Oglesby council approves $30,000 engineering agreement for Safe Routes to School amid funding questions

The Oglesby City Council voted unanimously to approve a $30,000 contracting engineering agreement for the Safe Routes to School project after a discussion about the scope of sidewalks and how construction will be funded.

Council members and staff displayed project maps and discussed where sidewalks begin and end. A commissioner asked for clarification about funding "Do you have those numbers for this? Do you have those 2 numbers?" and staff replied that the federal government would contribute $20,000 and the city’s share would be $10,000, while another speaker described the split in percentage terms during the discussion.

“We're looking for approval of the safe route to schools contracting engineering agreement for 10,000, not 30,” one staff member said during discussion about how the estimate and reimbursements would be handled. The motion to approve the $30,000 engineering agreement was made during the meeting and seconded; the council approved the measure on a roll call vote.

Chair comments during debate stressed the project’s limits and benefits: “it doesn't solve all of the problems for kids to be able to get to school, but it solves a good portion of it, where they're no longer gonna be in the street or walking in, muddy grass or anything like that.” Council members said the project addresses gaps in sidewalks that date to earlier decades and reviewed maps to show where sidewalks will be added or where existing conditions (driveways, poles, right-of-way) affect routing.

A council member asked when construction would begin but no specific timeline was provided at the meeting. The engineering agreement approved at the meeting funds design and related engineering work; further contract actions and construction scheduling were not specified.