Elburn officials look forward to completing infrastructure projects as Village Board approves budget

Elburn Village President Jeff Walter is looking ahead to implementing some needed infrastructure maintenance projects throughout the community after the Village Board approved the 2022-23 fiscal year budget at its meeting Monday.

“All in all, we’re very sound with more money than we had last year,” Walter said of the budget.

Walter said an evaluation of the village’s streets formed the basis of a five-year street plan in which a little more than $1 million a year will be spent on road maintenance.

Studies conducted on the village’s water and sewer system revealed that stormwater has been leaking into the sanitary system, which means the village’s water treatment system unnecessarily has been treating rain water. There is now a plan in place to reline the sanitary system to fix that problem, Walter said.

Between the relining project and the first year of the street maintenance plan, the village will spend $1.7 million in the coming fiscal year, he said.

The police department added another officer to the budget, increasing the staffing and benefits costs, and funding has been budgeted for a new storm siren for the village’s newest subdivision in town, Fox Pointe on Route 47.

Should the bond vote on a new police department building pass in the upcoming election, the main expenditure will be $995,000 for the initial architecture and engineering work, Walter said.

The building, which would be located on five acres the village already owns south of the water tower at Keslinger and Anderson roads, is estimated to cost $9.9 million, Walter said.

In other news from the Village Board meeting, the village earned a Growth Award in addition to Tree City USA recognition.

This is the 23rd consecutive year that Elburn has received the Tree City USA recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation, which also awarded the village the Growth Award.

“The Growth Award is given to communities for their environmental improvement and a higher level of care of trees,” Walter said. “We do go above and beyond and it’s nice to get recognized for that. All the things that trees do for us – they’re not just nice to look at – they have such a positive environmental impact and we want to do our part.”

Public Works Superintendent Phil VanBogaert said the village has been spending more money in the past several years to catch up with the tree removal that was necessary from the ash borer infestation.

The village has been planting 60 trees a year, VanBogaert said, and spending $36,000 a year to plant new trees and replace ones that had to be removed.

“We got a lot more aggressive in the past couple of years and we’re getting to the point of getting caught up,” he said.

VanBogaert said he is selective about where trees are planted to ensure they don’t interfere with the existing village infrastructure.

This year’s Arbor Day Celebration will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 30, at Community Park, which is across the street from Liberty Drive in the Elburn Station development.