Des Plaines is tired of watching the grass grow

Des Plaines is tired of watching the grass grow.

Aldermen Monday night unanimously approved an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation to begin handling the maintenance of portions of state right-of-way land. The state is expected to immediately sign off on the pact, which would expire in November 2010.

The city wants to take control, frustrated by the long grass. Officials would rather mow grass on state property than watch it grow as high as 4 feet.

"It reflects on us badly, and makes us look rundown," 4th Ward Alderman Jean Higgason said.

The city will begin maintaining property along portions of the following: Algonquin Road (Mount Prospect to Elmhurst roads); Central Road (Wolf Road to the Canadian National Railway); Golf Road (Rand to Elmhurst roads); Rand Road (Graceland Avenue to Central Road); and Elmhurst Road (Oakton Street to Golf Road).

"To ensure that these gateways through our city are maintained, we have to take ownership," City Manager Jason Bajor said.

Des Plaines modeled its agreement after Naperville's.

Illinois maintenance crews mow the property about three times every summer. Despite requests for more frequent service, state transportation officials have told Des Plaines that they lack the resources to do this, city Public Works Director Matt Dusckett said. Public works crews would mow the grass once a month. It will cost the city an extra $1,800 a month during the warmer months.

Third Ward Alderman Laura Murphy asked whether the city could handle the extra work, considering the area outside the library is full of weeds. City officials said they'd been concentrating on other maintenance concerns but assured her they could handle the extra work.

Fifth Ward Alderman Carla Brookman also questioned why the city needed to pay for weed control when the state never applied chemicals to kill the weeds along its right-of-way property.