Letter to the Editor in Todays Daily Herald

NOTE: This appeared in the letters to the editor in todays Daily Herald. I would love to hear some feedback on the comments section. More then likely I will respond with a counter letter refuting some of the obvious inaccuracies.

Act now to block Route 53, again

Recent events should raise the fears of concerned Lake County residents that recent efforts to “improve” Route 120 have been a ruse to revive the moribund Route 53 extension.

The current plan for Route 120 is essentially the east-west segment of that failed effort. The Route 53 plan failed because it did not address the transportation patterns of the impacted areas of our county very well, and was outrageously expensive.

For decades, the battle over Route 53 has sapped the money and efforts that could have been used to progressively improve the key arterial roads in our county. That is what transportation experts have repeatedly concluded needs to be improved to handle the current and expected traffic flows. Put simply, wasted efforts to force Route 53 through Lake County are why the county’s roads are in the mess they are in now.

At the Sept. 20 transportation summit, your elected officials got the opportunity to “vote” to put Route 53 back on the county’s transportation agenda. This year’s “vote” had the same odor as last year’s rigged vote. The 2005 summit organizers put Route 120 as the lone project in one of five categories, allowing the proponents of a six lane superhighway to make the claim that there was “consensus” that the project should be funded.

Several concerned Lake County residents have been keeping tabs on the Corridor Planning Council as they clumsily disregarded Illinois’ Open Meetings Act requirements such as announcing meeting subjects and locations in advance. CPC leader Bill Gentes even announced that the recent $2 million grant obtained through the efforts of Rep. Melissa Bean would be used to fund Stage 1 Engineering for his pet plan. But doesn’t this skip the legally mandated Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement?

They may seem inconvenient when you are convinced that your plan is the only desirable one, or perhaps when you think nobody is watching.

Or maybe they would highlight the fact that a boulevard alternative proposed by leading planners would handle expected the traffic flow at a lower cost, and without destroying some environmental treasures, and creating a concrete barricade across affected neighborhoods.

Now their true plan is out of the closet. The people who want a plan that will genuinely benefit the area’s current and future residents will now have to swing into damage control.

The momentum that had been started is in danger of grinding into the gridlock of the false choice of Route 53 or nothing.

Contact your municipal, township, county, and state representatives now and tell them that we are tired of this stalemate. Tell them to take 53 off the table now, before the damage multiplies. Your legislators may be red-faced as they realize they were duped, or worse, that their scam has been exposed. But better that they are embarrassed than us all having to endure another 15 or more years of stagnant investment into our transportation infrastructure.

Ted Lazakis
Long Grove