\n\tPrussing said the project “is an opportunity we’ve worked for for many years.”<\/p>\n
\n\tHabeeb noted that planners a generation ago foresaw the need to improve Duncan, Windsor and Curtis roads on the outskirts of Champaign-Urbana.<\/p>\n
\n\t“Your job is not to think about what we need tomorrow,” he said. “Your job is to think about what we need tomorrow and the next day and five years later and 10 years later.”<\/p>\n
\n\tThe county board, which debated and listened to comments about the Olympian Drive project for almost 2\u00bd hours, could vote in March on one provision of it \u2013 an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Urbana regarding timelines, funding and other responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\n\tLocal officials say it would be 2013 at the earliest before any construction would begin.<\/p>\n
\n\tCameron Moore, director of the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, said he expects the cost of the project to hit $30 million. Last year’s state capital bill included $5 million for it. The Illinois Commerce Commission is expected to provide nearly $10 million for a bridge over the Canadian National Railroad tracks.<\/p>\n
\n\tMore than $2.5 million in federal dollars has already been appropriated. A local match of $5 million to $6 million would be required, as would $8 million to $10 million more in federal funds.<\/p>\n
\n\tEight of the 27 board members missed the meeting \u2013 Democrats Jan Anderson, Lloyd Carter, Matt Gladney, Alan Kurtz and Brendan McGinty, as well as Republicans Chris Doenitz, Brad Jones and Steve Moser.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n URBANA \u2013 Although no vote was scheduled on the issue, about a dozen local residents appeared before the Champaign County Board on Thursday night to speak on the proposed $27.5 million Olympian Drive project. Most opposed the proposal, contending it would be costly and unneeded and would take about 85 acres of good farmland out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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