INTEGRATION

May 2010: Task force members recently met with Village Manager Reid Ottesen, Asst Village Manager Sam Trakas, and Dir of Community Services (and task force member) Harry Spila to discuss the $8,000 federal grant earmarked for development of the Comprehensive Bike Plan. Harry will be preparing a Request for Proposal for development of the plan. Active Transportation Alliance, the League of Illinois Bicyclists, and Palatine’s Seton Engineering will be invited to propose. Seton’s Tom McCabe joined us for a portion of our meeting to learn more about our preferences for the bike plan.

Task force representatives also raised the issue of potentially pursuing grants on the village’s behalf for bike-related improvements at the meeting. Most of these grant applications must be filed by municipalities. The village indicated that it is potentially fine with us doing this, provided the village is given adequate time and information to consider each opportunity.

April 2010: We discussed a number of the bike-related events and tasks that we’ve been working on over the past month. Though initially on our agenda for this month, Nathan Roseberry, engineer for the Village of Hoffman Estates and author of most of their draft bike plan, wasn’t able to make our meeting. Task force members have been meeting with Nate regarding interconnectivity opportunities between our two villages as well as Inverness.

March 2010: Task force members recently attended an excellent seminar put on by League of Illinois Bicyclists on the subject of Bicycle Planning. We discussed the seminar as it pertains to (lack of) bicycle improvements in Palatine during the past year. We acknowledged that we have not been specific in our requests of the Village of Palatine regarding our desired bike facilities. Another important thought was that the village annually allocate a specific (even if modest) sum of money toward construction of bicycle facilities to get some progress underway. Recognizing the village’s budget constraints, we discussed some of the alternative pavement markings that were mentioned by LIB as allowed by DOT. These include “sharrows” which are painted near the curbline (without need for striping) to indicate to drivers that “bikes belong” on this road. Since the village has its own striping equipment and crews, this alternative might be a cost-effective way to mark pavement. We also talked about sending a survey to the Village councilmen in order to gauge their level of support for our concerns.

February 2010: According to the Village of Palatine, they submitted an updated Energy Plan to the DOE in December. Funding for development of our comprehensive bike plan is a $8000 line-item in this plan. The Village has no estimate at this time regarding when it will received federal funding for this grant but has continued to provide requested updates to DOE in its review of Palatine’s application.

Winter 2009: Lastly, we discussed the possibility of appearing before the Village Board at an upcoming meeting to present a summary of our many accomplishments this past year, including acknowledging the support the Village has lent us in GIS mapping and development of public service announcements. This would probably be in March.

Summer 2009: The Village of Palatine submitted its federal energy block grant application which included a request for $8000 for development of a comprehensive bike plan. The village would be retaining the services of LIB, ActiveTrans or other consultant to develop the plan, with considerable input and assistance our task force.

June 2010: Four $5000 Model Communities mini-grants are being made available by the Cook County Dept of Public Health. Of importance, community groups are eligible to apply. The task force intends to pursue this grant; our application is due May 3rd. As such, we need to quickly determine our plan for use of the funds to support the application process. Great progress has been made in developing the by-laws required for pursuit of 501(c)(3)non-profit status. This will allow us to incorporate, secure event-related insurance, and open a bank account.

May 2010: The proposed Mayor’s Ride was also discussed at this same meeting. The village representatives suggested that the ride not be open to the community; instead, task force members would ride with the mayor, council members, village public works, engineering, and planning staff, and Palatine Park District representatives along a 5-mile route. The proposed 5-mile route would proceed from the train station, north on Smith Street to Cunningham, east to Rohlwing, south to Lincoln, and west back to the train station area. This route was selected to showcase roads that lend themselves to on-road striping/signage. The village is supposed to survey its staff and get back to us with a couple of potential dates for the ride.

April 2010: Following up on March's discussion regarding the lack of additional bicycle improvements in Palatine during the past year, we circulated a draft of a council member survey that had been done by another village. The intent of the survey is to gauge support of Palatine’s individual council members and to educate them on the importance of bike issues. We also touched on the importance that the village annually allocate a specific sum of money toward construction of bicycle facilities to get some progress underway. We will finalize a survey and e-mail to Palatine’s council members soon. We also touched briefly on US DOT Ray LaHood’s recent press release that establishes new federal policy for bike/ped accommodation including federal funding. Check it out at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/policy_accom.htm

The Village of Palatine’s DOE Energy Plan has been approved. This includes the $8000 line-item for development of our comprehensive bike plan! We are now working to understand “next steps” in retaining a consultant to develop the plan. If you haven’t already marked up your Palatine bike map with routes you’d like to see treated preferentially for bikes, you can pick them up and drop them off at Mikes Bike Shop. These will be used in assigning priority for purposes of the bike plan.

Previous News: Members of the task force recently met with Mayor Jim Schwantz and Village Manager Reid Ottesen, with support from our own Harry Spila to discuss pursuit of “bike-friendly” status, among other topics. Reid indicated the Village’s willingness to lend its videography support to develop some Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on a variety of topics. They even mentioned possible “voice-over” services by Palatine residents with recognizable radio or TV voices. These PSAs could air on Palatine’s Ch. 6. In addition to obvious topics, such as proper helmet and bike fitting, other ideas could include selecting a bike to suit your desires (road bike vs. cruiser vs. mountain bike, etc), promoting Safe Routes to School, safe road riding practices, biking to Harper College, how to teach a child to ride a two-wheeler, bike-to-errands, bike commuting, and many others. Area high schools and Harper both have film production clubs that may be interested in development of PSAs to suit their demographics. These could be used at bike shops, PTA meetings, at our event booths, etc. If you’re interested in participating in a task force subcommittee related to development of some PSAs, please let us know! These could be a lot of fun to make and may give you your shot at 15 minutes of fame!

Palatine Park District is planning construction of a trail extension from Kirchoff, north along Plum Grove, to Bryant Avenue, one block north of Euclid.

April-June 2010: No new information is available regarding the status of Quentin Road improvements. However, stakeholder work groups were conducted on Saturday, April 10 from 10 am to 3 pm at the Palatine Senior Citizen Center, 505 S. Quentin Rd. These were facilitated by professional moderators and hosted by members associated with http://buildquentinright.com. One of the work groups is specifically for “bike path and sidewalk.” Check out their website if you’d like to get involved.

March 2010:  Cook County Highway Department held an Open House on Tuesday, December 8 at Mckray Memorial Golf Club from 5-7 p.m.  Visitors were invited to view a 15 minute audio/visual presentation of the proposed 4/5 lane road rebuild, then proceed to the another room where many displays were available for viewing, including an artist rendering of the entire project scope.  Visit WWW.BUILDQUENTIN.COM to see the displays and download PDF files for viewing full size.  Comments were taken by CCHD until December 22, 2009 to be entered into the permanent record for this Phase I of the project.  Although there has been much contraversy on the number of lanes, the good news is that all interested seem to agree on the importance of a bike underpass at the entrance to Deer Grove. Additional bike accommodation either along Quentin Road’s east side or through Deer Grove West continue to be considered.

Supporters of a 2/3 lane road with sidewalk/path accomodations hosted a stakeholder forum on April 10, 2010 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Many interested people attended and were able to give input into what is needed for this one-mile stretch of road. Visit WWW.BUILDQUENTINRIGHT.COM for more information. The website has recently been relaunched.

Fall 2009: We discussed possible strategies to encourage the Cook County Hwy Dept to move forward on the Quentin Road widening project. The bike underpass at the entrance to the Deer Grove is, of course, part of this project.  Suggestions being considered include development of a website specific to the widening that includes an on-line petition or similar to gather signatures of folks who would like to see this get built. Then signs could be placed along Quentin noting the website address for commuters to spot. It gives them something to read while working their way through this bottleneck. A public meeting is supposed to occur later this year.

This project includes the very important bicycle underpass connecting Deer Grove West and East. A public meeting is supposed to occur later this year, possibly in November. We’ll keep you posted as to status and opportunities to apply pressure to the various governmental agencies (primarily Cook County) tasked with this project.

Ela Road resurfacing is now complete from Central Road to Lake-Cook. This road is now much more bike-friendly than ever before. Penny Road resurfacing may be delayed until the 2010 construction season. Colfax resurfacing is still scheduled for the current construction season.

Colfax has recently been resurfaced between Quentin and Northwest Hwy, and is vastly improved for riding and access to Inverness roads.