Wednesday, January 31, 2001

County tries strategy shift on Perryville

Changes in pace and routing are considered as the pricey project faces opposition and deadlines.

By GAYLE WORLAND
Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — Over breakfast with leaders of the Winnebago County Board last Friday, Chairman Kris Cohn made this informal request:

Revise the county's Capital Improvements Plan so the next leg of Perryville Road would be built north — from Perryville's current terminus at Illinois 173 up to Bel-videre Road.

"Perryville Road shows its value step by step," Cohn said in an interview Tuesday. This immediate change in strategy would "continue the way Perryville Road has always been built, from south to north, in logical increments when the funds are available," she said.

It also would delay turning Willow Brook Road, a two-lane country road near South Beloit, into a four-lane highway in the immediate future.

Altering the next construction phase for Perryville Road would not be the only recent twist in its continuing saga. The dust has hardly settled from a public forum Monday in Roscoe that drew more than 900 residents to discuss the proposed 10-mile, $34 million road extension.

And now the battle is turning into a War of Deadlines.

Roscoe Township, which sponsored Monday's event, is already planning a second public forum for late February or early March — only weeks before the county plans to begin doling out more than $2 million to buy land for the project.

At the same time, the township is asking the county to halt all right-of-way purchases for the extension until it has examined other ways to handle growing traffic needs in the northeast quadrant of the county — such as widening parallel roads like Illinois 173, Interstate 90 or even Bell School Road.

Roscoe Township officials oppose all five of the county's proposed alignments. Each would cross Stone Bridge Trail, a recreation path on land owned by the township. Roscoe Township supervisor Tom Hawes said the township has pledged to "fight" any interference with the trail, which traverses a bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

County board member Charlie Hollerith III has drawn up seven alternatives to handle the 14,000 vehicles the county expects would travel on the extension by 2010. All of his alternatives would bypass the stretch between Belvidere and Elevator roads, the most environmentally sensitive area on the Perryville route.

Hollerith's plan notes that Elevator Road, a crowded two-lane county road that local leaders have wanted improved for years, already carries 17,000 vehicles a day.

He plans to take his list of road alternatives to the board's public works committee, which could ask county engineers to study their viability and potential cost.

"All I'm suggesting is at least exploring those options and what the cost will be — so we know the county has done its homework on behalf of the taxpayers," said Hollerith.