Major projects for 2023
By Janelle Fisher
Staff Writer
Village Administrator Aaron Kramer presented an overview of the major planned projects to be included in the 2023 Capital Plan to the Hobart Village Board at its Sept. 20 meeting.
Among the list were projects related to roads and transportation, the fire department, public works, general government and the police department.
Trout Creek road project
A proposed project to resurface a 5,438 portion of Trout Creek from Hidden Trail to County Hwy. J is recommended to be included in the village’s 2023 Capital Plan.
The section of Trout Creek is only rated a 5 out of 10 on the PASER (Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating) scale, but additional traffic due to two recently developed subdivisions along the road has increased wear on the road.
The resurfacing alone, without any new walking trails or realignment being added in the project, is expected to cost $479,278.
Kramer said adding any of those additional “wants” to the project would leave no room for anything else in the budget.
“At this point, we live in a world where there’s a lot of inflation. This is the bare minimum estimate for resurfacing that road and it’s nearly half a million dollars,” Kramer said. “There was discussion about realigning the intersection with Riverdale that would add another $146,000 to the project and discussion about putting a multi-purpose trail along Trout Creek that would add another $317,000. At the end of the day, if we do Trout Creek with the realignment and a walking trail, you’re looking at over $900,000. You simply do not have those funds available without going to bond.”
Emergency sirens
A project to install two new emergency sirens in the village was also included in the 2023 Capital Plan.
Currently, there is only one emergency siren in Hobart, located at Fire Station No. 1.
The existing siren is only rated to cover a half-mile radius while the proposed additional sirens are rated for two miles, greatly increasing coverage.
The siren at Fire Station No. 1 will be upgraded/replaced with the construction of the new fire station, but it was still recommended that two additional sirens be installed on the north end of the village to provide more complete coverage to the more populated areas of the village.
Kramer said the June storms were a driving factor in the decision to add sirens.
“This is a direct result of our June severe weather event,” he said. “Many people still want to hear a siren. During that storm, they couldn’t hear sirens. We had a lot of people comment on that.”
In order to make sure sirens can be heard throughout most of the village, it was determined that Pleasant Valley at the Village Well House and Four Seasons Park would be the best locations for the new sirens.
One siren, at the Village Well House, would be installed in 2023 and the other, at Four Seasons Park, would be installed in 2024.
The cost of the sirens, approximately $28,000 each, is proposed to be covered by the village’s ARPA funding.
Squad cars
2023 will also mark the arrival of the village’s first two leased squad cars following their approval of an agreement with Enterprise to lease vehicles for the Hobart/Lawrence Police Department and the public works department.
The two squad cars will cost the village a total of $23,100, which Kramer said is much lower than if the village had purchased the vehicles outright.
“If we’d gone off of the purchase price we’d be looking at $87,000 I believe for next year,” he said. “We had instant savings in this years’ capital budget.”
The leasing of a public works vehicle through the same agreement was also included in the 2023 Capital Plan, replacing one of the departments’ existing vehicles.