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Libertyville votes to improve roads
Updated: March 29, 2012 3:39PM
Libertyville voters overwhelming approved a $20 million bond referendum to improve the condition of local roads on Tuesday night.
The referendum passed with nearly 59 percent, or 2,649, Libertyville residents voting in favor of it and 41 percent — or 1,788 — voting against it in unofficial results.
Mayor Terry Weppler said he was pleased with the results and that it will allow the village to move forward with much-needed roadwork. He thinks the referendum will make a “big impact” in improving roads.
“We need to get our roads back in shape and I’m glad the residents have given us that opportunity,” he said.
With the new referendum money, the village will be able to make about $4 million a year in road improvements over a five-year period.
Weppler said there is still a significant amount of engineering work that needs to be done and bonds still have to be issued so construction won’t begin until 2013.
“It won’t be until next construction season that we will be able to begin this work,” he said. “It requires a lot of engineering work to do a street.”
Most of the road rehabilitation work will involve grinding off the road surface, resurfacing the roadway and patching as needed. A tentative list of the roads slated for repair is posted on the village’s website at www.libertyville.com.
Libertyville currently spends about $1 million a year on road improvements, which village officials say is inadequate to meet the need.
The tax increase will be phased in over a period of four to five years as individual bonds are issued. The village anticipates the owner of a home with a market value of $300,000 would initially see an increase of about $34 a year in their property tax bill, increasing to a maximum of $136 per year after all the bonds are issued.
