Prospect Heights voters approve tax increase for road repairs

Prospect Heights voters approved a property tax increase to fund road repairs in a referendum Tuesday.

In unofficial results, about 64 percent of voters, or 2,307, gave their support to a $15 million road repair and maintenance program, with 12 of the city's 13 precincts reporting, About 35 percent, or 1,266, were opposed.

The funds will also pay for new snowplows, and storm sewer and drainage projects.

The vote marks the first time in years that voters in Prospect Heights have approved a tax increase for public services. Last year, voters rejected a police protection tax. And voters have repeatedly rejected making the city a home rule community.

Mayor Dolly Vole held forums and knocked on doors to get residents to support the road bond, and she said she's glad her efforts paid off.

“There was support out there. People came through. The people who said they were going to support it supported it,” Vole said.

The city council will discuss the road program at its Nov. 8 committee of the whole meeting. The next steps are for engineering plans to be developed, and a formal bidding process to take place, most likely continuing through next spring, Vole said.

The council will determine the length of the bond, most likely 15 or 20 years. Vole said she supports a 15-year bond since the natural life of a road is 10 to 15 years.

She estimates that funds for replacing some of the city's snowplows from the 1980s will be available in time for fall 2011, but not this winter.

Prospect Heights residents will pay anywhere between $80 and $800 to fund the program all depending on a property's equalized assessed valuation, Vole said. Condo owners would pay far less than homeowners of a $1 million property, for example.

The last time the city's roads underwent significant repair work was in 2005, and before that in 1998.

The roads received an overall “poor” rating in a 2008 local roads condition analysis by engineers.