Highway Commissioner, THOMAS W. GOOCH

It was the winter that was, wasn’t it?

Thankfully it’s over and we’re all tending gardens and lawns, playing golf and otherwise enjoying the wonderful place we call Cuba Township.  It was a tough winter for your Road District, the equipment suffered as did the staff.  In case you didn’t know, almost all salt supplies were exhausted in the Chicago land area by January 31.  From that point on we began using a mixture of sand with what salt we had left.  When the big snows came in February we used this mix and “liquid supermix” to clear roads.  After the big storm we were at bare asphalt 36 hours after the storm ended on all our roads.  Out of a 48 hour period we worked steadily for over 30 hours.  I’m justly proud of my crews here and you should be also… everyone, including me, as always, plowed snow without more then a few hours of sleep here and there. But it could have been worse, read these comments:

 

“ We recall of one lady going to the Northside School as a girl holding a hot potato in each hand in her pocket and walking on the frozen snow drifts right over fences. ..........It was not uncommon for the train due here at 7 p.m., when facing a northwest gale in sub-zero weather, and unable to keep up steam, to get stalled on Deer Grove hill. They waited, then, for Tommy Dolan, piloting the 8 o'clock, to push them over the hill into Barrington....................On January 20, 1943 it was 15 below zero with plenty of wind and drifting snow. There was twenty inches of snow in two weeks. It stayed below zero a few days; school was closed at least one day(only one day? Kids take notice!) and there was only 20% of the rural mail delivered on the 17th. Dr. Shearer had to walk the railroad track to make a call on a patient at Deer Grove. Bundled in a fur coat and fur mittens he made it there and back........

 

I guess we don’t have it so bad after all.  These comments came from “ A History of Barrington” by Arnett C. Lines.  It was written many years ago, but is available at the local library and on line at  http://www.barringtonarealibrary.org/LocalHistory.  Our Township Historian, Barbara L. Benson has also written “ They builded better then they knew” another fascinating work on the Barrington of years past.  If you’re new to the area and developing the love of community we all share here at the Township, you might want to check’em out.

 

Everything costs too much

Isn’t that the truth.  Here at the Road District so much of the material we buy is petroleum based or related that we are suffering some huge price increases without comparable revenue increases.  Asphalt prices are up almost 40% from a year ago.  The net result is that we have to cut back on the road re-paving program. There is no way we can handle it without spreading it out into next year, but every year we will keep at it as best we can.  We did develop the concept of a joint program with our intergovernmental partners, The Villages of Lake Barrington, North Barrington and Tower Lakes and jointly bid for paving this year.  Your Township Road District ,under my direction, is the lead agency and administrator of this contract. Due to its size, we have been able to reduce our unit prices as well as the soft costs in engineering and other areas which results in some good cost savings for all of us. 

 

You may have noticed some grayish white areas on the roads.  We began using a “spray patcher” this year after doing some test patches three years ago.  The test areas held up well so we bought the equipment for this year. It reduces the cost of pot hole patching by better then 50%.  It needs a crew of two instead of four and does it twice as fast as the old fashioned way.  This is state of the art technology and is saving you money every day.  In larger areas of failing roads we will be doing some paving in house in order to save money.

 

 We are utilizing a college student work force this summer as a cost saving tool as well.  They take care of the right of way mowing and work on the storm water pipe crew and paving crews.  They work hard, build muscle and are generally too exhausted to go out at night. . .  their parents appreciate that.  I really like this program as it gives back to the community.  We give preference to Cuba Township residents and then the rest of Barrington.  Every year we have a few openings due to graduating students. So if you have someone interested in a summer of hard work and reasonably decent pay...call me for next year.

 

The roads took a real beating last winter and we are doing a lot of in the road work, replacing collapsing culverts and other drainage related structures.  Sometimes I have to close an entire road while we do it.  Believe me, I try to avoid that as much as possible and I do apologize for any inconvenience.  Please Please Please slow down when you enter our work zones.