State grant clears the way for Palatine road upgrades

With the village's cost dropping from $1 million to about $163,000 thanks to a state grant, the Palatine council has approved a project to repair Rohlwing Road.

Village Manager Reid Ottesen said the work was in jeopardy this year due to budget concerns until the $753,029 state grant was awarded.

"This is truly a blessing that can help us bridge some gaps," Councilman Kollin Kozlowski said before the village council approved the work Monday night.

An exact start date of the project, which will upgrade a 1½-mile stretch from Cunningham Drive to Palatine Road, is not yet available.

In late April, Arrow Road Construction Co. of Elk Grove Village submitted a lowest responsible bid of $916,960 for the work, slightly below the village's $1 million budget.

"We thought, 'That's good. That's savings,'" Ottesen said.

The village received word last week it'll be awarded a $753,029 grant from the Rebuild Illinois capital program because the Rohlwing project met the state's criteria.

"Instead of having to come up with almost $900,000 out of our money, we're able to apply that state money to it, freeing up those dollars to become savings to help offset revenue loss we have going on right now," Ottesen said.

The Rohlwing renovation will include pavement resurfacing, patching, curb and gutter replacement, new sidewalks and ramp upgrades to meet Americans With Disabilities Act requirements, village documents show. The work will occur near Winston Campus elementary and junior high schools, Virginia Lake Elementary School and Palatine High School.

Ottesen said there was concern about making temporary repairs to avoid the full $1 million renovation. He said it likely would have cost $100,000 for patching and other temporary fixes this year.

"If we put it off altogether, after spending a couple hundred thousand dollars over the next couple of years on it, we'd probably be looking at a full reconstruction that could drive a million-dollar project up into the $3 million to $4 million neighborhood," Ottesen said.

Separately, the village council agreed to pay $155,190 to Schroeder & Schroeder Inc. of Skokie for sidewalk projects in the vicinity of Rand and Hicks roads.

Plans call for extending the sidewalk on the west side of Rand Road, from Spruce Drive to Capri Drive, to complete gaps in the corridor. There also will be replacement of an asphalt walkway on the west side of Hicks Road to the north and south of Fawn Lane.