Fleming Road Alliance Asks Questions

The following press release has been issued by the Fleming Road Alliance:

“Fleming Road Alliance Wants Context Sensitive Solution”

The Fleming Road Alliance (FRA) wants to have a say in what happens to their road.

FRA has developed a list of questions they want answered and a list of priorities that they want to see agreed upon before MCDOT enters the design stage of the project.

Fearing a repeat of the Alden Road fiasco, FRA members are attempting to be included in a Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) approach. CSS, a best management practice adopted by IDOT and endorsed by the McHenry County Board last fall for road projects, requires early and frequent involvement of all “stakeholders.”

MCDOT is now beginning to organize a stakeholder group, although the contract with the TransSystems Engineering firm was approved in December 2009.

FRA sent MCDOT their list of priorities as surveyed at the May 3, 2010 meeting that MCDOT declined to attend.

In the summer of 2009, McHenry County Highway Department employees patched Fleming Road.

FRA has also submitted a list of questions [see below] to MCDOT, saying that MCDOT’s recent Fleming Road newsletter provided vague open-ended answers to the few questions it addressed. The list includes suggested stakeholders.

FRA would like to put to rest much of the frustrated speculation that is running rampant in the neighborhood.

The McHenry Department of Transportation Fleming Road "hearing."

FRA members say that the MCDOT Open House (March 23, 2010), set up as a graphic walk-through on display boards, gave them no time to process and respond to the information presented.

“It left us with more questions than answers.”  Said FRA member Lisa Rhoades,

“The neighbors were not able to share information easily in that format, and answers given to one of us were not given to all of us. That limited our ability make informed comments. We would appreciate the opportunity to have a real meeting to have our questions answered and make our wishes known.”

“ We are very disappointed that MCDOT would not meet with us,” said FRA member Mary Moltman. “ This doesn’t seem like a very transparent process.”

You can view a video of Fleming Road by clicking on link below, or go to You Tube and search for “Fleming Road April 2010.”

http://www.youtube.com/user/FlemingRoadAlliance

The questions and stakeholder list submitted to MCDOT are attached.

In 2009 a mini-compactor was used for repairing Fleming Road's surface.

Fleming Road Alliance Organizing Committee

  • Lisa Halma Rhoades
  • Mary Moltman
  • Ed Bennett
  • Marti Jadd
  • Linda Ramsey
  • Stanley Jarosz
  • Phyllis Keinz
  • Janet Trafelet
  • Michelle Krenger
  • Chris Sellers

Here are the questions:

1.Who specifically is considered a Stakeholder in the Fleming Road decision- making process?

  • What is the criteria for identifying a stakeholder?
  • Which stakeholders have already been consulted about the project?
  • What is the weight of each stakeholder’s opinion in the final outcome of the project?
  • What is the meaning of this statement from your May 5, 2010 minutes referring to multiple stakeholder groups?  How many stakeholder groups are there? “Starting work on stakeholder groups; one of those groups will include the Fleming Road Alliance.” We believe one of those groups IS the Fleming Road Alliance.
  • What is the meaning of this statement from your May 5, 2010 minutes referring to “Appropriate parties that will meet with stakeholders initially, which will set the progress for the next public meeting with more definitive plans?”  Who are these appropriate parties?
  • Attached is a partial list of groups that Fleming Road Alliance deems interested as Stakeholders. They are in no particular order of priority and we may add to the list.

Landowner Residents
Fleming Road Alliance members
Other residents in the Village of Bull Valley
Residents who live on other County Roads
Alden Road Alliance members
Farm Equipment Operators
Drivers passing through to other destinations.
Walkers
Bicyclists
Motorcyclists
Horseback Riders and Drivers
Historic Preservationists
Tree Preservationists
Wildlife Preservationists
Water Resource Preservationists
Bull Valley Garden Club
Bull Valley Association
Boone Creek Watershed Alliance
The Village of Bull Valley
Alliance For Land, Agriculture and Water

2.When will the public comments from the March 23, 2010 Open House be posted on your web site?

3.Is a Context Sensitive Solution Approach being applied, as a best management practice, to this project?

  • If yes, what constitutes “early, continuous and meaningful involvement of the public and all stakeholders”?
  • If yes, what “deviations from the Illinois Department of Transportation policies, practices and mandatory design standards are being considered early in the design process”?

4.How is right-of-way determined and by whom?  Under what authority and guidelines?

5.When did Fleming Road become part of the County Highway system and designated V25?  By what process, guidelines or authority?

6.What are the accident statistics on Fleming Road?

  • What intersection type accidents have occurred at intersections along Fleming Road?
  • What segment type accidents have occurred on Fleming Rd.?
  • How do the above statistics compare to other similar two lane county roads with the same ADT?

7.What studies have been conducted by the County to measure available sight distance on Fleming Road?  Has the speed limit been changed as a result of these studies?

8.What are the speed limits and ADT counts on comparable two-lane county roads?

9.How is this project being funded? With whose money? Will additional funding be required from other sources?

10.What IDOT policies and procedures are being used in the Fleming Road project?  Where are these policies and procedures written and how can we access or get copies of them?


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