Kane County community pools money to install turtle crossing signs

Turtle Crossing signs were installed in a Lily Lake community on July 8 after neighborhood families came together to fund the project in an effort to protect their neighborhood turtles from vehicle traffic.

Turtles have inhabited the retention ponds on either side of East Sunset Views Drive between Twilight and Autumn Lanes for as long as residents can remember and cross the road often to get from one pond to the other. As the Kane County neighborhood has continued to develop, the increasing traffic on Sunset Views Drive has made crossing the street more dangerous for the reptilian residents.

Families in the Sunset Views community have a neighborhood tradition of helping the turtles cross the road. For years, residents of all ages have been on what they call “Turtle Watch” to make sure turtles get from pond to pond safely, often stopping their cars and getting out to provide the turtles with safe passage.

Tired of seeing turtles get run over by cars on their street, Sunset Views residents Cindy Braden and Abby Drommerhausen took matters into their own hands and raised funds to install turtle crossing signs in the neighborhood.

Braden first reached out to the Village of Lily Lake about the signs this spring, and was given a quote for the cost, but was told the money was not in the budget. She reached out to the community, Drommerhausen started the fundraiser, and support quickly started pouring in.

The money for the signs was raised through a GoFundMe with the goal of collecting $550 to cover the cost of the signs, installation and fees to the fundraising site. The fundraiser received a total of $831 from 27 donors, and the additional $284 was donated to the Kane County Forest Preserve Foundation’s Adopt a Turtle Program.

Drommerhausen and Braden have lived in Sunset Views for more than a decade each and said the wildlife in the community is important to many families in the neighborhood and the turtles especially have brought the community together. They both came out to watch the signs get installed on Monday morning.

Braden said when turtles start crossing the road each year it is the talk of the neighborhood. She said neighbors are frequently posting pictures of turtles in their community groups on social media, and the neighborhood children really get a kick out of them. She said while most of the neighborhood is aware of the crossing area and drive through it cautiously, those unaware drive too fast to see the turtles crossing, so she is hoping the signs will make more people aware and use caution.

“The signs are so cute,” Braden said. “I can’t imagine that people are not going to slow down when they see them.”

Braden said the neighborhood was buzzing with excitement over the weekend in anticipation of the signs being installed on Monday. She said it was heartwarming to see the community come together and how many people reached out in support of the project.

“It was just neat to see,” Braden said. “We had people who didn’t even live in the neighborhood and we don’t even know helping out. It just felt like a really heartwarming thing to do and it feels awesome that everybody cared enough about these little turtles in our neighborhood.”

Braden also thanked Lily Lake Village Clerk Jessee Heffernan and Campton Township Highway District Foreman Ray Weber for their help in planning and procuring the signage.