Chicago Tribune
January 21, 2003

Foes of Illinois 53 plan reload

Another portion of project targeted

By H. Gregory Meyer
Tribune staff reporter

A citizens group formed to fight a wider Illinois Highway 53 toasted victory on Monday, then vowed no letup in activity.

Members of Neighbors Influencing Fifty-Three Improvement, or NIFTI, gathered at the Spring Avenue Recreation Center in Glen Ellyn, adjacent to their namesake roadway, to celebrate the state's recent announcement that plans to widen a stretch of Illinois 53 have been shelved.

Under the Illinois Department of Transportation's changed plans, a segment of the highway between St. Charles Road and Roosevelt Road in Lombard and Glen Ellyn scheduled for expansion will remain two lanes. In 2001, the department backed off plans to widen the road from Roosevelt Road to Butterfield Road.

But the group's business remains unfinished, said Bob Gans, a NIFTI steering committee member.

"We're not going anywhere, folks," he told a crowd of about 50 people Monday.

The group plans to combat widening of Illinois 53 south of Butterfield Road, Gans said.

He also said Glen Ellyn and Lombard officials need to seek state funds for turn lanes and bicycle paths or sidewalks along Illinois 53. And "candidly," he said, "we are disappointed by the lack of response we've gotten" from a temporary county committee studying the county's position on a wider road for about a year.

"There's no feedback," Gans said.

Lombard Village President William Mueller said the state has made no funding commitments for turn lanes and added that the state's pliancy came in part from communities' willingness to make changes along the route, such as banning left turns at dangerous intersections.

DuPage County Board member Thomas Bennington (R-Downers Grove), who chaired the county committee, said that with the agreement between the state and local parties, "The Route 53 ad-hoc committee really does not need to take a position one way or another." Bennington said he wants the committee dissolved.

Joining NIFTI members on Monday were elected officials, including DuPage County Board member John Noel (R-Glen Ellyn) and state Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst).

Cronin, who a year ago sponsored a bill that would require IDOT to consult communities and environmental groups on highway projects, praised the grass-roots group as "a model for effecting change in your community."