coming from the village, and the remainder from the federal government.

The project on Commuter Drive, which connects Rohlwing Road to the Metra/Arlington Park train station, is budgeted at $1.3 million although some estimates have that project costing as much as $2 million. Seventy percent of the cost is expected to be paid by grants, with the rest shared by Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows.

Traffic signal improvements at Northwest Highway and Wilke Road also are being considered, said Tom Kuehne, the village's director of finance. That project is expected to cost $1 million, with much of that figure covered by grants.

The Arlington Heights village board decided in 2008 that street resurfacing would be the No. 1 priority of its capital budgets.

The village plans to spend $3.2 million next year on resurfacing streets, and $2 million on more serious rehabilitation of streets. The funds for the rehabilitation will come from Motor Fuel Tax revenue.

Other funding sources for capital projects are property taxes, a quarter-percent home-rule sales tax, and grants.

Also included in the $13 million allotted for streets are sidewalks, curbs and sealing pavement cracks.

Some projects are funded by water and sewer fees, but two wet summers in a row have led to less water being sold. The Regent Park sanitary relief sewer project will go into the unfunded category, although engineering will be done so the project will be ready if money becomes available.

The police department will receive $300,000 in repairs next year and $600,000 the following year, representing a new roof and work on the brick and windows. In the five-year period, more than $1.6 million will be spent on the building. Work on that building has been postponed in recent years in case a new building could be built, but that is not considered likely in the next five years.

The police department is studying how it could use the vacant fourth floor of village hall, Village Manager Bill Dixon said.

The village will spend a total of $2.2 million on new vehicles, including $221,000 for police patrol cars, $460,000 for a new fire engine and $460,000 for two new ambulances.