HILLCREST — At its monthly meeting Wednesday, the Hillcrest Village Board of Trustees heard a report from Village Building Inspector Aaron Moore on recent demolition work that has been done at 201 and 203 Powers Road at the former bowling alley site after the ownership obtained another permit after their previous permit for demolition work expired.

Moore said the project recently saw some tree removal and wood chipping along with gravel and grading at the site. The owners of the property have told the board in the past that they have plans for constructing buildings with storage units that could be utilized by businesses.

"They removed the rest of the building and filled the hole up with gravel and brought some more in and now they're working on the trees," Moore said. "Their thought in the next year or so is to put new storage units there."

Hydrant

During the meeting, the board discussed a car-versus-fire hydrant accident that took place Tuesday afternoon that saw a hydrant damaged and water service being knocked out to the village for a short time before a boil order was put in place for about a day.

Village officials said Wednesday that they will make sure to take the steps to get reimbursed for the damage and expenses incurred Tuesday. 

Village Engineer Kaitlin Wright said the village followed proper protocols following the accident.

"You isolated the break, contacted your water operator, had a contractor come and put on a new hydrant, issued the boil order and did the testing," Wright said. "That met all requirements for the situation."

The damaged hydrant had to be replaced and was part of the recently-completed Priority 1A water main project.

That project had a $1.2 million total budget and replaced mains along the full length of Scott Avenue, parts of Errett Road and Erickson Road from Scott Avenue to Jeffrey Avenue, and parts of Jeffrey Avenue from Errett Road to Erickson Road. Those streets are in the southern and oldest part of the village. The project was financed with an IEPA loan that will involve 50 percent loan forgiveness. The debt service on the project will be $35,000 per year over 20 years.

Lead

Wright said during the meeting that the village has made recent progress on identifying the remaining 50 percent of water lines running into homes in the village amid ongoing state-mandated lead service line inventory work.

The village must check to see if water lines running into homes are possibly made of lead or galvanized pipe. The inventory has an April 15, 2025 submission deadline. 

A village representative has been going door-to-door and attempting to schedule visits with homes that have not reported the material their service line is made up of. Wright said that work has yielded 60-80 completed surveys.

Compliance

Village President Rick Rhoads said during the meeting that the village is looking to hire a compliance officer to enforce that village's code and ordinances including illegal parking, grass height, and inoperable vehicles.

"Their job would be to go around and make sure that village residents are doing what they are supposed to be doing as far as our ordinances and stuff," Rhoads said. "Hopefully we can get an ad out next week and get as many applications as we can."

Remodel

Moore said during the meeting that he's been asked by the new ownership of the former Masterbend building at 221 Powers Road about permits for and inspection of upcoming remodeling. Remodeling will be done on office spaces and bathrooms.

At its February meeting, the board unanimously approved a special use permit for the new owner to allow the property to be used as a wireless communication facility.  The zoning of the property did not need to be changed for the use.

The building is now owned by Amit Patel of Syndeo Networks, a technology company that provides fiber (internet) access to residences and businesses. The facility will be used for office space and truck and fiber line storage.

Syndeo Networks will be adding infrastructure to provide internet service to Hillcrest residents and businesses, similar to the infrastructure Frontier added around Hillcrest recently. 

Egg hunt

Trustee Pam Pittman said the village will be holding its annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 12.