With road repairs, sewer and drainage issues, not to mention the Fire Department space needs mounting, Park Ridge Village Board members decided to form a Strategic/Comprehensive Plan Committee.

The unanimous decision came Monday, May 16, at the end of a 3-1/2-hour meeting that included discussion primarily on those three topics, none of which were resolved.

Village Board president Kathy Budelier will send out letters to all Park Ridge residents requesting anyone interested in serving on the committee contact the village.

“It’s clear we have a lot of things coming to a head, and we need to have a committee to help us,” Budelier said. “It can’t just be the board. We need to get a group of people together to really assess the needs in the village … we need to look at sewers, streetlights, what is our five-year plan, 10-year plan, et cetera.”

The decision came after board members reviewed proposals on chip sealing, repairing roads, a recommendation from a resident on addressing drainage issues and proposals to give the board an estimate on costs to build a new Fire Department building.

The board unanimously rejected the bids for chip sealing, instead deciding to move forward to bid out road repairs, including mill and fill and cutting full sections of road out, putting in a base and rebuilding.

“When the people we have going through the village say it’d be better to spend your money elsewhere, I have to take it seriously,” Budelier said. “While there are certain surfaces that would benefit, they said it would be difficult to get good solid contact for chip sealing with the roller coaster effect of our streets.”

The village received a mill and fill proposal of about $5,400 for 11 areas in the village and another proposal for oil application for five stretches in the village at a roughly $13,200 cost. Neither were accepted at this time.

The village board also approved moving forward to obtain proposals for grading the road edges three to five feet back into residents’ yards and gathering proposals for excavating for swale creation.

Village resident Dan Holloway, who has experience in road work and drainage, surveyed the village streets south of Park Ridge Drive to assess street condition and drainage.

“In general I have to say that I was stunned by the overall poor condition of the village’s streets,” he said in his report. “The village desperately needs a street plan that looks many years into the future.”

He suggested the plan address pavement maintenance, drainage and include a recurring cycle of replacing sections of street pavement and road base.

“There are some areas, a fair number of them, where they’re (streets) on the verge of failure,” he said.

In addition to patching needs on Woodlawn, Greenbriar and Maplewood that the village identified, Holloway added 17 other spots, of which six should be top priority and addressed this year, he said.

Six areas of top priority for drainage also were listed. Holloway suggested swales be put in, as well as looking at other options.

Board members discussed extensively the Oakcrest/Sunset intersection which annually sees floodwater covering the road entirely. Former Village President Tom Gloudemans said he has been out in that location and it has been measured at more than 20 inches deep.

The intersection of Ridgewood and Fieldcrest also was listed as a top priority.