By ADAM SACASA

Eagle Staff Writer

Nearly 200 people attended Thursday’s public hearing on the Highway 336 project at VFW Post 1921. Some were just curious while others had larger concerns. 

The hearing, which was the third and last on the subject, gave residents in and around the area an opportunity to provide feedback for engineers to design the best possible route.

Bob Anstine, a former mayor of Macomb, described the hearing as informal. “It’s not where you got a head table and people asking questions. That way, it takes forever and they’ve got a lot of staff here to answer questions. Plus the city and county and everybody else is here.”

The purpose, according to Illinois Department of Transportation Studies and Plans Engineer Tom Lacy, was to present residents with the preferred alignment for Illinois 336 project from Macomb to Peoria and get input from the public. 

“We will look at that, evaluate that, make further refinements in the alignment and then proceed to a final environmental impact statement,” Lacy said. He adds that the highway will provide a safer, more efficient means of travel between the cities.

The public hearings for the project started in 2004 and continued in 2007. “The 2007 meeting covered what we proposed as a preferred alignment, which is very similar to what we see tonight on the boards,” Lacy said. Since that 2007 meeting, around 30 changes in the alignment have been made based on public comments.

Lacy describes the feedback from the hearings as “very good.”

“We don’t live out in this area so it’s nice to get that comment from the public on what different areas or what impacts there are that we can make some adjustments to try to lessen those impacts overall.”

According to Lacy, a little over 20 people will be displaced by the project. “It’s one of the things we’ve gotten from the public hearing and the previous meetings is public input and trying to tweak the alignment to try and avoid the residential impacts if possible.”

Elise Henderson, who lives south of Bardolph with a Macomb address, is one of the people being displaced. With the current plans, the highway would go through her house, one that’s been in her husband’s family since 1944. “Naturally, I don’t want to lose my home,” Henderson said. “I think people should think about the fact that we have overpopulation. We need every bit of good agriculture land that we can keep instead of concreting it over with roads, parking lots and housing developments.

Rather than build a new highway, Henderson wants a stronger focus on the existing roads. “We used to live in the Peoria area and there’s about four different ways to go and we don’t get into traffic till you get close to Peoria in my experience.”

As an elderly woman, she hopes that she’ll have passed by the time construction gets started but still has a lot to lose. “I wanted my children to inherit and have the benefit of the land and possibly the house.”

John Nolan, Marietta, is opposed to the highway too. “What about Peoria, Galesburg and here? It’s not going to bring jobs in. Come fix the roads they got right now.”

With the current roads being a concern of some residents, Lacy says the roads won’t be neglected because of the project.

“We do our surveys of the roadway and we put applicable overlays on those systems so most of our money actually goes to the maintenance of the highway system but we also have to plan for the future for projects like this.”

If plans don’t work out, there is a ‘no build’ option for projects of this size. “We do maintenance for the existing system but we also look to the future and that’s what this is, a look to the future.”

Not all residents who showed up were against the highway. Bob Anstine, a former mayor of Macomb, supports the project. He hopes to eventually see the highway bring an increase in business to the region and also sees the new highway as a better way to get to the Peoria airport.

“A lot of us today, me included, go to the Peoria Airport often so I’m sure it’ll be important for that.” 

Freddie Riebling, Industry, doesn’t live in the areas with proposed construction but he does do a lot of traveling in the area. “We’re kind of curious over where things are going to go.”

 In the long run, he sees the project as a good thing, but still sees some downsides. “The bad part is taking out all this land and production and things like that.”

Aside from 336, Riebling wants to see more work done on Route 67 from Springfield to the Quad Cities. “They’ve been working on it for 40 some years. We still haven’t done it.”

When asked about Route 67, Lacy stated there was currently a phase two contract plan preparation for the 136/67 intersection east to Macomb down to Industry. “There’s also future phase two plan preparation from Industry down to Illinois 101 but there’s no construction or land acquisition funding on that section. 

Lacy hopes people can be patient to see the long-term benefits of the project. “Something like this takes quite a while to build also so it’s a long term thing. It’s something for the future.”

The total cost of the project is currently estimated at $705 to $725 million dollars.