This summer, Cook County gravel roads will receive a 20% increase in calcium chloride application over last year to keep dust down and prevent erosion. Highway Department Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad reworked department expenditures so that 60,000 gallons could be purchased rather than the 50,000 gallons that were budgeted.
At the Tuesday, April 13, 2010 county board meeting, Klegstad said he gets more calls requesting calcium chloride application than he gets on any other issue. In a memo to the board he wrote, “The budget has been cut in the last two years, and I would ask the board to discuss increasing the [calcium] chloride budget back to its former amount in the future.”
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said he also gets a lot of calls from property owners wanting more calcium chloride to be applied.
The board passed a motion approving advertising for bids on 60,000 gallons of calcium chloride.
In other Highway Department news:
. Thecounty board passed a resolution authorizing the Airport Board to request permission from the FAA to release land the county is currently obligated to reserve for the airport so the county could dedicate a permanent 100-foot easement and several temporary construction easements for improvements to County Road 8, which runs past the airport.
The county would be required to purchase the land from itself, essentially, in the amount of $200,000-300,000. The money would be transferred from Highway Department funds to an airport runway fund. . The board approved a motion to pay an additional $127.80 for consultants to provide preliminary design and cost estimates for a multi-agency maintenance facility being considered by Cook County and four other agencies.
The Cook County School District withdrew from the project because of budget challenges, so each entity’s share in the $7,800 cost is slightly higher. The consultant company, DSWG, lowered its fee by $700 after the school pulled out. The county’s share in the project is now 40.1%. This phase of the project is slated to be done by November 1.
In a March 29 email to Commissioner Bruce Martinson, Commissioner Jim Johnson, out of town this month, said he thinks they should table participation in the project until a new county engineer is hired. Commissioner Bob Fenwick said going ahead with this phase of the project does not mean the county will proceed further.
A March 23 memo from outgoing Highway Engineer Shae Kosmalski to numerous people involved in the process states that the school district “will be remaining at the table in case they can partake down the road or partake in portions such as the automated wash, new fuel station, etc.”
Russell Klegstad said that while the county Maintenance Department does need more space, he is not in support of a new joint maintenance facility because he thinks the county’s needs could be met in other ways.
Kosmalski had advocated the project partly because a new facility would allow the county to reduce its energy consumption.
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