Open Caterpillar Drive to the public? It could finally happen

This column was originally published in the Record Newspapers/Oswego Kendall County local government online newsletter. To receive the free newsletter every Tuesday and Thursday in your email visit: https://www.kendallcountynow.com/newsletter/kendall-county-government/.

Kendall County and, more specifically, the Oswego-Montgomery area got some good news in February when Caterpillar Inc. announced the sale of its Oswego Township plant to Reich Brothers LLC of White Plains, NY. Under the sale terms, Caterpillar will continue to use a portion of the building while Reich Brothers, a national industrial real estate firm, seeks additional tenants for the massive plant, which opened in 1957.

Shauna Myers, a communications representative for Caterpillar, said the sale of the campus follows the company’s decision in March 2017 to move machine production to other U.S. manufacturing facilities. Although the plant will no longer house production facilities for heavy equipment, Myers said Caterpillar plans to maintain about 500 jobs at the plant in its engineering and product support divisions.

That’s all very positive news for the affected Caterpillar employees and their families and the local economy. But it may also eventually bring good news to the many people who drive in the Montgomery-Oswego area. Here’s the deal: The Caterpillar property includes Caterpillar Drive, a four-lane road now designated as a private drive.

If the Caterpillar property were annexed into Montgomery it’s possible Caterpillar Drive would lose its private drive designation and become a public street under the jurisdiction of the village or perhaps Kendall County or the Oswego Township Road District.

The opening of Caterpillar Drive to the motoring public would benefit area motorists because it would provide an instant, additional east-west link between two busy north-south highways: Route 31 and Orchard Road. This would help relieve traffic on nearby Route 30 to the north and Mill Road in Oswego to the south, and greatly improve access to Montgomery’s Orchard Road retail area.

Montgomery Village President Matt Brolley has said the opening of Caterpillar Drive to the motoring public also would benefit the industrial businesses along the north side of the road.

Brolley confirmed the village would be interested in annexing the plant site to assist Reich Brothers in its marketing efforts. In exchange for annexation, Brolley noted, the village potentially could offer municipal water service and might entertain the creation of a Tax Increment Financing district.

The prospect of Caterpillar Drive becoming a public road reminded me of a former employee and a Montgomery native who once told me she regularly would ignore the private drive signs posted on the road and use it to drive between Route 31 and Orchard Road. She told me matter-of-factly that she did it because it was a faster route for her than using Route 30 or, certainly, Mill Road in Oswego. I’m certain she was not alone, and I concede that over the years I’ve been tempted many times to do the same, but I was never brave enough to risk it. I always figured that Caterpillar security would pull me over in a second and confine me to a dungeon somewhere in the bowels of their massive plant.

But now, the door appears to have opened at least a crack to the possibility of Caterpillar Drive being opened one day to the motoring public. Count me in as one motorist who is looking forward to the day when he can drive along Caterpillar Drive unencumbered by the thought of Caterpillar security bearing down on his rearview mirror.

• John Etheredge is editor of the Record Newspapers.