Rising pedestrian safety concerns prompt Dairy Mart and Village of Huntley to look for solutions
HUNTLEY — The safety of customers who stop by the much beloved Dairy Mart restaurant (10706 N IL-47) was once again brought into question on June 16, when a semi-truck managed to jump over the sidewalk in front of the establishment.
Pedestrian safety along Route 47 has long been a concern for individuals even as far back as 2017. During public comments at a past Village Board meeting, Huntley resident Jim Sharkey shared a story regarding a close encounter with a child who was following a rolling coin while at Dairy Mart.
Sharkey described how he was forced to quickly stop his vehicle as he feared that the child was venturing too close to Route 47. He added that the lack of safety barriers in the area was a tragedy waiting to happen.
Despite residential concerns, adding barriers is not as simple of a solution as it sounds.
Considering that Route 47 and the adjacent sidewalk are in the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) right of way, the organization has made it clear to village officials and prior Dairy Mart owners that it does not condone the construction of any barrier or guard rail along that stretch of roadway due to specific criteria not being met.
To find a workaround to the issue, the Village of Huntley began painting the words “Keep Sidewalk Clear” in big, red letters as a friendly reminder about congregating too close to traffic in that area.
Additionally, the Huntley Police Department has been tasked in the past with increasing foot patrols near Dairy Mart to remind residents of the safety issues, as well as increasing speed enforcement on that stretch of Route 47.
Despite best efforts, residents still feel that more could be done to protect Dairy Mart customers from motorists, to which it appears a much more drastic solution has been in the works with current Dairy Mart owner Bill Dunn.
At the April 27 Village Board meeting, trustees unanimously voted in favor of Dunn’s Façade Improvement Assistance Program Grant application, which also included a proposition to install a protective barrier across the Route 47 frontage of the Dairy Mart property.
According to Dunn, the proposed barrier would be in the form of concrete planters that would measure approximately 48 inches in diameter, 30 inches in height, and would weigh over 1,000 pounds each.
At that time, the specific planters had yet to be chosen, but based on preliminary estimates for eight planters, Dunn explained that the total cost of the project would be approximately $12,000.
“We did a community grant program and we ordered these giant concrete planters. They’re huge. Like they will stop a car. They will not stop a truck. Nothing will. Other than a big guard rail, nothing is ever going to stop a truck from coming up onto this property or any other property that sits on Route 47,” Dunn told My Huntley News.
He continued, “We just happen to be a small little ice cream place that gets a lot of people that stand really close to the road. So, in a nutshell, those are the measures that we have taken that we feel that we can take. They were really our only options. We can’t put anything of a permanent nature there without being subject to the possibility of the state coming and taking our building away from us.”
Dunn further added that upon speaking to village officials and upset parents on the day of the semi-truck incident, everyone came to a joint conclusion on the matter.
“If we all want to see something get done here to make it safer that we—and not even we as much as I think the residents of Huntley, need to contact or be in touch with their local officials in terms of like your state representative,” said Dunn. “We’re all willing to listen, right? We all want the same thing. The business owners, the village, the residents, everybody is concerned about this situation. So, the measures that we’ve taken we feel like are a good step forward to try to keep the kids away from [Route] 47.”
Dunn states that on busy days, he goes out to sweep the outside of the Dairy Mart property to make sure children don’t stand near the roadway.
As a final takeaway, Dunn hopes that if enough residents reach out to their local state representatives, it might encourage further action to the problem and impact some change through IDOT.
