Will County Gazette

Plainfield's annual budget for the upcoming fiscal year will be about $15 million more than the previous fiscal year, due largely to capital projects that are already in the works.

Village trustees spoke at length about the $96.2 million budget during the April 3 board meeting. 

"Ms. Traci Pleckham, I know I thanked you last time as Village Administrator Blakemore has now, you and your team do an excellent job of having a very responsible budget," Plainfield Mayor John Argoudelis said. "You’ve kept us in the black and you’ve made sure we have rainy day funds. This village is in a strong financial position due to a great part due to your hard work and your staff’s hard work. It’s a very responsible budget. We talk about a lot of terms around here, but I think fiscal responsibility is what our residents expect of us, and you guide us so well in that regard."

The plan to renovate 143rd Street is one of the village's biggest projects. Since October of last year, the village has hosted more than 10 workshops and meetings to create and portion out the upcoming budget, which also includes adding about 10.5 jobs to the village workforce. Trustees were eager to approve the budget, which they saw as responsible and evidence of the city’s growth.

A representative from Public Works talked about the 143rd extensions, the west side of which will be done in about a year, with the east portion being completed in about two years. Those two projects will increase traffic to the intersection in question, a few thousand additional vehicles each day. Staff wants to be proactive with this new influx of traffic and plan for a major project in roughly three years since federal timelines take about that long. 

Trustees were told if they started this in Phase 1 now with budgeting, the intersection would experience one full year of increased congestion before any construction. The project would not only include traffic light improvements, but also improve capacity by establishing additional left turn lanes, passing lanes, crosswalks, plus a complete redesign of the intersection to better handle new traffic. Without the improvement, Engineer Dan Shug predicts it would be less safe with motorists rerouting themselves onto the smaller city streets to avoid the area. 

Trustees amended the budget to have the line for the 143rd project under the stipulation that the board has to have another vote to spend the money when they choose a contract in the future. The final approval of the budget failed for lack of a super majority so they will vote again at a future meeting.