Glendale Heights trustees say they favor a referendum to determine whether to spend property tax dollars on covering the open ditches running through town.
A preliminary study discussed at a Village Board meeting last week said it would cost Glendale Heights at least $5 million to cover the ditches, a project that has been debated for a decade.
The earliest a referendum could be held would be November, and whether the referendum would attach a $5 million price tag to the project is uncertain.
The $5 million estimate does not include additional engineering fees, which would raise the cost. Village engineer Randall Bus also is researching cheaper ways of covering the ditches.
Since the ditches run through most neighborhoods in Glendale Heights, the project would garner wide-ranging support in a referendum, Trustee Geri O`Brien predicted.
”It`ll increase property values,” she said. ”It`ll make (the village)
a much prettier place to look at.”
For years, O`Brien has favored covering the ditches, which she thinks are ugly and, when flooded, hazardous. The ditches drain the majority of the rainwater from the village.
The main ditch runs from the west branch of the Du Page River west along Armitage Avenue, and then cuts northwest to Reskin Park near Fullerton and Ardmore Avenues. At the park, the ditch forks north to a pond near Paul Avenue and Windy Point. The other fork runs west to near Mildred and Dickens Avenues. According to the report by Bus, the village could replace the ditches with culverts that would run underground and increase safety and aesthetics. The ditches currently are open and lined with concrete in some areas, such as along Armitage, and left grassy in other areas.
Besides the ditch project, the Village Board is deciding whether to embark on another major project: developing Meadows Park. That project also could be the subject of a referendum.
The village staff in December put highest priority on a capital improvement package that includes building athletic fields and making other improvements to Meadows Park; repairing sidewalks; fixing the Village Hall roof and climate control system; and extending water and sewer lines east along North Avenue. The package would cost $2.5 million.
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The Village Board will hold a special meeting, probably in February, to discuss the ditch proposal.