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Stephenson County board adopts draft Safe Streets for All plan to pursue federal safety funds
Summary
The county board approved a resolution adopting a draft safety action plan prepared under the FHWA Safe Streets for All (SS4A) program and authorized public review ahead of an expected federal notice of funding opportunity in March.
Stephenson County Board members on Monday approved a resolution adopting a draft “Safe Streets for All” safety action plan and opened the plan for public review as the county prepares to pursue federal implementation funding.
The plan, prepared through a regional consultant team led by Kaskaskia Engineering Group with Iteris support, identifies locations and countermeasures aimed at reducing roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Board members were told the plan will be released for public comment and that a federal notice of funding opportunity is expected in March, at which point the county may apply for implementation grants.
County Board member Bridal Brandt introduced the resolution and invited the county engineer and consultants to present the draft. A consultant identified only as Adam (Iteris) summarized the approach: “It’s really 2 steps. 1 is doing an action plan to identify where the safety issues exist in the county. And then the second step is … to go after the implementation funds to implement anything from infrastructure improvements to programmatic opportunities to enforcement opportunities,” he said. The presentation said the draft plan used about ten years of crash data and stakeholder input collected through mailers, workshops, outreach events and an interactive online map.
Consultants said the plan uses FHWA’s Safe Systems approach, prioritizing crashes that result in fatalities or incapacitating injuries and focusing on vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Adam told the board the regional data shows roadway fatalities increased 17% nationally and 32% in Illinois between 2019 and 2021; the six-county northwest Illinois region used in the grant work showed an increase of about 7.1% over the same period.
The draft lists target sites and countermeasures drawn from FHWA research, including infrastructure and programmatic options, and flags projects by road owner (state, county or local). The consultant said the plan will next be posted for public review, followed by a virtual public meeting in March and finalization so Stevenson County can pursue implementation grant opportunities when the federal notice appears.
Board members asked procedural questions about data sources and regional coverage; the consultant said crash statistics were taken from reported police crash records and that the six counties participated together to qualify for the planning grant. The board approved the resolution by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the meeting minutes.
The board’s action allows county staff to publish the draft for comment and to pursue federal SS4A implementation funding once the notice of funding opportunity is released.
The county’s adoption of the draft plan does not itself commit the county to construction projects or to any required local match for implementation grants; board members were told match and application details will be set once the federal funding notice is published.
