Five Reasons to Attend Tonight's Committee of the Whole Meeting

Your Village Board Committee of the Whole hasn’t met in about a month. So when they convene tonight at 7 p.m., they’ll have a lot to talk about. Here are five highlights from the agenda:

1. Route 30 widening project. This 20-years-in-the-making project may begin construction as early as next spring, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation, and will widen a 3.4-mile stretch of road, from Route 31 to Goodwin Drive, just west of Route 34. But first, the village and IDOT need to come to a few cost-sharing agreements. Read more .

2. Montgomery Road issues. According to Village Engineer Peter Wallers, the Kane County Department of Transportation plans to resurface Montgomery Road in 2012. But that won’t solve the drainage issues along the road, according to Wallers, and a full widening and reconstruction could take 10 years to plan, design and execute. Wallers said village staff is ready to work with KDOT on this, if that’s what the board wants.

Additionally, according to Wallers, KDOT is hoping to turn the road over to the village of Montgomery after the reconstruction.

3. Public participation at village meetings. As it currently stands, if you want to speak at a Village Board meeting, you must sign up a week in advance, and provide the topic you wish to discuss. At the urging of Trustee Stan Bond, the board will consider ideas to change that, including offering a two-minute opportunity to speak to anyone who attends a board meeting, and a 15-minute “social interaction” period, either before, after or during the meetings.

4. Combining committee meetings. There are three Village Board committees, all of which consist of all six village trustees. These committees currently meet at different times and on different days. The board will consider either a) abolishing the committees, b) combining the meetings, or c) changing the schedule.

5. Powers of the village manager. This is the big one. The board will start digging into this issue, based off of suggested changes made by three trustees, though there probably won't be a lot of discussion tonight. Read all about it .

The Committee of the Whole meets at 7 p.m. at , 200 N. River St. The meeting is open to the public.