Calling 48th and State ‘a county road project’, city says fix it first and then we’ll talk

QUINCY – After months of debate by the public and waffling by some aldermen, the Quincy City Council came together Monday night to dump the issue of improvements to the intersection of 48th and State back into the lap of the Adams County Board.

After all, Mayor Mike Troup said it was their road.

“I’ve spoken to all of the aldermen over this past week and they have gotten really tired that the city is being blamed for their county road project,” Troup said. “We agree that 48th and State does need some improvement. The public is definitely divided if it should be improved with a roundabout or a four-way widened intersection and we just say ‘you got to go back to the county.’

“They own the road. They need to come up with specific recommendation as to what they want to do, but they’ve owned the road from the very beginning. They need to pay for it.”

After having to hear from multiple speakers on the subject at council meetings over the past few weeks, Troup said it was the county’s turn.

“The public can also go talk to the County Board as to what they think should happen for the improvement,” he said. “We’re not walking away that we don’t believe that the intersection is fine as is. We agree we believe it needs to be improved. A roundabout is something that our aldermen are comfortable in making that call.”

Also at Monday’s meeting, aldermen voted down amending the 1973 jurisdictional agreement between the city and county regarding the transfer of maintenance responsibilities at the intersection. Troup said the city would consider accepting the intersection once the repairs were made.

“Yes, once the county makes an acceptable infrastructure improvement in that intersection, the city would accept the jurisdictional trade,” Troup said.

The City Council voted 9-5 in April not to partner with the county to share the costs for the $5,2 million roundabout, which led to the County Board to vote to turn the intersection over to the city and begin the transfer process. But city and county officials met to try and broker a deal that included multiple options:

• Construct the roundabout with shared costs and a $650,000 transfer from the county to the city
• Modify the jurisdictional transfer and a partial payment
• Follow the original jurisdictional transfer created in 1973 
• Follow the original jurisdictional transfer with an optional $650,000 payment from the county to the city

Adams County Board Chairman Kent Snider had made his preference to build the roundabout known and a tentative agreement had been reached with the county paying $3.25 million and the city paying $1.95 million. However, the Finance Committee voted Sept. 30 to send a resolution to the full City Council that called for the city to assume the State Street portion of the agreement, but it would only assume South 48^th from Broadway to 300 feet south of State.

A motion made during the Oct. 15 City Council meeting called to amend the Finance Committee’s recommendation, instead calling for the city to partner with Adams County to build the roundabout. Aldermen voted 8-6 to amend the recommendation, and then the Quincy City Council voted 8-6 to share costs with the Adams County Board on the construction of a roundabout at 48^th and State.

But following public pressure and anti-roundabout sentiment, Alderman Jeff Bergman (R-2nd Ward) asked to reconsider the resolution on Oct. 21. Then, after two weeks to parse the issue again, the City Council withdrew its support.

So now the issue apparently goes back to the County Board, although the county believes under the 1973 agreement it is now the city’s problem and potential litigation had been discussed among county officials.

Snider could not be reached for comment following Monday’s meeting.

In other action, aldermen approved a three-year contract with Firefighters Local 63. The deal calls for raises of 4.75, 4.5 and 4 percent over those three years with gradual increases in health insurance over that same period.