Algonquin wants slice of transportation funding pie
Algonquin officials likely will approve a measure today asking the state to give McHenry County its fair share of the transportation funding pie.
The village board resolution will ask that McHenry County be placed on a level playing field with other suburban counties when competing for transportation dollars.
The resolution also calls on the state to restore or accelerate funding for several road projects critical to alleviating congestion on the county's strained road network.
"McHenry County is being left out of the big picture of Illinois," said Algonquin Village President John Schmitt, who authored the resolution. "There are huge transportation issues here, and they're not being addressed, and it's purely political."
Schmitt stopped short of saying Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration has paid less attention to McHenry County's roads because the county is heavily Republican.
But local leaders have often leveled the charge of partisan favoritism to explain why state funding for county road projects has dried up or failed to materialize, in some cases, despite federal funding.
State transportation officials denied, as they have in the past, that political considerations are to blame for sidelined road projects in McHenry County.
"The Illinois Department of Transportation has been required to focus our limited financial resources on pavement preservation and bridge rehabilitation," IDOT spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said.
"We do our best to try and give each county a fair amount. We try our best not to favor one or the other," Kollias added.
The resolution asks the state to restore funding for the Route 31 western bypass project and to accelerate funding for the widening of routes 31 and 47 and the Richmond bypass.
Schmitt's goal is for the resolution to pass in all McHenry County towns and at the county board before sending it to the governor.
So far, Crystal Lake and Fox River Grove have approved the measure, and Cary is set to vote on it in a week.