By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Elgin officials are wrapping up the legal steps the city must take on Special Assessment Area V, a nearly $4 million project that has been years in the planning to reconstruct four substandard streets — Erie, Willard, Illinois and Van Nostrand Place — on the Southeast and Southwest sides.
Another of those legal steps is scheduled Wednesday when the Elgin City Council will convene as the Board of Local Improvements, to appoint a commissioner to certify the assessment roll for that area.
The city has awarded contracts and plans to begin construction this summer, even though the legal process has not concluded. BocaJump reported in November that the City Council awarded a $318,975 engineering services contract for the project to URS Corporation. In April, BocaJump reported that on April 11, the council awarded Landmark Contractors Inc., of Huntley, a $3.58 million contract for that work. City officials said then that contract was a little more than $1.3 million less than the project’s original $4.9 million estimated cost.
But there is at least one more step the city must take before construction can begin.
Work on the original assessment roll and assessments was begun in August 2010 and was completed in September 2011. But some of the 98 property owners in Special Assessment Area V have objected to their assessment levels, which the city has attempted to resolve.
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That resolution requires a decrease in property assessments for the special service area.
The City Council will interrupt its Committee of the Whole meeting Wednesday to convene as the Board of Local Improvements. The city administration is recommending that the council appoint city engineer Joseph Evers as its commissioner to spread and certify the amended assessment roll for Special Assessment Area V. That roll will be submitted to the circuit court for certification.
That leaves the next step to execute the contract with Landmark Contractors and allow the start of construction.
