The Hillcrest Village Board voted unanimously May 13 to waive competitive bidding for a short-term repair of the currently closed Hemstock Road bridge, which is owned by the village.

A $14,700 engineering services agreement for the work was unanimously approved as well.

Last month, the board voted to move forward with the short-term repair of the bridge, which was closed by the Illinois Department of Transportation in mid-October. In July, Ogle County inspected the bridge and found that its load rating declined sharply from a 7 to a 4.

After seeing those numbers, IDOT inspected the bridge in October and determined the steel piles that support it had deteriorated and that it should be closed. Baxter & Woodman, the village’s engineering firm, inspected the bridge on Nov. 6 and found that all eight steel piles are corroded, with two severely corroded and no longer supporting the bridge.

The short-term repair to reopen the bridge in the coming months is estimated to cost $100,000. The project will need permission from IDOT and will be a temporary fix that could last five years. Corroded parts of the two failing steel piles will be removed and then encased in concrete.

Village Engineer Kaitlin Wright of Baxter & Woodman said the project will be put into motion “immediately,” and she hopes repairs will start within a month, depending on IDOT’s review process. Alliance Contractors will be handling the work. The village was able to waive competitive bidding for the project due to it being an emergency.

The $14,700 engineering services agreement for Baxter & Woodman for the project will include field investigation, a sketch of the repair plan, coordination with Ogle County and IDOT, construction supervision, and final inspection.

“The actual repair work will take about a week,” Wright said. “They’ll remove what’s damaged, pour the concrete and wait for it to cure. And then we’ll wait for IDOT’s approval to reopen. My goal is to have this behind us by midsummer and start talking about full replacement.”

The bridge will require a long-term, full-scale replacement. The village will pursue 80% federal funding for construction, with Hillcrest paying $600,000 total for the remaining 20% of construction and all the engineering costs. The village would fund the entire project before being reimbursed. That project wouldn’t take place until 2028 or 2029 due to the federal funding system.

Trustee appointment

The board voted unanimously to appoint Keith Wittenauer as a new village trustee.

Village President Pro Tempore Dan Potter said Village Trustee Pam Pittman has stepped down from her position. The board is now made up of Potter, Wittenauer, and Trustees William Peska, James Wiley, and Patricia Garcia. One open seat remains on the seven-person board, with Potter serving as president pro tempore while retaining his trustee seat.

Code enforcement

Peska made a presentation on improving code enforcement in Hillcrest, focusing on noise, parking, property maintenance, and animals.

Peska has been combing the village’s ordinances and looking at possible courses of action to improve enforcement. Changes could include cleaning up ordinance language, strengthening consequences, allowing enforcement by any village official, and creating a database of code violations.

“I think our best course of action is clear enforcement,” Peska said. “This isn’t adding any new ordinances, it would be just changing what’s already there. We want to clean up the language so it’s easier to understand and give the village a better process. The main goal is correction, not punishment. The updates create a clear process for notice, follow-up penalties, and enforcement if the issue is not corrected.”

Peska also brought up the idea of Hillcrest creating a code enforcement officer position and hiring someone to work 20-30 hours a week. The board will revisit the code enforcement topic next month.

Sound system

The board unanimously approved a proposal Wednesday for a new sound system in the village boardroom. Potter said the current sound system had technology from the 1960s and has seen problems for “a long time.”

“We’ll have an all-new system that will be good for quite a while,” Potter said. “We hope to have it done by next month’s meeting.”