Burr Ridge will once again allocate more than $1 million for its road program, but after this year the options are clear: find additional money or scale back the maintenance efforts.
The village will tap an investment fund to cover its portion of 2017 road projects, but that move is a one-time shot, according to village administrator Steve Stricker.
“We need to find another source of revenue or drastically cut the road program,” Stricker told Village Board members Monday.
He noted that the village, at one point, had been on a cycle of completely repaving streets every 15 or 16 years. That cycle has now been pushed to 23 years.
“You come to a point where it’s the point of no return,” Stricker said of waiting to fix streets past the point of it being cost-effective. “We can find ourselves even more behind.”
The village administrator said if the village keeps the current pace of its road maintenance program it faces annual deficits of more than $410,000 each of the next four years. He said such deficits are unsustainable and have to be addressed by the Village Board.
Dave Preissig, village Public Works director, said the village takes pride in redoing “the right street at the right time.”
He noted that every street in the village is surveyed every two years to ensure that the streets most in need of repair are being resurfaced first.
The village had put a referendum on the ballot this fall that would have increased the general fund tax levy an amount equivalent to the $520,000 generated annually by the village’s debt service to pay for the bonds that brought Lake Michigan water to the community. With the final payment for those bonds being made last year, in essence, the village was looking to swap out the general fund increase for the expiring water bonds.
That measure was defeated by voters in the November election, sending the village back to the drawing board on funding for its road program.
Stricker noted the village has $640,000 in surplus money from the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, a liability pool for municipalities. The village keeps money in the IRMA account instead of the municipality’s general fund, the village administrator said, because there is the opportunity to generate better investment returns through the pool.
Burr Ridge has not tapped into its IRMA funds since the 2008 recession.
Stricker recommended that the village keep at least $200,000 in the IRMA fund to cover any “special assessment,” when members are assessed because of insufficient funds in the pool to cover liabilities for a claim year.
“We can limp through another year,” Stricker said of tapping the investment fund as a one-time money source.
The road program is also aided this year by a $506,000 federal grant for the resurfacing of 79th Street from County Line Road to Madison Street.
Much of the village’s road work for 2017 will be in the Babson Park subdivision. More than $350,000 will be spent to repair roads in the subdivision this year.
The village had budgeted $1 million for its 2016 road program, but came in 9 percent under that estimate.
During discussions before the referendum, again requiring village vehicle stickers was brought up as one possible revenue source.
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Village Trustee Guy Franzese said well-maintained streets are vital for the community.
“Roads are the lifeline of our village. Every resident, every business owner, every employee, every restaurant goer, every shopper is helped and benefited from our roads,” Franzese said. “We need to talk about what we are going to do regarding our roads. We have tough decisions to make for 2018.”
Mayor Mickey Straub said the lack of future village road funds shows the need for more businesses in the community.
“We need to attract the right businesses to Burr Ridge,” Straub said. “We need to generate more revenue that can be used toward things like roads.”
He said an upcoming village goal-setting session needs to focus on ways to draw businesses to the community.
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press