City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Clerk Tamer, please call the roll.

Irby?

Here.

Brennan?

Here.

Berrimas? Right, that was first. Absent, Bellinger?

Here.

Shanko? Here. Hill?

Here.

Graham?

Here.

Jensen? Here. Toledo? Here. Baker?

Here.

Udara?

Here.

Virgil? Here. Nardini? Here. Bastido? Here. 13 present with one on the phone and one absent.

13 present, one on the phone. All right, one absent. Okay, we have a quorum. We're going to move on to item two. It's a presentation. We're going to start off. Clerk Tam and I will head over there for the exemplary Youth Service Award presentation and also recognition of the Youth Commission and Advisory Committee members.

Okay, we're gonna, this is really tall, and I'm really short, so.

Okay, we're gonna start with, oh, perfect.

Does this work? Okay, all right. So I'm not used to it. Okay, we're gonna start with the Exemplary Use Service Awards. First of all, I'd like to recognize and thank other commissioners that are here tonight. We have Rick Mojack, Kevin O'Reilly, Ann Zimmer, Sheila Wright, Kim Brigman, You guys stand, please.

Thank you.

Thank you for all you guys do. They work all year to bring different events to Elmhurst and to really bring things to the youth in town and families. And I'm Jackie, and I chair the Commission on Youth. Tonight we have six awardees for the Exemplar Youth Service Awards. Three of them are not with us, but three of them are. I'm going to start with Nico Magus. Nico, would you like to come up? And his brother Lucas. He's your twin, right? So I'm going to speak about both of them. Since joining the Elmhurst Hospital Teen Volunteer Program as a freshman, these young men have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to service through their work with the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Foundation. Over the past two years, they have dedicated countless hours supporting major community events, including Chef Fest, Autumn Affair, and the Reindeer Route House Walk, consistently bringing warmth, professionalism, and positivity to every interaction. Nico, thank you for all your hours, and to Luca, and dedication to welcoming guests, assisting donors, and supporting fellow volunteers. Congratulations.

You want to stand right here, actually, because we're going to kind of welcome all of you.

OK. Next one is Hunter Stepanek. Come on up, Hunter. As a dedicated volunteer mentor in York's freshman mentoring program for the last three years, Hunter has consistently created a welcoming and supportive environment for younger students through his patience, leadership, and genuine kindness. His commitment to service extends far beyond the classroom, from fundraising efforts supporting health initiatives in northern Nigeria, to leadership in Youth Society Club, to coaching youth Special Olympics athletes. Hunter, thank you for leading with integrity, compassion, and humility. Thank you. We have Angel Morales Corona. For the past two years, Angel has generously volunteered his time teaching guitar to children and adults at a local community center serving underserved and at-risk families. Through his dedication, he has provided consistent access to music education and guitar lessons for individuals who might not otherwise have this opportunity. Angel, it is much appreciated for your ability to connect to our community to bring the music where they otherwise wouldn't have access to it. Thank you very much. This is Hunter's, and Hunter's, I think that's for his brother, the other one I just gave you. I'm going to recognize the other three that were not here tonight. They're working or out of town. Maeve Duckworth. Maeve was nominated for her volunteer work at the Yorkfield Food Pantry. In just 10 months, Maeve devoted 66 hours of service to the Yorkfield Food Pantry. She is so highly regarded by the pantry that she's been given additional responsibilities and to lead the peers around her. We thank Maeve for her dedication to service with her reliability and compassion and highly recognized. Then we have John Couture. John was also nominated for his volunteer work at the Yorkfield Food Pantry. In 12 months, John devoted 76 hours of service at the pantry, with 163 hours in 22 months. In addition, this past year, John began the Elmhurst Yorkfield Food Pantry Junior Advisory Board at York High School. He worked hard to start up the board, engage the kids, and educate about food insecurity. We thank John for his service and leadership amongst his peers. And the other one was Luca. So, thank you. These are our 2026 Youth, yeah, we'll do a picture, Youth Exemplary Award winners. Thank you.

put Jackie's hair in front of it a little bit

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Kevin O'Reilly and I'm a lifelong resident of Elmhurst. I'm a member of the Elmhurst Youth Commission and help guide the Youth Advisory Committee with the help of Jackie Tamer, Rick Mojek, and the other members of the commission. In the fall of 2023, the members of the Youth Commission thought it would be advantageous to form the Youth Advisory Committee. After all, who knows the needs of the youth in our town better than the young people themselves? For months, the members of the Youth Commission carefully constructed the framework of this group, defining the criteria for membership and responsibilities of this new group. This newly formed Youth Advisory Committee is comprised of members of our community ranging from 7th grade to 11th grade. So let's fast forward to tonight. These young people here tonight completed an application, were ultimately selected by the Youth Commission, and appointed to this new subcommittee. This was the second year for the Youth Advisory Committee, so everyone, members and leaders alike, were learning as we went. We had several meetings this year and the group provided valuable insight and helped guide the direction of the Youth Commission. Additionally, a bunny hop fun run was coordinated by the group and proceeds benefited the Ronald McDonald House in Naperville. Next year, we expect this group to take on a larger role with the Exemplary Service Awards, the Job and Volunteer Fair, and other activities in our community. At this time, I'd like to recognize the members of the 2025-2026 Youth Advisory Committee. You guys can stand when I call out your name. Justin Alsani. Braden Bayou. L. Branning. Sahar Brobe. Lila Burrell. Sean Campbell. Cooper Forsberg. Scout Jared. Gerald, I'm sorry, excuse me, Scout. Ava Gutso. Sophia Kamenica. Teddy Kamenica. Emma Mojak. Devin Maniar. Madden Michalowski, Evan Pirone-Shaw, Patrick O'Reilly, Carter Spearing, Ryan Schwager, Kinsley Smith, Alex Small, Gabby Tamer, Elias Tamer, Ava Turek, Will Turner, Karina Vora, Cameron Grammons Wildman, and Audrey Zimmer. How about a round of applause for these young people? Thank you for your service this year. You are leaders in our community, and we hope that each of you will continue your work as members of the Youth Advisory Committee in the 2025-2026 school year. Thank you.

I had a little opportunity to talk with these young people before and expressing that it's very good to see that another generation is getting involved in serving the community and helping advise for the benefit on both sides here. We've got a big stage. So congratulations to all of you. All right.

And Jackie's son right there.

to see you ryan

All right, we're gonna move into the next part of the agenda, which is the receipt of written communications from the public. Clerk Tamar, have we received any communications since this afternoon?

I'm seeing if nothing's been turned in right now. There is posted.

All right, is there anyone in the audience that has a written communication that he or she would like to deliver to the council? If so, please raise your hand. If not, we'll move on to item four, public forum. Clerk Tamar, is anyone signed in this evening for public forum?

Yes, Mayor. We have Mark Dottoli.

All right. We're going to do a public forum from the back microphone. State your name. Address is optional. You have three minutes to talk on any topic of interest to you. We will let you know when you're close to your three minutes, and just so that it doesn't feel foreign, we don't generally engage in discussion. It's your opportunity to present to us, and we will listen attentively. Thank you, and proceed.

Sure. Hi, I'm Mark Dottoli. Happy Elmhurst Day on 60126. I live in Ward 7 over by the creek. And I'm here with a little update on the Riverside Warehouse proposal. You may already know that last week the ZPC, the commission, recommended to approve that project. And Team Southwest Elmhurst has at least 16 serious issues with this, but I will highlight three that fundamentally threaten, to me, I think threaten the integrity of the planning process. First, misinterpretation of the comprehensive plan. It was mentioned that the South Riverside corridor language says it supports some industrial use in the corridor. However, that language does not necessarily support a massive spec warehouse, especially one situated at a school and residential transition. Approving this facility because of general language ignores the specific danger of placing such an intensive use near the transitional boundaries. Number two, procedural evasion of lot consolidation. During deliberations, the commission bypassed the question of lot consolidation, which would be needed because the property sits on two parcels of land. They suggested it could be resolved later. Yet, by approving this project now, they have made consolidation almost a foregone conclusion. They have turned a significant land use question into a bureaucratic footnote, effectively shutting down proper scrutiny and essentially stripping the council of the ability to judge the consolidation question on its own merits. And finally, standard requirements as amenities. The developer frames basic expectations as exceptional public amenities. Items such as paying taxes, reducing crime, remediating the toxic soil, and the building looking nice and being professionally managed. But we see these as not exceptional at all. They are simply the cost of doing business. If a developer claims these are exceptional, they are admitting that they have nothing else to offer. And then finally, I must highlight one severe transparency issue related to the soil remediation. Late in the process, just two days before a ZPC meeting, a 528 page modification to the remediation plan was dropped on us. That's more than a ream of paper. This new plan effectively gutted the promised toxic cleanup, and they are now proposing to simply cap most of the toxins with the warehouse floor and the lot asphalt. We deserve better than a plan that leaves our soil contaminated while calling it an exceptional amenity. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Lori Buzzell.

Satisfying. Okay. Good evening. My name is Lori Bazal, and I'm part of Team Southwest Elmhurst. Over the past several months, our group has participated extensively in the review of the Riverside Warehouse proposal. Residents spent hundreds of hours attending hearings, reviewing documents, and submitting dozens of research documents to better understand the many issues involved and what each could mean for Elmhurst. But I want to take a moment to clarify what Team Southwest is actually trying to do. Our goal has never been to oppose development for the sake of opposing development. Our goal has been to encourage a careful review of a proposal that raises questions about land use, environmental stewardship, infrastructure, public benefit, and the long-term effects within the Route 83 corridor THE COMMUNITY IN NEARBY NATURAL AREAS. LAST WEEK THE ZONING AND PLANNING COMMISSION COMPLETED AN IMPORTANT STAGE OF THAT REVIEW. THE COMMISSION EVALUATED APPLICATION UNDER THE STANDARDS IT WAS CHARGED WITH CONSIDERING AND FORWARDED A RECOMMENDATION. THE COMMISSION ALSO REMINDED RESIDENTS THAT THIS IS A MULTI-STEP PROCESS. Questions involving policy, community priorities, and the broader implications of land use decisions ultimately come before the committee and the city council. Throughout this process, residents contributed more than opinions. They contributed observations, local knowledge, professional experience, historical context, and lived experience within the corridor itself. While those contributions may not always arrive in the form of a consultant report, they can still help identify assumptions, uncertainties, and questions that deserve careful consideration. as this proposal moves forward i hope the discussion remains focused not only what can be built on a particular parcel but also how individual decisions contribute to the long-term goals of the community and the future direction of this corridor thanks thank you is there anyone that

I wanted to make public comment this evening, but did not have the opportunity to sign in. If so, please raise your hand. All right, seeing none, we will close public forum at this time. Thank you all. Item five, announcements. Are there any announcements from the dais? All right. Item six is the consent agenda. Is there any item on the consent agenda that any alderman would like to remove, either for further discussion or to vote against? Alderman Bram? 6.9. 6.9. Any others? All right. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Yes, sir. Read it. Read it.

Oh, I'm sorry. It's my first time. All right.

6.1 minutes of the regular meeting of the Elmer City Council on May 18, 2026. 6.2 accounts payable June 1, 2026. $3,769,692.68. 6.3, appointment of Monica DiIorio to the Senior Commission. 6.4, referral, Veterans Commission Municipal Code changes. 6.5, report, case number 26P07, McMaster Car Supply Company. 6.6, report, 180 West Park. Automatic transfer switch, 6.7 report, 2026. Pavement striping program, 6.8 report. Neighborhood traffic study number seven, 6.9 report. 2026 purchase of asphalt, 6.10 report. Contract amendment number one to the construction agreement to the 2026 water main lining improvements project, 6.11 report. Rock salt contract for the 2026-2027 project. Winter season, 6.12. An ordinance waiving bid and authorizing issuance of a notice of award.

Hold on one second. I feel like we have two different agendas. So you come to us with your own agenda. I have my own agenda. How many items do you have on yours?

16.

We have 17.

So when Alderman Brand pulled 6.9, which one did he pull?

6.7. Yeah.

You can read the one that's been pulled. I think I was out of order in pulling, so just read it as.

So the neighborhood traffic study was pulled, though?

Yeah, but you can read it, and I will leave it out. But you have one with 17 items now?

I do now.

All right, go ahead.

What did I miss?

6.7. 6.7. Yes, thank you. All right. 6.7 report. 180 West Park. Temporary police station updates. Oh, I see. There was two in there. OK. 6.8 report. 2026 pavement. Striping program, 6.9 report. We're pulling that, but it was neighborhood traffic study number seven, 6.10 report. 2026 purchase of asphalt, 6.11 report. Contract amendment number one to the construction agreement for the 2026 water main lining improvements project. 6.12 report rock salt contract for the 2026 2027 winter season 6.13 an ordinance waving bid and authorizing the issuance of a notice of award and the execution of a contract for the purchase of aggregate materials for the city of elmhurst illinois 6.14 an ordinance waving bid and authorizing the issuance of a notice of award and the execution of a contract for the removal of excavated materials for the city of elmhurst illinois 6.15, a resolution to approve and authorize the execution of an agreement between the City of Elmhurst, Illinois and Christopher B. Burke Engineering Limited for the furnishing of professional engineering services for the Addison Creek stream bank erosion design and permitting project. uh 6.16 a resolution authorizing the issuance of a notice of award and authorizing execution of a contract for the 2026 storm sewer cleaning and televising project 6.17 a resolution authorizing the issuance of a notice of award and authorizing the execution of a contract with illinois route 83 storm sewer cleaning and televising project all right sorry for the confusion there and

So let's go in the right order. That's the consent agenda. And I would ask if any alderman wants to pull something. Alderman Bram, as indicated, would like to pull 6.9. Unless there's something else, I'll ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. Minus 6.9. Motion, Alderman Schengel. Second, Alderman Bram. Clerk Tamer, please call the roll.

Irby?

Here. Sorry, yes.

Brennan? Aye. Arimus? Aye. Absent. Bellinger? Aye. Shanko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Graham?

Aye.

Jensen? Aye. Toledo? Aye. Baker? Aye. Naderah? Aye. Virgil? Aye. Nardini? Aye. Bastido? Aye. 13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The consent agenda, minus 6.9, is approved. Clerk Hamill, please read the report for 6.9.

It is therefore the recommendation of the Public Works and Buildings Committee that the unit price bid. This is 6.8. I'm sorry, guys. I'm really.

It's not in here. So that is going to be 6.10.

Let me just pull it here. This is the one that's. So it is the asphalt?

No, it's the neighborhood traffic study number seven.

This is the most up to date. Okay. It is therefore the recommendation of the Public Affairs and Safety Committee that the City Council approve the Neighborhood Traffic Study, Area Number 7, final report. The City consider budgeting dollars in future years for the implementation of the recommendations and that the City Attorney be authorized to prepare the necessary documents, including any municipal code changes, for the City Council approval. Respectfully submitted, Public Affairs Committee, Mike Brennan, Chair, Karen Schenko, Vice Chair, and Brian Bellinger.

Very good. A motion then to approve 6.9. Alderman Brennan with a motion. Alderman Eschenko with a second. Alderman Brennan.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is our seventh of several neighborhood studies. You know, this area seven is the area of town that this covers is Wrightwood Avenue on the north, Parker Street. Adele Street and Emory Avenue on the east, Lake Street on the south, and York Street on the west. This is very similar as far as size. There are a lot of terrific recommendations that absolutely improve the safety within this neighborhood. I, for one, and Alderman Irby, part of our seventh ward, experienced some updates per, I think it was Area 7's report. and driving around you know our own neighborhood it's really exciting to see you know some of the behavior that's changing and yield signs that you sort of were curious wow are they really going to stop they're they're mostly stopping sometimes it's a rolling stop but i i do see that the recommendations that we put forth or the the consultant has brought forth and staff you know, backs does improve consistency and safety in our neighborhood. So I ask for your support on this report. I'll yield the floor to the alderman.

Alderman Bram. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Chair.

I agree with Alderman Brennan's statements in regards to the traffic studies and how many we've done and seeing some positive impacts in the neighborhoods. I think the traffic studies are the right way to go about it. Back in the day, I'll say, we handled block by block when we had concerns from neighborhood residents. and it just continued to push the problem elsewhere within town or within the same neighborhood. So doing these traffic studies have definitely been beneficial. So thanks to the consultant staff as well as the committee for taking on this task of seven of probably many more still to come of traffic studies throughout the neighborhoods. um just a few questions i have spoken with some of the aldermen outside of the council meeting as well as staff pertaining to some of if not all of these questions the first question i want to address is pretty much my major concern here and that is in regards to Lake Street frontage, and Van Auken. When there was a public open house, I as well as some of my neighbors attended. The feedback from one of my neighbors to me, and I'm assuming they came to the open house and provided the same feedback, was to do a three-way stop at this intersection. This intersection, and I think there has been an acknowledgement from staff as well, that it has not the best line of sight. Lake Street frontage, as well as Van Auken, is a collector, two different levels of a collector. One is, I think, defined as a neighborhood collector, and one's a local collector, I believe the definitions don't, Don't double check that because I might be wrong in the terminology, but they're both collectors. And what does that mean? A collector handles a lot, a lot of traffic. For example, if I scroll down a little bit here in the traffic study itself, If I can find it quickly. Lake Street frontage in one direction heading eastbound is 1,444 in a day. That's huge in a neighborhood. In the other direction heading westbound, 852 cars in a day. Van Auken. Not nearly as much, thankfully, and I'm sure my neighbors would agree. 824 in one direction and 356. The reason why I state this is, this probably, my little binder here is probably about 20 years old, but this is the MUTCD and it's referenced in the traffic study. And everybody here knows that federal document guidelines that illinois adopts that i would say all municipalities with making that assumption adopts as well to make sure that all traffic control devices are uniform throughout every municipality with that said some of the criteria in regards to doing a multi-way stop is is vehicular count That is one of the criteria or guidelines suggested support to do or to implement a multiple stop intersection. As well as some of the optional criteria is line of sight as well as, and this is item D in this section, an intersection of two residential neighborhood collectors through streets of similar designs and operating characteristics. So when asked offline about this and why that wasn't actually implemented as part of the recommendation, the response that I got was, well, that is true to a certain degree, but we think striping would be the right way to go and or doing modifications of the intersection, physical modifications, straightening out the street a little bit to improve line of sight. Well, that's great. I'll tackle the first one. lake street frontage is nowhere near in the plan to be resurfaced and therefore nowhere near in the plan to have any modifications of any intersection so if we feel that this is an issue today why wait 10 to 20 years from now to resolve it especially because there is my novice opinion in the mutcd some significant support in the guidelines showing that it should be at least considered if not implemented as a three-way stop The other one was striping. Well, striping is not gonna do anything from a line of sight issue. Striping may, big bold letters with a quote around it, improve the speeding or the traffic flow in the area, but it's not gonna improve line of sight. I drive this every single day on the way to work. It is a very tricky intersection. You pull up, you take a look one direction, you take a look at another direction. By the time you go, there's a car coming around the corner and you have to stop halfway in an intersection to avoid a collision. I don't want to get into the speed. That is also part of the study. The speed along Lake Street frontage, I think was in the 30 something kilometers. number 37 comes to mind i don't know if that's accurate or not so there is a speed concern as well but traffic control devices and that's also documented in the in the mutcd are not meant to do anything for speeding and i say that for the whole community that is not what they're intended for their their intent is to control the traffic at that intersection and then the last point is this area even though it is planned for either this year or next year hopefully this year sidewalks to go on one side of the street as we sit here today there's no sidewalks in the neighborhood other than one street on willow and by the end of this summer, a second street being Indiana and maybe Van Auken down the line as well. So that's another piece of the puzzle when it comes to looking at the engineering study as well as the criteria. The only other two things that I want to highlight, and if staff and or the Public Affairs Committee can speak to any of these points, is Fullerton and Van Auken. In the study itself, it talks about consistency. consistency through the neighborhood, consistency on a street. along van auken there's four-way stops except at fullerton and van auken which there have in the past been a lot of near misses as well as some accidents at that intersection so i question why that wasn't addressed in this traffic study as well the last thing which i know i spoke to the consultant and staff and and some on the committee is just on some of these streets the east west streets being belden and fullerton and north end Typically, you put a traffic control device on the minor street, what would be defined as the minor street. In this instance, some of the traffic control devices being yield signs and or stop signs are on the major street. I thought this was a perfect opportunity for the traffic study to actually put it on the minor street and therefore allow the major street to have vehicular traffic going through without any traffic control devices. So those are the three statements slash questions. Lake Street frontage and Van Auken on three-way stop, or I should say why it isn't recommended. The east-west streets of Fullerton, Belden, And North End, having them on the major street versus the minor. And then lastly, Van Auken and Fullerton not being a four-way stop.

Thank you. All right.

Alderman Brennan.

So thank you, Mayor. So thank you, Alderman Brennan. You know, first off, with respect to Van Auken and Lake, the last time that that street in that area was resurfaced was in 2014-15. And the way we look at the city, we're typically on an 18-year cycle. so you are correct that um this this particular Street is not up in our five-year you know plan uh but it's soon to follow so it's not a decade it's not 20 years down the road um so speaking with staff well actually before I go there I just want to you know remind everybody the reasons that we're doing these studies it is for consistency and our old way of doing it was absolutely reactive when there are significant issues at a particular intersection we we reviewed it we looked at the warrants and we decided one way or the other so this is proactive and it's very comprehensive and to do that it's it's a pretty big effort you know our old way city staff basically supported that process And there's no way that we could proactively do this comprehensive work without bringing in experts to do it. And so that's what we've done. And, you know, in general, and, you know, I'm going to address Lake Street and Van Auken specifically, but with Fullerton and Van Auken and your other concerns with some of the east-west streets, You know, we had the discussions in committee with respect to the recommendations and the changes. I can't remember the specifics on Fullerton and I'm sorry, Fullerton and Van Auken. But I can assure you that we were satisfied, staff was satisfied with the recommendations that the consultant was giving us. And there were reasons for the recommendations that were given, whether it be the flow of traffic, what they witnessed in those neighborhoods. Now, I wanna go back to Lake Street and Van Auken. um you know yes lake street is a busy street there's no question and that's why there is a strong recommendation to do some calming measures with striping uh on lake street to to try to slow uh folks down uh that is uh going to be done we we have some dollars you know uh that are left over in the striping program where we can do that And that is something that we're going to do as soon as possible, once we've approved this report. The second thing is, with respect to the line of sight, there is... there is agreement that there is a challenge in this intersection. And unfortunately, the challenge truly isn't gonna be fixed until we go through the next time that we resurface and we bring everything off of Van Auken closer to Lake and we fix the line of sight. In the interim, staff is going to look at Is there a way to bring that stop sign closer to Lake to improve things in the interim? We discussed in several meetings the potential of a three-way stop there. And we concluded that it made no sense. There's a stop sign. to the east. I forget if it's Howard or if it's Emroy. I think it's Emroy. And the consensus was that if we put a three-way stop at Van Auken, this is going to do nothing more than agitate the drivers that are on Lake Street. So they're going to accelerate from Van Auken and potentially even go faster down Lake. So we do think in the interim we can improve line of sight a little bit longer term. The answer is to redesign the intersection to where we fix the line of sight concern. And thirdly, you know, the striping, we're trying to address other concerns with the volumes that we see on Lake Street. So With that, I feel that we've addressed Van Auken and Lake Street. I'm comfortable with what staff is recommending. I have a lot of confidence in the consultant who is putting together these plans for us. And just looking at my notes to see if I've missed anything. uh no that that's basically it with the the the other two points that you raised alderman bram um i i could look back at my notes but but we did discuss everything with respect to your your comments we're comfortable with where the consultant led us and there there were reasons that uh the recommendations were the way they were so as i said i i

asked for the council to support this this uh this report there's a lot of good stuff in it thank you thank you alderman nardini thank you mr mayor um as i understand it alderman bram you were saying the three issues are lake street frontage at uh van auken why is it not a three-way stop um the east west uh of fullerton uh i might be Bendon or Belden and North End, why is the traffic change being put on the major as opposed to the minor? Or I might have that reversed. And then the third, if I can ask the chair or if I can ask Alderman Brannan, the third is that Van Auken and some street that I don't remember, why is it not a four-way stop? What is the, if I may, what is the street, the Van Auken and X, that is not a four-way stop?

Alderman Brannan?

It's Fullerton.

Fullerton? Yeah, Fullerton. We have consensus? Yeah, Fullerton. Fullerton. Thanks.

So then, are you advocating for us to vote no on the whole study? Or are you proposing to amend with those three? What are you lobbying the council to do about those three points? I would ask that of the reason that the report was pulled.

All right. Well, let's see if anyone else has anything. We'll circle back. All right. Does anyone else have comment on the report that's before us? Alderman Baker.

Yes, thank you very much, Chair. I had three more broad questions because on this report, as I've looked at the traffic studies I have, if there's anything to be said about these traffic studies, they are very consistent. Many of the recommendations are very similar in each study. And if we're looking for consistency and standardization of our traffic studies, I believe that's what these are showing. The report, as well as document that I just saw recently, led to three questions that I had. Number one, the recommendations from the committee address the areas of implementation. And when budget dollars become available, some of these changes or recommendations will be implemented. I don't recall seeing that in other reports that our budget dollars may be short to implement these changes. And it led me to my second question as to what the mechanism is to capture the cost of implementing these changes when each traffic study is presented. That is there a plan that we have to track that in each study that comes forth? And then finally, as far as a back end result, we were given some numbers today that collisions in our town have dropped 171. since 2024, which led me to ask, is there any plan to track in each of these traffic study areas as to what the benefits or the successes are relative to the study is in each of the areas that have been studied? And I would be interested to see some of those numbers if they're available or if there is a plan for that. That's all I have.

Any other comments before we start answering questions? All right, so first, I think we'll go backwards. Do you have the answer to Alderman Baker's questions, Chair? I'll give it a shot.

So good questions. In each of the studies, there was reference to budget. And the report is comprehensive. And the approach that we've taken in each of these areas, there are things that are possible within our budget, change in yield signs to stop signs, to put in a new stop sign, or know turn a two-way stop to a four-way stop etc i mean you're digging holes you're putting poles in etc you're swapping out you know signs that are on a post those are low-hanging fruit so so with you know each area that we've approved we've we've captured the low-hanging fruit and and staff looks at these within the budget that exists currently you know for example this report you know we have money left over to where we can do this calming technique on lake street so we're going to do that so so in future budgets as staff brings forward budget recommendations they will leverage this report on things that they are going to attempt, not attempt, plan to do in these studies and how they prioritize those things, etc. I'll leave that to them, but this will be a working document for them to help craft their plan year over year. So that's the budget piece. As far as the tracking, I don't know our systems exactly. I mean, I don't know if it makes total sense to me. I believe that there would be a corresponding you know uh result uh with us doing something i'll give you an example um and i may get the the street wrong is it uh is it maple that we had no left turn and right turn north yeah you know there are 40, 45 accidents at that intersection, right? And so that, you know, very specific intersections, I think that those data points are pretty easy to, you know, pull out. But I don't know if our systems are, You have police reports. You have a number of things that it's a great question. I would defer to staff on that one. But I think it would be nice if we could see that level of reporting that would tell us that, hey, this is a good thing for the safety in our community.

And that's the extent of.

All right, I'm sorry. City manager.

Thank you. If you recall, when we overviewed the idea of these traffic studies and the community that we were looking at, as an example, Mount Prospect annualized it. I shouldn't say annualized it. They looked at the entirety of the community in reduction of citations and accidents. So certainly we were going to look at that. But Alderman Baker, you bring up a good point. Should we do it neighborhood by neighborhood to see? And I think we can talk to the committee about that and what the time frame is to actually get that done.

I just have one last thing. So, you know, when we do these area reports, this is It doesn't mean that we're done. I mean, I know in your particular area, there are things that we still need to look at and figure out how we're going to address certain concerns. So this is comprehensive, but we're still aware that there are some other things that this intersection is one of them. We know this is a problem. We know there's a line of sight issue. where we disagree with Alderman Bram, the stop sign's not a solution for this. I mean, that doesn't cure the line-of-sight issue, and we think it will actually cause other issues. It doesn't mean we're done with our neighborhoods. It just means that we have level set ourselves in a better way to make sure that, you know, as people are going from the south side to central to north side, you know, they have a similar experience with respect to how they are controlled through intersections.

All right, I'm going to be going back to Alderman Bramless. Someone else, is there anyone else who has not yet spoken that wants to? Alderman Irby?

Thank you, Mayor. Great discussion here tonight. I appreciate it from everybody who's spoken. This is kind of a process. I have two points here where and they're both questions is i get people coming to me and asking why are we doing these traffic studies and then i have to try to articulate something that makes sense so maybe it does maybe it doesn't but the point of that question or that point is that the biggest thing i get is why aren't we doing the traffic studies where like this one edges up to york but it stops and the other traffic report that came in from the from the west side of york covered all the residential feeders, et cetera, but came up to York. And then everybody's saying, well, when I say everybody, people that I've heard from are wondering what happens to York? Where does York get covered in a traffic study? And I think, well, it's a little bit here and it's a little bit there. I mean, I don't have a great answer. So that's number one, that observation. And I don't know if that's a question, but it, It's a big concern I hear from other, and of course that takes you out to Route 83, that takes you to St. Charles, North Avenue, all those intersections along Route 83 where we have a lot of accidents. I know IDOT controls that. Maybe that's why we don't traffic study it, but we need to be very clear, I think, in our comprehensive review of that that we address that either in the front end back end or in total somewhere because i believe we're coming down to the end of our traffic studies with uh our ward the chairs and mine with the current one we are now if i'm if i'm if i'm correct and so i think we're getting close to that point of a finality And then back to the comprehensive nature that the chair was talking about. If we just go back to a single intersection, make it generic as possible, but let's use Alderman Bram's intersection with the three-way. Is that brought up in the process before the traffic study and the engineers get it where we go, hey, we have these known issues in this area of one, two, three, and let's pretend it's one of these items, right? Is that declared with the consultant and do they address it and give us a report back saying, here's how we handled your intro problematic items and then here's our comprehensive answer and then here's our final report that has both. So there's kind of my two big takeaways.

I'll handle the first one. So these are neighborhood traffic studies. meaning we're not looking at arterial streets or feeder streets, maybe some of those, but we're not looking at York or 83 or those major intersections. We're looking at traffic in the neighborhoods. In terms of, because I haven't been involved in one since the first two directly, Alderman Brennan, do you want to respond to the question of what the consultants are told in terms of problem areas when they start? Yeah.

Well, I think that the nature of the consultants work. I mean, they're pulling accident data. They're pulling a lot of information. Even though we have a consultant, staff spends a lot of time with the consultant providing them a lot of information. Do they explicitly call out that, oh, this has been a concern? It will show in the data. So the data itself is what the consultant wants to look at. And to be honest, I mean, the consultant, in my opinion, we don't want to lead the witness. So they're doing traffic you know, data collection. They want to see what's going on, you know, in these neighborhoods. And then they map against, all right, this is what exists today. Does that make sense for all this data that's been collected, including accidents, et cetera? As it relates to, you know, Van Auken and Lake, There are a few accidents there. Their recommendation, they acknowledge, staff acknowledges, there's the line of sight concern. They also believe, because Lake has a lot of volume, they have a recommendation around how to calm that you know, volume of traffic. So they acknowledge that there's a line-of-sight issue, there's a volume challenge with respect to Lake, but the solution for Lake and Van Auken will come in six or seven years, wherever it falls on our master plan. So... You know, that's the issue. If line of sight's the issue, the solution is bigger than just putting up a stop sign or putting down a stripe.

Alderman Irby.

Yeah, just a quick follow up. I agree. I think I got the answer in there where we don't want to pollute the water or do a predetermined destiny with our report i think that was the conclusion i got of your answer out of my question and that's fair that's a great answer um i just want to know that process do we feed them hey here's our you know that interstate and i wasn't going for the solution or the problem with the solution it was a process question not a failure of the consultant or a failure of staff or a failure of council to identify that I just want to know how we load if we do or do not load the consultants with more than just traffic data in other words they need to go out and discover on their own and and it's kind of sink or swim and we don't throw them a life vest we wait for them to come back to shore yeah all right but you got your answer correct thank you very much all right anyone else Alderman Hill

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to reiterate the same question that Alderman Nardini has.

I'm just not sure what we're... Well, Alderman Hill, we're going to get there, but I just want to know if you have any comments on the report.

No.

All right. So, Alderman Bram, back to you. Do you have any response, or are we just going to vote on the report?

Do you know me to be silent? No, I can respond to that. All right. So essentially, the reason why I brought it up is because I started this communication back in May when I did learn that it wasn't being proposed by the consultant. I did receive some of the information that Chair Brennan mentioned at 3 o'clock today. So yes, it is correct in regards to it's under 10 years of when Lake Street frontage will be resurfaced. So there's a potential. It's nowhere documented. It's not in the capital plan. It seems like we need to maybe fine-tune our follow-up to see all these physical recommendations that cost capital dollars is documented somewhere and prioritized somewhere because it doesn't fall within our capital expenditure budget at this point. But I wanted to get an understanding of what staff said offline with me as well as what the committee believes. I would love to make a motion to amend, but after seeing this discussion, it doesn't seem like it will go in my favor. so I will not be making a motion to amend on any of these three points. But it did give me and my residents who did make these recommendations clarity on what is the plan, what is the recommendation, not only what's documented in the report, but what the committee feels are upcoming actions. It is good to hear tonight during this discussion that striping along Lake Street frontage will be planned for this year. Didn't know that until this discussion. um i did know that we had some dollars free but i didn't know that lake street frontage would be a candidate for some of those dollars or all of those remaining dollars i respectfully disagree with the results here the mutcd specifically calls out line of sight it specifically calls out vehicular volumes in regards to some of the guidance or criteria of doing a multi-stop i do have concerns of waiting to see if we're ever going to have capital dollars to make physical improvements the striping might help as i said earlier in regards to speeding or the the traffic speed but i i don't see and i'm looking forward to see on how that will improve any line of sight issues when you have physical characteristics that are are preventing that from happening one of the things is since i didn't know um in regards to public comments. So when we do have this public open house for these traffic studies, and this isn't about traffic study seven now, this is in general, are those questions answered? Are those residents contacted? Are the elected officials contacted? Because I know I was not. So if someone comes to the public open house and there's 20 comments from the residents and they have concerns about intersection X, Y, and Z, Is someone responding back to them saying, you know, at the very minimum, this is the report and it's online, you can look at it here, or what do we do in regards to follow up over resident concerns?

City Manager Grabowski.

Thank you. So at the open house that's an opportunity for residents in the neighborhood or anywhere in the city to come in and ask questions and understand what we're looking at, what the data is that we've collected and possibly or what the preliminary plan is for improvements. I know that they take into account comments that residents make, as in if somebody asked about a three-way stop, they would explain, well, here's what we're looking at as far as that intersection or any other intersection going from maybe two stop signs to four stop signs, yields to stops, whatever it is. We don't. We have not in the past aggregated that data and sent it out to anybody. The engineer, the consulting engineer, takes it into consideration as they continue with the planning.

Do we document those comments anywhere?

I'm looking at Director Bielicki to shake his head yes or no. Yes, we do.

Thank you. All right. I think we're ready to proceed then. Unless anyone else has anything, then I will ask Clerk Tamer to call the roll on 6.9.

Irby?

Aye.

Brennan?

Aye.

Remus absent. Bellinger?

Aye.

Schenko? Aye. Hill?

Aye.

Graham?

Aye.

Johnson?

Aye.

Toledo? Aye. Baker? Aye. Newdara?

Aye.

Virgil?

Aye.

Nardini?

Aye.

Bastido? Aye. Aye. 13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.

13 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. 6.9 passes. Moving on the agenda to reports and recommendations of appointed and elected officials. Mayor Levin of a few items. Today is Elmhurst Day being 60126, which is also our zip code. So we celebrate the people, places, and traditions that make Elmhurst such a special community. thank you to everyone who does that i got to give credit because it was on our social media but it was mayor morley that called up and pointed out it was that day which didn't occur to anyone here i guess but it wasn't really him it was his mom sally hoffman so thank you sally for which we had a little bit in advance we would have had all kinds of special things planned even though i saw a lot of the local establishment started calling out specials for that I had spoken probably a month or so ago about things going on in the General Assembly, particularly the build up Illinois development, the build legislation. And I'm pleased to say that neither the House nor the Senate approved the legislation. And that, I think, has a lot to do with the fact that our elected representatives, as well as those throughout DuPage County and perhaps other places, heard from the people. We didn't do a resolution, but I know that I have had very constant contact with our elected, state elected representatives and senators. They heard us. They understand the concerns and that we need to retain local control over our residential zoning. So I also want to express appreciation to Representative Blair-Sherlock, Representative Deuter, and Senator Glowiak, who I spoke to over the weekend and were all keeping us advised as to what was happening. It doesn't mean it's over. So there'll be updates because I think what happened was they convinced the leadership that it's not ready for showtime yet, but I think they're going to be looking for negotiations over the summer and we will stay advised. I want to thank all the volunteers who organized our Memorial Day parade and ceremony. This year's parade took a more of a celebratory tone due to the fact that it's our 250th anniversary of our country. In particular, new commission chair, Veterans Commission Chair Mike Curley stepped up. Heather Brekus, our business development manager, again did a bang-up job in making sure that our parade was an excellent parade. And congratulations to Bill Shanklin, who probably everyone knows who was our Grand Marshal. And the commemorative America 250 Bell, which was debuted at the parade, I think it's downstairs. I had city manager give it a little ring. He was a little timid on it, so it wasn't really up at full strength. We might get it on the way out. So it's downstairs across from our community development counter. This weekend is the 6th. June 6th is the fastest event on two wheels, the annual Superior Ambulance Elmhurst Cycling Classic. The racing starts at 9 a.m., concludes with the Twilight Mile at 7.30 p.m. The event is held around the Elmhurst University campus, and it's a great spectator sport. You want to look for your friends who live along the route. It's very important to find those people. That is all I have. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm happy to announce that neighborhood roll calls have started again. So we held two last week, and this week's roll calls are Tuesday nights is at Fremont and Highview. And Thursdays is at Grantley and Willow. All neighborhood roll calls start at 7 p.m. The alderman will get an email from one of the deputy chiefs when it's in your neighborhood so that you're aware of it. Please encourage the residents in your ward to attend. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Any other reports? All right. Is there any other business to be brought before the council this evening? Seeing none, I have a motion to adjourn. I'm in Brennan with motion over in Schenkel will do a roll call on this because all in the studio is remote.

Kirby I run in I remiss absent Bellinger I think I know I Graham I Jensen Toledo I Baker I dare I. park oh we had an old one there park i can't even think straight why does this keep happening how we're going with alderman virgil on this one virgil hi nardini on behalf of alderman park and alderman nardini i vestido aye 13 eyes zero nays one abs 13 eyes zero nays one absent we're adjourned thank you all very much and good night

We'll be right back.