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Politics & Government

Oakton Street Overhaul Forthcoming

The village board - amid some reluctance - moves ahead with a mutimillion of downtown Skokie

There may not be a road diet coming to Skokie, but Oakton Street is going to look different.

Following their not to build a “road diet” on Oakton, which would have permanently reduced traffic lanes in the village’s downtown, trustees have decided to move forward with a scaled back enhancement of the area.  Skokie has to move relatively quickly on the construction project as the money directed to pay for it will come from the TIF District, which concludes at the end of 2013.

Right now Skokie officials estimate the cost of the entire project to be just more than $5.5 million.

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Among the changes the village wants to see implemented as part of the transformation are enhanced pedestrian features such as increased crosswalks, new ADA compliant ramps and new push buttons at crossings.

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Also the plan calls for new lightbulbs, trees and sidewalks to enhance the appearance of the street along with a possible speed limit reduction on Oakton to 25 MPH and taking out the parking meters and replacing them with a parking box system.

The only aspect of the plan that drew some controversy was Trustee’s Don Perille’s initial reluctance to enter into an approximate $331,000 design contract (capped at 6 percent of construction costs) with engineering firm Gewalt-Hamilton, which has been working on this section of Skokie that included the road diet experiment of earlier this year.

“There have got to be other engineering companies out there. We spend a lot of time in this village with Gewalt-Hamilton,” I just wonder if we shouldn’t give them a little competition and see what the other design firms have to offer.”

However, Perille was eventually persuaded to vote for the Gewalt-Hamilton as the common belief that since they have done so much work on Oakton Street at this point, it would counterproductive to go with another firm and have to start over again.

Gewalt-Hamilton is probably more familiar with the traffic patterns downtown and so I think they are a natural to do it,” said Mayor George Van Dusen. “They are nationally known, but they are not the only traffic consultants we have. But downtown, because of the nature of the improvements we are going to make, I think Gewalt is most qualified.”

While he voted for the Gewalt contract as well, Trustee Michael Lorge wants to see some changes in the overall process the way Skokie awards work to outside companies.

“We need to remind ourselves and focus staff that there are many contractors and businesses in Skokie and that assuming they are qualified, we want to encourage their bidding on these construction projects,” Lorge said. “We also want to encourage minority contractors and businesses to bid on these projects. Therefore anything staff can do to encourage minority businesses and Skokie businesses to be part of the bidding process would be good for Skokie.”

In addition, the village is continuing to look into a jurisdictional transfer of Oakton Street from the western border to Skokie Boulevard from the Cook County Highway Department to the village.

“Because of the uniqueness of downtown, the village already does substantial maintenance of Oakton Street such as snow plowing, street sweeping, litter control, landscape baskets, landscape baskets, street lights and street banners, sewer and watermain maintenance, parking meter maintenance and enforcement,” said Village Manager Al Rigoni. “Accepting total responsibility for this Oakton street section at this time makes sense particularly with the TIF as a funding source.”

Rigoni added that issue could come back to the village board as early as first quarter of 2012 since there is no money involved.

has said in the past that he favors turning Oakton Street over to Skokie.

Meanwhile the village board will continue to levy property tax owners at the same rate, marking a 21st consecutive year of a property tax freeze by Skokie. However, homeowners may continue to see their overall bills be raised or lowered depending on the actions of other governmental bodies.


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