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Politics & Government

Village to Test Permeable Pavers on Grove Street

In addition to street reconstruction, village staff and council members also discussed changes to the village's fire code and entertained a special use permit request from Hertz Car Rental.

Permeable pavers are coming to Grove Street from Main to Carpenter. The village council voted Tuesday night to spend $970,000 on a reconstruction project that will help deal with stormwater runoff and replicate the brick paving the street once had. 

“Staff is very proud of this project,” Director of Nan Newlon said. Traditional pavement is virtually impervious (water can’t permeate it) and it can increase flooding while polluting streams and rivers, she said. Permeable pavers reduce water run-off because the water seeps between the paver gaps.

While the initial cost of permeable pavers is more expensive than traditional methods of road construction, overall it has a good life cycle cost, Newlon said.

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Commissioner Sean Durkin asked if permeable pavers were the wave of the future. Newlon said the village wanted to do this as a demonstration project.

Five bids were received for the project and the staff recommendation was to award the contract to V3 Construction, which was the lowest bidder with a complete submittal but wasn’t the lowest bidder overall.

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Two representatives from , a Downers Grove business, came before the council and requested that the village reconsider V3 and instead award the bid to them. They said an office employee of theirs had made a mistake with the paperwork and that’s why the village didn’t receive all the information they required in the bidding process. 

Mayor Martin Tully said the village owed it to the process and the other bidder to award the project to V3, but thanked the representatives for coming and said he looked forward to working with Swallow in the future, noting that, when possible, the village likes to stay local.

The matter passed unanimously.

On the short first read agenda were a few items related to the fire department—one resolution to establish a database for filing reports and an ordinance to amend the village’s fire code, which is currently stricter than the International Fire Code and the International Building Code as it relates to fire alarm systems in commercial buildings.

Also on the first read agenda, , located on Ogden Avenue, is requesting a special use permit to relocate their business to the shopping center at Ogden and Drendel.

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