The City of Bloomington is getting close to the end of cleanup from the tornadoes that swept through the Twin Cities on April 17.
City Manager Jeff Jurgens said city crews have hauled away 442 truckloads of debris. Jurgens said that works out to more than 3,000 cubic yards, which is less than the Town of Normal picked up.
“If we have an ice storm, we actually probably have more debris that we're picking up," said Jurgens. "But keep in mind, an ice storm is going to be, potentially, citywide. What we are working on with this storm is some very smaller neighborhoods, but they were heavily impacted. We were very fortunate that most of the damage is with trees.”
Jurgens said a few structures did sustain major damage, but a lot of that related to trees falling over.
“We have been fortunate with this and are continuing to just focus on those neighborhoods that had the most damage,” he said.
Some of the debris will be mulched and used by the city parks division. A private hauler will dispose of the rest.
Jurgens continued to urge people to self-report damage to become eligible for a state disaster declaration.
“Our hope would be that we could get perhaps some SBA loan assistance that either the businesses or the residents could take advantage of. That comes with low interest rates and then also sometimes less of a credit check on those loans,” he said.
Road and sidewalks
Recently, the city council approved about $16 million in street program and infrastructure spending for the year that includes streets, sidewalks, storm and sanitary sewers.
"Last year, we spent about $3.8 million on resurfacing. This year, we're spending $5.8 million,” said Jurgens. “We're going to be addressing more lane miles as well…That's in addition to the other pavement work that we do throughout the city.”
Jurgens said for the second year in a row, Bloomington also is letting a separate contract for sidewalks. Last year’s spending was a touch more than $3 million and took care of some 330 sidewalk complaints.
“That contract has gone extremely well. They're down to just about 10 that they have left to finish, and so we're really excited about that. This year, we have fewer complaints that we're trying to address, about 135,” said Jurgens.
The city will spend about $1.7 million on sidewalks this year.
“When I took over as city manager, I remember getting some questions on infrastructure and responding. I really wanted to look at how we change and address some of our infrastructure and sidewalks,” said Jurgens. “We might not ever fully catch up, but we are going to be in a significantly better place with our sidewalks."
The state of Illinois is advancing work on Route 150 and Route 9. He acknowledged those, plus the increased city resurfacing and a major project on Fox Creek Road, will result in lane closures and detours most of the remaining spring and summer.
“Anywhere on Route 9, there's going to be a lot of work. Right now that's going on in front of the mall. That work will continue. As you get further down in front of Bloomington High School [on] Empire Street, it’s just really in awful condition. It's so exciting to see road work start to get done there,” said Jurgens.
The city will start work as soon as May 11 on Eastland Drive and St. Joseph Drive.
He said the city will try to help residents stay current on traffic inconveniences with web and Facebook posts, adding last year’s public response to work on GE Road leads him to believe public patience will pay off.
“That was a huge issue for a lot of the community with just how awful that road was. I think people are excited we're actually starting to see a difference on some of our roadways,” said Jurgens.
