Hi Folks,

          Many thanks to all who have been with us for awhile and to the newcomers to our petition!  We passed the 2000 mark last night so that puts us up to roughly 2250 total signatures with our paper petitions!  It's taken me a couple of days to process what happened in this week's highway meeting as our petition requests weren't given much consideration despite our efforts to present previous instances where they'd approved altered speed zones in DeKalb County over the course of the past 10 years.  Instead, the county engineer is stuck on the fact that our individual neighborhoods don't meet the specifications for an altered speed limit (must be at least .25 miles long and less that 500 ft between driveways and other access points to Plank Rd.).  There was noticeable avoidance of a response to our questions about places that don't exactly meet that criteria.  I believe the 4 residential clusters along our area would collectively meet the criteria if we averaged out distance, access point and number of homes that use those access points.  It seems that thinking outside the box and lowering the speed limit or putting no passing zones at least in front of our intersections isn't something that makes sense to them right now.  We will persist. 

        The county engineer proposed a third lane from the westerly edge of the Shearon Woods neighborhood to just east of Luken's Road which would function as a left turn lane for both sides of the road.  This may seem all well and good except that the price tag would likely be well over $1,000,000 and not become a reality for 2-3 years.  A couple of committee members raised questions about such a costly fix when our petition proposes changes that would be roughly $10-$15,000.  The revenue from enforcement efforts would pay for that in about a month.  Ironically, we found information that the recommended speed limit is 45 mph for a center lane functioning as 2 left turn lanes. (Policy On Establishing and Posting Speed Limits on the State Highway System, 2011). Why not just make it 45 mph now and see how it works plus save all that money on a third lane????

         On a positive note, there was an ordinance passed to lower the speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph for the row of 6 homes just south of the Moose Range Rd and for that I am thankful.  It's a baby step in the right direction and hopefully it will help us with our case sooner than later.  It should be noted that this area wasn't included in our petition request because we tried to not ask for too much of an area for changes to be made in hopes they would find it easier to approve our requests.  For comparison, there are 63 homes along the stretch where we are asking for changes.  Doesn't really make sense in my opinion. 

       We will continue to attend the monthly Highway Committee and County Board Meetings as well as ask for help with these changes from elected officials that represent us at various levels. Feel free to reach out to people that represent you in your community or district to ask for their help in advocating for these changes.  The representatives in the district where Plank Road is located are:

Jeff Keicher, IL House Representative, Dist 70/R

158 W. State Street Suite C; Sycamore, IL 60178; ph: 815-748-3494

Email Contact Form: https://www.ilhousegop.org/contactkeicher

Mark Pietrowski, Jr., DeKalb County Board, Dist. 3/D, President

Phone: 815-762-2054; Email: mpietrowski@dekalbcounty.org

Tim Bagby, DeKalb County Board, Dist. 3/R

Phone: 815-641-5253; Email: tbagby@dekalbcounty.org

Thanks for your continued support!

Julie Weingarz