Kendall County Highway Committee met April 8

Brian DeBolt, Board Member - District 1 | Kendall County, IL Website

By Philip Gonzales

Apr 29, 2025

Kendall County Highway Committee met Aril 8.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

MEMBERS PRESENT: Jason Peterson, Dan Koukol, and Scott Gengler

STAFF PRESENT: Michele Riley, John Burscheid, and Francis Klaas

ALSO PRESENT: PJ Fitzpatrick and Jarrod Cebulski

The committee meeting convened at 3:31 P.M. with roll call of committee members. Bachmann and Shanley absent. Quorum established.

Motion Koukol; second Gengler, to approve the agenda. Motion approved unanimously.

Motion Koukol; second Gengler, to approve the Highway Committee minutes from March 11, 2025. Motion approved unanimously.

Motion Gengler; second Koukol to recommend approval of a resolution awarding contracts to the low bidders for the following projects:

25-00000-00-GM to AC Pavement Striping in the amount of $207,279.90

25-00000-01-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $995,818.98

25-00000-02-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $1,092,816.57

25-01000-00-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $126,353.52

25-02000-00-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of 180,199.90

25-03000-00-GM to Builders Paving, LLC in the amount of $234,528.00

25-04000-00-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $425,936.69

25-06000-00-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $89,650.90

25-07000-00-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $104,820.49

25-08000-00-GM to D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $221,377.40

25-09000-00-GM to Steffens 3-D Construction in the amount of $174,031.25

Klaas reported that there were 20 projects bid on March 21, 2025. 11 of those projects were using MFT funds, so the County Board is the awarding authority. Other projects are locally funded. Koukol asked about the contractor, Steffens 3D Construction. Klaas indicated that this contractor does tar & chip work and generally gets most of the that type of work in Kendall County. Koukol asked what projects Builders Asphalt got. Klaas stated that they were low bidder on an asphalt shoulders project in Little Rock Township and a resurfacing project for Fox Township. Koukol was also curious about AC Pavement Striping. Klaas reported that they do pavement markings as well as tar & chip work. They have done quite a bit of work for the County and the Highway Department is comfortable with their quality of work. Klaas also reported that the 20 projects had a total value of about $5 million. Peterson asked how bidding turned out overall. Klaas thought that this was a pretty typical letting. All projects came in under estimate and D Construction got most of the work. Other bidders included Geneva Construction, P.T. Ferro Construction, Austin Tyler Construction, and Gallagher Asphalt Corporation. Koukol asked who owned all those companies. Klaas wasn’t sure. Burscheid reported that Ferro was still family-owned and Geneva was still owned by the Bryant’s. Upon further consideration, the motion was approved unanimously by voice vote.

Motion Gengler; second Koukol to recommend approval of Intergovernmental Agreement for Kendall County Transportation Alternatives Program (“KC-TAP”) funding to the Village of Minooka for constructing a multi-use path along Ridge Road from I-80 ramps to the Shell gas station parking lot (2025). Peterson reported that this is the same project that was discussed at last month’s meeting. He asked when the project was scheduled to begin. Klaas did not know.

Gengler asked whether Kendall County was the only county that got MFT revenues. Klaas indicated that counties such as Kane, DuPage, and McHenry had an additional local option gas tax, and added that he thought the law may have been recently changed to allow other counties an opportunity to secure a local option gas tax. Klaas also discussed how Lake County originally was responsible – through their lobbying efforts – to get the law changed regarding a transportation sales tax. They mirrored the idea of a Public Safety Sales Tax, but for transportation purposes. However, Lake County was never able to pass a referendum to put the sales tax in place. Kendall County, on the other hand, passed the sales tax referendum, and so has not since pursued a local option gas tax. Gengler stated that he had been at a UCCI event, and they had listed a bunch of counties in northern Illinois that were trying to get additional MFT revenues. Klaas clarified that all local agencies get motor fuel taxes. He stated that counties receive MFT based on the number of registered vehicles, while municipalities get it based on population, and townships on the number of miles of highways under their jurisdiction. Gengler reminded the committee that we had a problem in the past with vehicle registrations being incorrectly identified. Koukol said that many vehicles were showing Kane County registrations when they should have been registered in Kendall County. Klaas added that it was especially true in Boulder Hill. Koukol stated that Latreese Caldwell had worked on correcting this a couple of times. Highway Department tried to get the State to base registrations on the zip code + 4, which would specifically identify the location, but the State was unable or unwilling to implement this.

Motion to recommend approval of the IGA with Village of Minooka was approved unanimously by voice vote.

Motion Gengler; second Koukol to recommend approval of an Amendment to the February 20, 2024 Intergovernmental Agreement between Kendall County and the Kendall County Forest Preserve District concerning the dedication of Kendall County Transportation Alternatives Program (KC-TAP) funding and authorization for the construction of the Hoover-Fox River Bluffs Forest Preserves connecting trail. Klaas summarized the project and reported that the original obligation was $189,000. The amendment increases the funding by $83,000 for a total of $272,000 to be dedicated toward this project. Motion was approved unanimously by voice vote.

Motion Koukol; second Gengler to recommend approval of a resolution appropriating funds for the payment of the county engineer’s salary. Motion approved unanimously by voice vote.

In other business, Klaas reported that engineering for the Ridge Road widening from Caton Farm Road to Plainfield Road was in the 5-Year Plan. He had recently sent out a request for Statement of Interest (SOI) to about a dozen consultants. Submittals are due by April 30, 2025. He stated that Chairman Peterson may want to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to evaluate presentations from short-listed consultants. No action was required today, but this was just a heads up. Klaas described the project in greater detail, noting that this was the WIKADUKE Trail. Koukol asked if the County had funding for the project. Klaas indicated that construction funding was uncertain, but that engineering would be funded locally and might cost approximately $2 million for both Phase I and Phase 2 Engineering combined.

Motion Gengler; second Koukol, to forward Highway Department bills for the month of April in the amount of $320,516.64 to the Finance Committee for approval. Gengler identified a $175,000 payment to Riber Construction. Klaas stated that this was for Wheeler Road Bridge. Even though the money came out of County Bridge Fund, it was State money from the Township Bridge Program. Koukol asked if that project was on schedule. Klaas said that it was actually ahead of schedule. Koukol also asked if there was an engineer inspecting that project. Burscheid indicated that he was providing all the inspection for that project. Motion approved unanimously.

Jarrod Cebulski introduced himself. He is an engineer working for RINA Engineering. They were formerly known as Patrick Engineering, but had recently been purchased by RINA.

Gengler asked about the process for connecting Gordon Road to Dickson Road. Klaas stated that Gordon Road is now open at the Galena-Cannonball intersection and makes a temporary connection to Dickson Road further north. Eventually Gordon will extend east from Dickson and connect to the existing Gordon Road that extends up to Route 30. All of the work north of Galena Road is the jurisdiction of the Village of Montgomery. Klaas pointed out that Montgomery is paying for everything north of Galena Road. The current intersection project will cost about $4 million, and Montgomery is paying a little over $1 million for their share – the north leg. He added that the Gordon Road Corridor, which will eventually extend north all the way to Sugar Grove, could become a fairly important corridor in the future, which is why the County wanted to do the realignment and install a traffic signal now.

Motion Gengler; second Koukol to adjourn the meeting at 3:53 PM. Motion carried unanimously.

Action Items

1. Resolution awarding contracts to the low bidders for the following projects: