One Voice is a trip that the Bloomington Normal Economic Development Council (BNEDC) takes to Washington D.C. annually. This years trip is today, February 28, 2023. Cities 92.9 spoke with BNEDC CEO Patrick Hoban.
Hoban told us, “It’s a way where we identify about three projects every year within McLean County and then we go to D. C., speak to the elected officials, then also different agencies to find out if there are any programs that might match our projects so we can bring those allocated dollars back home.”
Hoban said, “The projects are selected as open enrollment. People can submit the projects to our website. From there we have a development committee underneath the EDC board that ranks all the projects, makes the recommendations to the board for final approval and we select the top three.”
This years three projects are;
- Airport Road Extension, submitted by Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA), $5 Million,
- North Service Area Sewage Extension, submitted by Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District (BNWRD), $5 Million and
- Uptown Normal Storm Water Improvements, submitted by the Town of Normal, $4 Million.
Airport Road Extension
The Airport Road Extension project would extend Airport Road south of IL Rt. 9 (E. Empire St.) to the Fed Ex facility to allow that traffic to utilize the new facility and not be mixed in with CIRA Dr. traffic serving the airport’s passenger terminal.
In 2015 FedEx moved its only downstate sorting/distribution facility to CIRA becoming the airports largest employer with 75 employees. Unfortunately the truck traffic has damaged and increased maintenance required on CIRA Dr. The new facility would be designed to serve the truck traffic that is generated by the distribution center and to better withstand the heavy trucks.
It is also anticipated that the new roadway would increase the probability of the airport being able to attract more air cargo business operations and increase development.
The roadway would be about 1/2 mile long and is expected to cost $5 million to construct.
One Voice will meet with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in D. C. to explore funding possibilities for this project.
North Service Area Sewage Extension
The North Service Area Sewage Extension would serve the area bounded by E 2000 N Rd. on the north, I-55 on the east and south, and N 1300 E Rd. on the west.
This area encompasses a land area of 8800 acres, 1300 acres of which is currently developed. Those developments include Brandt and Nussbaum. Besides providing sewer services to those two developments, the combination of easy Interstate access and sewers is expected to accelerate the speed of development of the remaining 7500 undeveloped acres.
Because drainage in this area flows away from the BNWRD system to the north and west towards Lake Evergreen, a lift (pump) station will need to be constructed north of Ziebarth Rd. east of N. 1425 E. Rd.
From the lift station a force main pipe would run south to County Rd. 1850 N., then west to N. 1300 E. Rd., and then south to a connection with the Normal Sewer System east of the I-55 and I-74 interchange. The total length of pipe would be over three miles.
BNWRD Executive Director Tim Ervin told us, “The $5 million sewer infrastructure upgrade will provide a short term benefit to existing community and business facilities, and serve as a primary conduit for long term sewer regionalization of northern McLean County.”
One Voice plans to meet with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials about possible funding sources for this project.
Uptown Storm Water Improvements
Normal is looking for $4 million in assistance to help construct additional storm sewers in flood prone areas in uptown. Particularly the town is looking to make improvements along Beaufort St. Specifically they would like to address issues at its intersections with Broadway and S. Fell Ave.
Normal would like to decrease the possibility of basements flooding at The Hyatt Place, the Bloomington-Normal Marriott and Illinois State University’s Watterson Towers.
The project would construct additional storm sewer outlets draining to Sugar Creek. 250 feet of 54″ diameter pipe would be installed on Beaufort St. from S. Fell St. to Boulevard. Then about a half mile of 60″ diameter pipe would be installed on Boulevard running south to the creek.
Community Support
The entire government community supports these projects.
Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason told us the, “City of Bloomington will always support One Voice projects. As the largest entity in the region our presence in D. C. makes a difference. While the City of Bloomington does not have a specific project, we feel the CIRA project is ours for the One Voice trip.”
And McLean County Administrator Cassy Taylor said, “McLean County is in support of our partner municipalities and our water reclamation district and we believe that these projects that are being presented through One Voice will help build a better McLean County.”
