BOLINGBROOK
Trustees approve plans for basketball facility
Finding a place for basketball leagues in Bolingbrook should get easier later this year.
Village trustees this week approved plans for The Fieldhouse, a basketball facility to be on Woodcreek Drive.
Plans call for a 52,593-square-foot gym that would accommodate six regulation-size basketball courts. The proposal also includes 2.59 acres set aside for a medical office building.
The basketball facility would accommodate leagues for students as young as 2nd graders. Adult leagues would be accommodated in later evening hours after youth leagues have finished play.
Dean Antony, who will own the complex with partner Joseph Di Paulo, said he also expects summer youth tournaments that could attract 100 to 200 traveling teams.
Construction is expected to begin in April and be completed by October, Antony said.
— Alicia Fabbre
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BOLINGBROOK
Promenade expansion proposal gets go-ahead
Bolingbrook trustees this week approved plans for the latest addition to The Promenade.
The proposal, which would be the fourth development phase for the shopping center, would add seven new stores or restaurants on 55 acres on the east side of Janes Avenue, south of Falconridge Way. Target, Toys “R” Us and Kids “R” Us are among the shops to be added, Mayor Roger Claar said. A 155-room hotel also is expected to be added.
Construction on the project is expected to begin in July.
— Alicia Fabbre
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HOMER GLEN
Board combines bike trail plans for efficiency
The Village Board voted this week to combine two bike trail projects, the Homer Glen Community Bike Trail East and West Extension, into one.
Village Manager Paula Wallrich said the move will result in more efficient planning. The village was awarded funds for the project twice, in 2006 and in 2007, from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.
Now, engineers will need to conduct five drainage studies not in the original schedule. In addition, costs for phase one and two engineering increased by $28,000 for a total of $140,000.
Harry Gilmore, a senior project manager at Robinson Engineering, said construction on the project should begin in November but would likely roll over to the spring of 2009.
The project will cost in total $850,000, with the village paying 20 percent of the costs, or $170,000. The bike trail will extend for about 4 miles.
— Sheila Burt
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JUSTICE
$4 million plan to help town handle debt, bills
The financially strapped village of Justice is borrowing $4 million to consolidate debt and pay its bills on time.
“This is a way to restructure our debt using current revenue streams,” Mayor Krzysztof Wasowicz said. The village will take advantage of a bond issue so it can get current on its payments and consolidate debt, he said.
“In December, we passed the first really honest balanced budget, and we will strictly adhere to it,” the mayor said. “This will allow us to retire some of our debt and will give us a much more efficient way of dealing with our financial problems.”
The mayor said the bond issue will not increase taxes. The village is now between $4.5 million and $5 million in debt, and it spends a total of about $6 million annually, Wasowicz said. No referendum is required for the bond issue.
Financial consultant Kelly Vabinski said three loans are due for the village this year and the village doesn’t have the cash to pay up.
The Village Board officially approved the bond issue “not to exceed $4 million” at this week’s meeting.
— Jeff Borgardt
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MOKENA
Officials wary of county plan on road impact fee
Village officials this week said they think a road-improvement impact fee proposed by the Will County Department of Highways could discourage development.
The countywide fee would be added on to the fees Mokena already collects to cope with the needs of a growing population, Kirk Zoellner, Mokena’s assistant village administrator, told trustees.
Zoellner said the village would “become the ‘de facto’ enforcer” of the county statute without getting significant benefit.
The county funds could be used to widen 80th Avenue between 187th and 191st Streets, he said. “That’s only one project for Mokena.” The fees assessed are “pretty onerous,” he said.
For example, the county fee could add between $227,000 and $248,000 to the cost of building a large retail development such as the shopping center under construction at U.S. Highway 30 and Wolf Road. Between $7,000 and $14,000 would be added to the cost of building a small office center, and residential developers would pay between $800 and $900 more in fees, Zoellner said.
Mayor Joe Werner said those additional costs “clearly would have killed” some of the retail, office and industrial projects under way in Mokena. The Village Board needs “to make a strong statement” to county officials, who are expected to vote on the proposal in mid-May, Werner said.
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— Pat Harper