Daily Herald
January 5, 2002
By David R. Kazak
Daily Herald Staff Writer
At a meeting later this month, state engineers likely will be grilled by Kane County officials with questions about a proposed expressway in the county's western, mostly agricultural region.
Whether Kane leaders get their questions answered is another question altogether, said county board Chairman Mike McCoy.
Still, both he and state officials said they're looking forward to the meeting.
"We are glad to participate in talks," said Gregg Mounts, a program development engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Jan. 15 at the Kane County Government Center in Geneva.
McCoy said given the volume of questions expected from board members, time for public questions will be short, if there's any at all. So, he said, he hopes to hold another public comment hearing on the proposal sometime after the board meets with IDOT and before Feb. 10.
That's the day the state will stop accepting comments on its plan to preserve space for the expressway by creating a 400-foot-wide protection corridor through 9 miles of western Kane County south of Interstate 88.
The state envisions an expressway stretching from I-88 south through Kane and Kendall counties where it will hook up with I-80. If built, it would be the first portion of an outerbelt expressway for the Chicago area that would stretch to I-90.
News of the meeting between Kane and state officials comes just days after some county board members expressed outrage over their feeling that the state has so far failed to include them in its planning process.
And on Tuesday, the full county board will vote on a resolution denouncing the project, at the suggestion of McCoy.
He and other board members say the expressway plan - which House Speaker Dennis Hastert supports - doesn't fit the board's plans to preserve farms and open space.
Hastert has not commented on the Kane County board's opposition.