Lincoln’s City Administrator to reach out to Fifth Street ‘holdouts’

 

[March 16, 2019] 

LINCOLN 

At the Tuesday evening meeting of the Lincoln City Council the topic of what to do about the Fifth Street Road project was discussed once again. With representatives on hand from Crawford, Murphy and Tilly, the discussion focused on what the city will lose if they discard the project or alter it significantly.

In the end, CMT called for the city to be involved with one-on-one discussions with the 13 holdout parcel owners. This time, because this has come up before and nothing happened, City Administrator Beth Kavelman said she would take charge of contacting the landowners and set up one-on-one meetings.

The meetings will include representation from CMT, as well as Kavelman and Mayor Seth Goodman. An open invitation was also given to any of the city’s aldermen who wished to also be involved with those meeting.

Ambra Knox with CMT came to the microphone to discuss the situation as it stands now. She recapped that the project had come to a standstill because there were 13 landowners who would not sell their property based on the current road design. She said she had contacted a local IDOT engineer to discuss what would happen to the city’s federal funding if it did not move forward with the road as planned. IDOT advised her that the $3.5 million that the city has coming in funding could be lost if the city makes significant changes to the plan. By significant, she indicated that could include changes to the plan for turn lanes and curb and gutter. Furthermore, she said that the city might have to pay back monies that have already been used for the project. This would equate to a big loss of money for the city.

She said she felt the only thing the city could do was to continue moving forward, contact the holdout land owners and set up one-on-one meetings to stress to these landowners that this project has to move forward, and the land they are holding is essential.

An additional item on the discussion agenda for Tuesday night was a request from CMT for an additional $11,744 for plan changes. These changes would impact International Paper Company. At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Seth Goodman had told aldermen that discussion would be removed for the agenda. During the discussion he noted that he felt the city should make no more changes to the plan until all of these holdout landowners had been contacted and discussions had taken place. He said he would suggest there be nothing done until the city gets the commitment it needs from those landowners.

Knox had indicated that this time around, in addition to CMT representatives, these one-on-one meetings needed to include members of city government. She said specifically the city administrator and the mayor should take part in these discussions.

Ron Keller asked why the city should expect that these 13 people will change their minds this time around. They have consistently said they were not selling.

Stan Hansen with CMT then came to the microphone along with Knox and said that there was a possibility that the landowners would not change their minds. However, he said he felt that having the city representatives involved in the conversations would help.

Keller also asked if the loss of the $3.5 million was definite, or was it just a possibility. Knox said that there needed to be discussions with the Illinois Department of Transportation and other authorities to know the answer to that question. She said that those parties should be approached with the issue and asked what they will do if the city has to change the plan.

Dayne Dalpoas said this time he would like a specific timeline for when these landowner meetings will take place. He noted that this is the same scenario that was discussed several months ago, with the same instruction for the landowners to be contacted personally and nothing has happened. This time, he said he wanted CMT to adhere to a timeline and follow through.

Kavelman then told the council that she personally will be contacting all the landowners to set up those one-on-one meetings. She said she would make every effort to reach out to each one and set up those meetings within a two-week time period.

Tracy Welch said it was pretty clear to him that it is too late for the city to completely back out of the current construction plan. He noted that the loss of funding and the prospect of paying back money already spent would hurt the city financially. Plus, he said there was still a need to improve the road, and there would be even more costs incurred then.

As it had been noted in previous meetings there is one landowner who has said he/she will not sell no matter what. Welch wondered what the city could do if it got down to just that one holdout. Could there be a slight modification to the plan that would alleviate the need for that specific 15 feet long parcel.

Steve Parrot asked about the lack of results thus far. He noted, as Dalpoas had, that CMT had been instructed several months ago to contact these landowners and try to resolve the issues and nothing had happened. Parrot asked if back then it had been the expectation of CMT that the city would make those contacts.

Hansen said that the CMT negotiator has tried to make contact with these landowners but that they have not responded. He said that is why he wants the city to take the lead, hoping the landowners will be more responsive.

Michelle Bauer noted that while the city administrator had said she would make every effort to get to all the landowners in the next two weeks, the administrator couldn’t control the availability of the landowners for those meetings. She said, therefore, the contact might be made, but it might be beyond the two week period before the meeting actually took place.

Dalpoas said he was okay with that, but he wants a progress report every two weeks from here on out. He said he would like for there to be an update at the next Committee of the Whole and at every C.O.W. thereafter until this is all taken care of.

It had been mentioned that Alderwoman Bauer was interested in helping with the landowners and Kavelman also mentioned that Alderman Welch was willing to help.

Mayor Goodman suggested that any and all of the aldermen could get involved in these negotiations if they wished. He suggested that it might even work out well if each of the eight aldermen committed to be included in one or two individual meetings. He thought then that the alderman in attendance could be proactive with that particular landowner and “stick on them” until they made a decision.

Intergovernmental Agreement with Logan County

Another important part of the Fifth Street Road project is the intergovernmental agreement with Logan County. This had been previously discussed at the city council, and aldermen had been in favor of seeking an extension to the agreement until all these other issues were settled. But it was unknown if the county would allow the city to commit to a short term agreement.

Tuesday night, Logan County Engineer Bret Aukamp was on hand to discuss this. Aukamp asked the city to renew the intergovernmental agreement for a five-year term.

He noted that the current agreement expires in April so the city does have a little bit of time left.

Aukamp said that at the next meeting of the Logan County Board he will be recommending that the county approve his recommendations for a new intergovernmental agreement.

On the county side, Aukamp said he would be recommending a five-year extension to the agreement. He also noted that he would be recommending that the county include a provision that indicates, should the city back out of its portion of the road project, the county will be held harmless and incur no financial hardship.

Welch said he felt the city should go ahead and place this item on the agenda for voting next week. He said it would secure the future of the project and solidify the partnership with the county.

By nod of head, the aldermen agreed to place the intergovernmental agreement on the agenda for Monday, March 18th.

[Nila Smith]