Lincoln Aldermen approve mill and overlay projects for 2024 pending availability of funds in the 2024-25 budget
Tremont Street not on the list as presented

 

[February 21, 2024] 

The second voting session of the month for the Lincoln City Council was held on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, due to the Presidents Day holiday on Monday the 19th.

Among the topics voted upon was a motion to approve, pending budget approval, the 2024 Mill and Overlay Projects, coupled with the 2023 projects not yet completed.

This is a push to get an earlier start on city street projects, with the goal of continuing to work for target identification and approval earlier each year, until the projects are well in line to be started and completed in the earlier parts of the summer instead of in the late summer to mid-fall.

The council approved mill and overlay targets from 2023 that included the following:

Third Street from Decatur to Maple - $129,200
Chicago Street from Clinton to Wyatt - $191,000
Wyatt Street from Chicago to Kickapoo - $84,700
McLean Street from Decatur to Wyatt - $158,500

The mill and overlay projects for 2024 include the following:

Union Street from the bridge to Lincoln Parkway - $266,200
Eighth Street from Pine to Union - $284,000
Kankakee from Broadway to Peoria - $271,700

An additional target in the 2024 plan is Union Street from Woodlawn to the Brainard’s Branch Bridge ($274,100.). This project is part of the Union Street Lift Station Project and would be covered by Sewer Enterprise funds.

Funding for the other projects would come from two sources. The city has $529,000 in Rebuild Illinois Grant Funds. This funding would be applied to qualifying streets in Lincoln, then the city general fund will be responsible for the remainder. The total dollar amount for the carried over 2023 projects plus the new 2024 projects comes to $1,699,400. Rebuild Illinois would pay $529,000. The Sewer Enterprise Fund would pay $274,100 leaving the city to come up with $866,300 in the 2024-25 budget for the remaining projects.

The budget committee for the city is working on the draft documents, which will be reviewed by the full council sometime within the next month. The budget for the new fiscal year takes effect on May 1, and must be approved before that date.

The one much needed and desired project that is not on the list for this coming season is the mill and overlay for Tremont Street from North Logan to Union, though at one time it was a primary target.

There has been a complication in doing that street project.

The original plan included using the $529,000 from the Rebuild Illinois Grant to cover right at 50 percent of the total cost of the project. The city would then need to pay the remainder from the general fund.

However, as it was explained to the council at the February 13th workshop meeting, there is an issue with one section of the street because the property at the corner of Tremont and Ottawa Streets is on the National Historic Registry.

At the workshop meeting, Street Superintendent Walt Landers explained that the street could have been eligible for Rebuild Illinois Funds, but before the city could use those funds, it would require that there be a confirmation as to where the line stops on the historic site documents.

Landers said that if the property is designated as an historic site all the way to the curb of the junction streets, then the city would not be able to re-design the sidewalk and steps at that corner. If the historic designation ends at the retaining wall then the city could alter the corner. In order to know this, a request has to be made to the state Historic Preservation Office. It could take 15 to 18 months for that organization to return an answer. Landers said that the Rebuild Illinois Fund has to be expended by 2025, so there is not enough time to get through all the processes and still do the project before the time runs out to expend the grant.

A second option for Tremont would be to do the entire project using city general funds. Then there would be no call for a response from historic preservation. However, the total project is going to cost right at $1,000,000 which is more than the city budgets annually for all mill and overlay projects.

If the city wants to do Tremont, then it would be the only project that could be done in a season.

Shane Remmert with Crawford Murphy and Tilly was on hand for the workshop meeting and corroborated Landers explanation. For the record, he submitted a letter to Landers from himself and fellow engineer Kristin Timmons.

The letter said:

“The City had previously targeted using Rebuild IL funds for the reconstruction of Tremont Street. IDOT will allow the use of these funds for this project; however, after further investigation, CMT would advise against it due to the home on the southwest corner of Tremont & Ottawa being on the National Historic Registry. Since this is listed as a historic property, during the Environmental Survey Request (ESR) phase of the approval process, IDOT will forward the project on to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). SHPO will then review the potential impacts to the historic property. If they determine that any "contributing elements'' to the actual dwelling are adversely affected, this will trigger a Section 106 review that must be approved by both the IDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Depending on their determinations, these potential review hurdles by additional state and federal agencies could take up to 15 to 21 months to complete. As such, we believe that Tremont Street is not a good candidate for using Rebuild IL funds which need to be authorized prior to July 1, 2025.

“We have discussed several potential project options with you and completed a cursory review of each. At our last discussion concerning the Rebuild IL funds, it was decided to target using the funds to supplement the City's 2024 Resurfacing Program to try to stretch the City's dollars even farther. If acceptable to the Council, we would recommend using a mix of Rebuild IL funds, MFT funds, and City funds for the 2024 Resurfacing Program. As far as Tremont Street is concerned, CMT can begin preliminary engineering design and Agency coordination in 2024 once an engineering agreement is approved by the Council. CMT can develop a phasing plan to complete the project over multiple construction seasons to limit the impact of construction costs to the City's budget if that is desired.”

At the workshop meeting, Alderman Steve Parrott said that he was very disappointed by the news. He said that the street is in bad repair and has been in need of work for quite some time.

Alderwoman Wanda Lee Rohlfs said that since the closure of Pekin Street at the railroad crossing, Tremont had become much more traveled as a route from the heart of the city to Union Street and on west. She said that the increased traffic is further damaging the road, and drawing even more attention to the need for repair.

Aldermen discussed alternatives and it was suggested by Alderman Kevin Bateman that the only real answer considering the price tag of the project was to for one year, make a repair to only that one street.

While that was not a popular suggestion, alderman also recognized that it could be the only answer.

Parrott asked if the city could do a part of the project one year and another section another year. Landers said the nature of the work that needs to be done to make the street good did not lend itself to being done in segments. The preferrable answer would be to have funding for the entire project to be done at one time.

There was discussion of at least getting started with the engineering and design work, and that may be a feasible move, pending budget constraints.

Because of all this, the aldermen agreed to remove Tremont Street from the upcoming year projects for the vote on this past Tuesday night.

It was mentioned prior to the vote that the approval of the projects now is still pending and could be subject to change during the budgeting process over the next few weeks.

The vote was taken to approve the project list as presented and passed unanimously with seven aldermen present. On Tuesday evening, those present included Bateman serving as Mayor Pro Tem, David Sanders, Robin McClallen, Parrot, Sam Downs, Rohlfs and Rhonda O’Donoghue.

[Nila Smith]