Important information regarding the proposed reconstruction of Alden Road, McHenry County, IL
It’s hard to believe it’s now 2012 and we are still unsure of what the plan is for improvements to be made to Alden Road. It is our understanding that another meeting is to be held in March with MCDOT. We will keep you apprised of the details. In the meantime, we have a new P.O. box in Hebron. The Woodstock address is no longer valid, so should you wish to send us any correspondence, please use the following:
Alden Road Alliance
P.O. Box 77
Hebron, IL 60034-0077
Thanks, and Happy New Year!
The folks from Fleming Road Alliance have uploaded video from last week’s Transportation Committee Meeting. We are posting the links here so you can view the videos on YouTube.
TRANSDOT 11/02/11 Alden Rd Part 1
TRANSDOT 11/02/11 Alden Rd Part 2
TRANSDOT 11/02/11 Alden Rd Part 3
For all their slick statistics pertaining to property owners along Alden Road, please remember that behind the numbers are actual human beings who are potentially being adversely affected by this project which we continue to believe suffers from a significant amount of over-engineering, not to mention what we feel is undue cost to the taxpayer. We do not dispute that the road may need work in certain places. We do not believe the road needs rebuilding, we do not believe the road needs to be reworked essentially end-to-end. Like our friends at Fleming Road Alliance, we say “Fix it, don’t widen it.”
The McHenry County Division of Transportation (MCDOT) is hosting an open house to Alden Road residents (and taxpayers) to view the new design for Alden Road.
We have requested two available meeting times so hopefully all residents may attend.
Please make an effort to appear and let them know your concerns for yourself as well as others. Some people are affected more than others, but we must stick together to bring about change.
There was an individual from the Walkup Road project at the last county board meeting demanding an apology to his wife and himself from MCDOT. He is also requesting reversal of the changes that MCDOT has made in front of his property. He attended every meeting and was told there would be no major changes on the road project that would affect him. That was not true at all, and he now has a very steep ditch in his front yard that had no ditch before!
MCDOT has a very serious problem on their hands that started with the Alden bridge project. They don’t seem to understand that they can’t mislead citizens to achieve their goals.
The county adopted Context Sensitive Solutions to assist MCDOT in dealing with the citizens on road projects. It is there to help guide government agencies to promote transparency and involvment with its citizens in the process of the project. MCDOT is still not using this policy in its true form and only as a partial guide as it works for them.
Please let your neighbors, taxpayers and anyone else who drives Alden Road know about this open house.
Also, it is very important that you know what type of right of way you possess, either fee simple or prescriptive easement.
Let MCDOT and the county board know what you think! Change will only come with the involvement of the citizens.
Alan Plane,
Alden Road Alliance
Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 4 pm to 7 pm
Location: County Courthouse Annex Building
667 Ware Road, Woodstock, IL 60098
Meeting Date and Time: Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 9 am to Noon
Location: MCDOT Office
16111 Nelson Road, Woodstock, IL 60098
(in unincorporated Hartland, IL)
Associated links:
MCDOT’s Alden Road micro site
Alden Road Public Hearing Notice
It’s been awhile since this site was last updated! Since last August’s County Board meeting when MCDOT pledged to “go back to their toolbox” on the proposed rebuild of Alden Road, things have been relatively uneventful. We received notification from Hampton, Lenzini and Renwick (HLR) that additional surveying was being conducted around early November. We’ve been monitoring things behind the scenes, and with Spring approaching we are ready to jump back into action.
Alden Road Alliance is pleased to announce that Alden Road is included in the Landmarks Illinois 8th annual Chicagoland Watch List for historic places. The list was announced Wednesday, September 16, and includes several other area historic sites also considered endangered.
Landmarks Illinois is a Chicago-based preservation advocacy group. Founded in 1971, they are the largest such group in the state of Illinois. The group makes it a priority to advocate for those places listed on the watch list throughout the coming year. For further information and to read the stories, please visit the following pages on the Landmarks Illinois site:
Homepage feature story:
www.landmarks.org
Chicagoland Watch List page with map:
www.landmarks.org/chicago_watch.htm
Historic Alden Road feature page:
www.landmarks.org/2009_7.htm