Glen Ellyn mayor talks future

Glen Ellyn saw many big projects last year and will likely have more this year, but the village is facing the same economic problems as the rest of the country, Village President Vicky Hase said Monday.

"Despite the continued progress we have made as a community in 2008, there is a dark cloud that looms over 2009 and may remain for a number of years," Hase said in her annual state of the village address. "That dark cloud is the economy."

Hase said the village board will try to cope by scaling back services to core items and adding to revenues, possibly by instituting a 1 percent home rule sales tax, which the board will discuss in the next months.

She also went through the accomplishments in Glen Ellyn over the past year, including the hire of Steve Jones as new village manager and the study of the downtown business district. A consultant put together two concept plans for downtown, which will be pared down to a final plan that will be presented to the board for adoption.

"The plan will provide a vision for the future of the downtown and contain specific recommendations on how to implement the plan," Hase said.

The village also constructed its first traffic circle in town last year at Parkside and Summerdale and added 165 commuter spaces in the Montclair lot. The village also embarked on rehabilitation of several roadways in town.

"In 2009, there will again be a major focus on roadway rehabilitation programs," Hase said.

The big project for the year, she said, will be reconstruction of Riford Road for $4.2 million. That includes federal funding and money from DuPage County.

The total cost of infrastructure projects in town, including street improvements, parking lot maintenance and sewer surveys, is about $14.8 million, with grants covering $2.5 million of that price.

On the development front, Hase said last year brought a renovation of the Glen Ellyn Plaza shopping center and a Potbelly into town and work also started on renovating the Market Plaza Shopping Center on Roosevelt Road.

In 2009, the village is expecting to bring in a seven-unit townhouse development on Duane Street as well as two separate five-home subdivisions.