Public Works Committee

PUBLIC WORKS MAYOR TRUSTEES Andrew Przybylo George D. Alpogianis John C. Jekot VILLAGE MANAGER Joe LoVerde Steven C. Vinezeano Denise McCreery VILLAGE CLERK Dean Strzelecki Marlene J. Victorine PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES January 14, 2019 Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:05 pm. Roll call was taken and Danette O’Donovan Matyas, Fred Braun, Tony Dati, and Dan Balzano were present. In attendance is Robert Tornabene Niles Police Department, Engineer, Bob Rado from the Niles Public Works Department. Steve Sugg, Christopher Burke Engineering Firm. Approval of Meeting Summery/ Minutes Fred Braun, Danette Matyas, Dan Balzano and Tony Dati approved the November meeting minutes. 4 Aye, 0 Nay Old Business No old business New Business • Public Comments were taken along with each agenda item Item One: Howard Street Reconstruction Presentation Steve Sugg spoke about the project. He presented a power point presentation to the audience. Fred Braun spoke about 5 million in Federal funding. He also spoke about a gateway to the Touhy Triangle. Open house for this presentation was back in December. The new water main and gas main is going to be installed 6849 W Touhy Avenue Niles, IL 60714 Phone (847) 588-7900 Fax (847) 588-7950 WWW.VNILES.COM and that is why we are waiting on construction so we don’t have to rip up a new street. Item Two: Street Parking Concerns on Chase , Nora, Neva, and Jarvis Fred Braun spoke about the petition that was turned in. 45% of the resident in the area signed the petition. He spoke about the steps the Police and Public Works have made to help out the situation. Dan Balzano asked who owed the property to the south of Dollars Tree. Fred Braun explained that Shawls owns the property. Fred Braun explained that making the whole area Resident Parking Only with less than 50% of the households requesting it might not be the answer. Questions were directed to the Niles Police Department regarding the parking issues. Robert Tornabene did state that they have written citations. He also has said that he hasn’t seen an uptick in parking from the winter or the summer. 24 citations have been issued by the Niles Police Department. The volume has gone down since the holidays have passed. Signs have been posted inside the dollar store informing them to not block driveways. See public comments below. Item Three: Winter Street Parking Restrictions 6900-7000 Blocks of Birchwood Multiple residents spoke in favor and against the change. Fred Braun explained to everyone what the parking restrictions are and how the restrictions were chosen. Approved by the board in 2014 This was done originally because of a request from the residents. 60% of the households signed the petition to have the Snow Route designation removed. Both Fred and Tony said this is the first time they have heard about a problem since the initial proposal. Item Four: Snow Removal on Nordica Page 2 Fred Braun explained that ¾ of the parking spaces are on private property. Public Works does go to Nordica to clear snow after a snow storm. One resident spoke and mention alerting residents with signage for snow removal. Item 5: Traffic Calming on Normal Bob Rado gave a presentation to the crowd. Results showed that the annual daily traffic is 1700 cars on the street. The average speed is 25.3 mph. The results showed that there is not a lot of speeding on Normal Ave. The Village is looking into getting speed signs to place around the village. Two residents spoke and said there was a problem. Item 6: Traffic Calming on Albion Bob Rado gave a presentation regarding Albion The annual daily traffic is around 1300 cars. Average speed is 24.7 mph. Not a high volume of speeding. The village is looking into stop signs with the City of Chicago. Dan Balzano asked if we could budget for more than two signs. They are expensive. Fred Braun mentioned the Mayor signed a letter to see if the Village could erect a sign so it would be Resident Only Turns. Item 7: Leaning Tower Railings Fred mentioned the reasons for the restoration of the leaning tower and the railings. The committee all agreed that since we have the money available we should use the funds so we can open up the tower to the public. This was intended to be in the budget but there was an oversight. The estimated costs the village had was $600,000.00. The bids came in much lower at $288,980.00 from the same company that did the concrete restoration. Fred asked to have a formal vote from the committee. Motion was made to keep the railing on the board agenda. 4 Aye and 0 Nays Page 3 Public Comments Howard Street Reconstruction Presentation Resident had a concern about how residents would be able to cross Howard Safely. Resident had a question about speeding cyclist. How can we avoid cyclist injuring other people. Multiple people spoke up regarding this issue. Fred Braun mentioned that the Village can’t inforce those rules on the bike trail. That is up to the Cook County Forest Preserve. Dutchman’s Point Comments Resident that circulated the petition spoke along with her husband. Resident spoke regarding getting a foot count and traffic count to see how many people are using the store. It was mentioned that Dollar Store is too big for the area. One household opposed permit parking. Resident proposed No Standing Signs Stop light was also proposed. Another resident suggested the Village buy the property next to Dollar Tree and make it Public Parking. Suggestions were made to have the guard rail taken down around the Dollar Tree parking lot, because residents don’t want to walk around them. Birchwood Comments Circulator of the petition spoke and said that this is now an issue because of the recent enforcement by the police. It’s hard for people to entertain guests. Another resident spoke regarding the issue and said that it’s not in the ordinance. It is not on the village web site. Two residents opposed this change. They felt that people were just unreasonable. Another resident wanted to know when it is ok to park the car on the street. A resident said that people lives are at risk. Ambulances can’t get down the street if the streets can’t get plowed and if cars are parked on both sides. Page 4 Four in favor of change two people were from the same household. Three households total. Three people opposed the change. Three separate houses. They want everything left the way it is. It was a 50/50 split in attendance Trustee Denise Mc Creery asked about what the petitions said regarding solutions. Fred Braun read the suggested possible solutions. Nordica comments One resident came to the meeting. She suggested having signs put up like garbage pickup or street sweeping. Traffic Calming on Normal comments One resident in the area in question had complaints about traffic and speeding. He mentioned putting up a School Zone Sign. Timing of the stop light might need to be adjusted because people can’t cross Greenwood on foot before the light changes. Albion Traffic Calming Comments Four residents spoke about the speeding traffic. They mentioned the following: Stop sign at Oak Park and Albion Resident mentioned making the roadway a One Way Street Installation of a crosswalk at Newcastle A resident said they are flying down the street and whipping around turns. She also says a lot of drunks come out of the bar and get into cars and drive away. By the time the police get there they are already gone. Leaning Tower Railing Restoration Denise Mc Creery spoke and mentioned why we are not waiting three months until the new budget meeting. Fred Braun spoke about the contractor holding the price and fabrication time. Adjournment A motion was made to adjourn and seconded at 8:49 pm. Aye – 4, Nay – 0 Page 5