McHenry County Blog

A communication from the Village of Johnsburg:

Fairview Avenue in Johnsburg

SEWER CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AWARDED

At Thursday night’s board meeting, the Village Board accepted a bid from Glenbrook Excavating to install gravity sewer along Fairview Avenue from Chapel Hill Road to Church Street.

Construction is expected to begin in September and last through November.

This project is possible because of Federal and State funding the Village has received to further our sewer collection system project.

The Village awarded a contract to Glenbrook Excavating to install gravity sewer along Fairview Avenue from Chapel Hill Road to Church Street. Construction is expected to begin in September and last through November.

Fairview Avenue, between Chapel Hill Road and Johnsburg Road, will be closed to thru traffic during parts of the construction and surrounding streets such as Sunnyside Beach, Long, Middle and Stubby will be limited to local traffic only.

Thru traffic will be directed to utilize Chapel Hill Road and Johnsburg Road in lieu of Fairview Avenue. Residents residing on Fairview Avenue will still be able to travel to and from their homes and will be notified of construction activities.

This project is possible because of Federal and State funding the Village has received to further our sewer collection system project.

The Village would like to thank Senator Pamela Althoff for her efforts in securing the State funds that were just recently released.

The Federal funds were secured through the efforts of former Congresswoman Melissa Bean to whom we are also grateful.

By installing this infrastructure, we will be that much closer to bringing sewers to more than 400 residents in our community.

The Village continues to work to find additional grant opportunities to help offset the cost to bring wastewater treatment to other neighborhoods throughout the Village.

If your neighborhood is interested in learning more about connecting to the Village’s wastewater treatment system, please contact Village Administrator, Claudett Peters at 815-385-6023 or cpeters@johnsburg.org

Sixteen residents attended the informational meeting.

City officials held a meeting Wednesday night to let out of city residents along East Crystal Lake Avenue know the possibility exists to get sewer and water.

While normal people don’t know that not all homes along the street are not within the Crystal Lake corporate boundaries, a lot are “in the county,” as some put it.

Such homes don’t have city sewer and water.  They have wells and septic tanks.

Some may have septic tanks that are failing, City Engineer Eric Lecuyer suggested in his presentation.

For those under county government jurisdiction, a failed septic tank may mean a home has to be abandoned under new rules mandating the number of square feet necessary to have such a sewage treatment system.

With the city due to re-surface the street and put sidewalks on both sides, now is the most economical time to put in sewer and water lines.

The cost, however, is high.

The slide showing costs if everyone wanted sewer and water. Click to enlarge.

$25,000 per home if all participate. Finance it over 20 years and it would hike the property tax bill by about $2,000 a year.

People wanted to know how many have "voted" each way can call up the city staff and find out.

At the end of the meeting staffers handed out forms on which one could express support, opposition or seek more information.

The lady sitting next to me who had said she was on Social Security checked the “No” box.

Jim Tomasello of 290 E. Crystal Lake Avenue asked for a stack of forms after saying he had talked to neighbors and “not even close to 50% of the folks are interested.”

“It doesn’t matter to us whether we do this project or not,”

was the way Lecuyer started the meeting.