The Oswego Village Board has agreed to pay Oswego-based School District 308 for a parcel of land that is needed to build a roundabout at Wolf’s Crossing and Harvey roads.
Village trustees at a special meeting late last month authorized staff to purchase the 2.949-acre strip of property in front of Oswego East High School.
Wolf’s Crossing is a 3.9-mile two-lane country road from Route 34 on the west to Route 30 that is not built to modern standards, village officials said.
The majority of the road in Oswego connects two high schools, runs along three elementary schools and a middle school as well as residential subdivisions. About 1.3 miles is under the jurisdiction of Oswego Township.
Widening the road from two to five lanes has been a priority of the Village Board, officials said.
Trustees earlier this year authorized the acquisition of certain properties along Wolf’s Crossing Road that were necessary for the road modernization project, village officials said.
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The village intends to use the 2.949-acre parcel for roadway expansion and stormwater detention.
When Oswego East High School property was annexed into the village in 2003, an annexation agreement required District 308 to participate in the installation of a future traffic signal at the intersection of Harvey and Wolf’s Crossing roads by contributing 25% of the cost, village officials said. However, technology and engineering have advanced and the village’s plan now includes a roundabout rather than a traffic signal which village officials believe offers a safer and more modern traffic control solution.
Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said the original intent of the 2003 annexation agreement was for the district to participate in making the intersection safer at Harvey Road and Wolf’s Crossing.
The village met with the school district last spring to discuss terms of the 2003 agreement and asked the district to pay the equivalent of 25% of a traffic signal, roughly $161,333 based on recent bids for a traffic signal being installed in the village’s downtown, Di Santo said.
The village asked the district to donate the 2.9-acre parcel of land but if the district was not willing to do that, the village would agree to a compromise credit of 25% towards the cost of a traffic signal, Di Santo said.
The District 308 School Board Aug. 8 approved a motion to allow the village to acquire the property if both boards passed an amendment to the annexation agreement that would credit the appraised value of $75,500 of the land from the amount the district owes for the signal, Di Santo told The Beacon-News.
If the agreement was not approved by Aug. 30, the district would sell the property to the village, he said.
“The draft amendment does not clarify that the obligation is owed on a roundabout, instead it reaffirms that the district only owes the village if a traffic signal is installed, which both parties know will not happen,” Di Santo said.
“Everyone knows we are not building a traffic signal. By the language the school board proposed in an amendment, the village effectively would release the district of a $161,333 contribution toward the Harvey Road improvements,” Di Santo said.
“Our position continues to be while we are not building a signal, a lot has changed since 2003. The roundabout is the functional equivalent of traffic signals. Therefore, we would ask the school district to contribute to that intersection,” Di Santo said.
The Village Board authorized staff to let the Aug. 30 deadline pass and the village opted to pay the district $75,500 for the property.
“At their Aug. 23 meeting, the Village Board voted to pay the $75,500 to the district in lieu of accepting the agreement amendment. At all times the district has been willing to fulfill the terms of the 2003 annexation agreement and willing to consider additional or different requests if asked by the village,” District 308 Director of Communications Theresa Komitas said in a statement to The Beacon-News.
Regardless of the Village Board’s vote, staff suggested the village still ask the school district to fulfill its original agreement and contribute to a portion of the intersection improvements.
“It is a mutually beneficial traffic improvement. It helps both sides. That was the original intent of an agreement in 2003,” Di Santo said.
The village can proceed to schedule a closing with the district for the property. The village could continue to discuss with the district their obligation under the original annexation agreement to contribute toward the Harvey Road intersection improvements.
“We have already spoken to the school district about scheduling a closing and we could again reach out to the school district to amicably address the Harvey Road intersection improvements,” Di Santo said.
The situation was disappointing in light of recent discussions about parking issues around Oswego East High School, Village Board members said.
“It is disappointing for a lot of reasons but compounded to ongoing issues it adds to the disappointment with the lack of intergovernmental cooperation and lack of unity within the community,” Trustee James Marter said.
Trustee Jennifer Jones Sinnott pointed to the importance of the roundabout project.
“The roundabout is going to be a fantastic way for people to get where they need to go. The amount of congestion that potentially is going to be eliminated by the roundabout is huge. It is a safety issue,” she said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.