December Committee of the Whole Meeting

The livestream for this meeting was not connected. But the audio is available here. It is worth the time listening. We heard from several residents who have not voiced their opinions before. And the board did, upon being pressed to do so, conduct a straw poll on each trustee’s position on the roundabout. The vote was 6 members against the roundabout. Trustee Fowler was not in attendance and therefore did not vote.

Patrick Brennan laid out his ideas for options for moving forward, procedurally. The Record summarized it well (Northfield officials curb roundabout plans following referendum results).

Here are some other highlights:

• Trustee Dinges proposed we look into taking control of the Winnetka Rd to Willow Rd segment of Happ Rd away from the county and into Northfield’s jurisdiction. This would remove a lot of the roadblocks and delays and allow the village to have its own vision of what we want this road to be. Of course we need to look at any long term cost implications.

• At least one resident suggested we do nothing at all, seeing nothing wrong with the road as it is.

• Mr. Brennan informed us that the county is “standing by” waiting to hear the outcome of tonight’s meeting. It is our presumption that he will now tell the county to pause on any further work on this project until we have a new direction to pursue. It is on us, the residents, to make sure this happens. Let’s ask for updates on a regular basis via email to vgroup@northfieldil.org.

• Northfield resident and architect Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido, who presented a vision for the Happ/Orchard intersection at our Oct 16 meeting (see below) suggested that we need to set clear objectives for this intersection and road as a critical first step. He also offered his services pro bono.

• The message is clear to the board that the residents need to be involved in this process and their input is vital. Board President Lungmus mentioned focus groups and other means of gathering input, so let’s watch to make sure that happens openly and inclusively.

  IN THE MEANTIME…….

• Keep your yard signs up. Until we see new plans that exclude the roundabout AND center turn lane our message still needs to be out there.

• Sign our petition (if you haven’t already done so). We currently have over 200 signatures but would like to get to 500. This is important because the November 5 Public Question was advisory only. If we need to further demonstrate the will of the people, the petition will help us do that.