Elgin street repairs scaled back

Last year, Elgin leaders amped up their street repair work for areas outside the downtown.

About 43 miles were resurfaced or reconstructed in response to a harsh winter that caused a litany of potholes.

"This was the largest street program in Elgin's history," said Mayor Ed Schock.

City leaders received kudos for accelerating the work.

But when people asked when their street was going to be fixed, the common refrain from city leaders was even though the road in question was worse than some areas repaved, it was part of a schedule to be repaved in coming years.

In other words, wait until next year.

Well, 2009 is not "next year."

As a result of the budget crunch, Elgin leaders are only going to spend around $2.1 million repairing about three miles of roads this year.

This doesn't include the $5 million set aside for the multiyear project to reconstruct downtown roads, install new infrastructure and beautify the streetscape.

David Lawry, the city's general services director, said the city usually repaves or reconstructs about 10 to 12 miles each year.

On tap for this year is reconstruction of South Street from Walnut Avenue to Crystal Street, and replacing the top two inches of asphalt in various locations.

Sue Olafson, city spokeswoman, said that in 2008 the city more than tripled the length repaved in a normal year.

"We couldn't possibly maintain that kind of momentum year after year," she said. "Streets and roads that normally would have taken three years to do, we bumped up to 2008. What was scheduled for 2009 was done in 2008."