County may give more money to Prophetstown
Official says he’s happy with road repair compromise
Comments (...)PROPHETSTOWN – Prophetstown Township didn’t get all the money it wanted for road repairs that it blamed on an unofficial detour for a county project.
But it likely will receive most of it.
This week, the Whiteside County Public Works Committee voted unanimously to give the township $7,000 to help with the costs of the Yager Road repairs. That’s above the $2,000 the panel granted in November.
Combined, the two payments would cover more than half the costs.
The next step is for the County Board to consider approving the $7,000, County Administrator Joel Horn said.
Township Supervisor Myron Hofmeister said the county’s position was similar to the township’s – neither has a lot of money.
“Seven thousand dollars doesn’t sound like much. But to a township, that’s a lot of money. We’ve been skating by this winter,” Hofmeister said.
In November, the committee gave the township $65,000 to repair Mill Road, which it had long agreed to do. The road was the marked detour during the construction project that closed a quarter-mile portion of Star Road from August 2010 to May 2011.
But there was never any such agreement for the county to pay for repairs to Yager Road, which many motorists chose as their detour.
The increased traffic wore down both Mill and Yager, officials said.
In August, township officials first approached the committee for help with the Yager bill.
In November, committee members noted that the county had capped its payments for Mill at $67,000, so they said they had $2,000 left over.
They voted to apply that money to Yager – less than a sixth of what the township had requested.
The township officials, who didn’t make the November meeting, returned for subsequent ones to plead for more money. But a corruption scandal in the Highway Department sidetracked the committee in December.
Hofmester said the township was happy with the outcome.
“They were nice enough to listen to us. We came to a compromise,” he said.
The township will end up paying about $6,000 for Yager Road, Hofmeister said.
Panel to review engineer applicants
The Whiteside County Public Works Committee plans to review applications for the county engineer’s position today.
The committee will meet behind closed doors.
The position went vacant last month when Steve Haring resigned after pleading guilty to on-the-job misdemeanor theft. Haring made $104,000 a year.
John Bauscher, the assistant to the county engineer, has assumed Haring’s duties. He planned to retire this month, but delayed his departure to March.
The committee meets at 2 p.m. at the Highway Department, 18819 Lincoln Road (U.S. Route 30), east of Morrison.
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