Apr. 13—DANVILLE — The Danville City Council's Public Works Committee Tuesday night recommended approving the development agreement for the northwest corner of Vermilion and Fairchild streets.

The full city council will act on the agreement next week.

The agreement is with Subwars LLC for Sonic Drive-In and Jimmy John's restaurants.

City officials have worked for years to assemble land on that corner for development.

The city will donate most of the properties needed, and there will be a 50/50 cost share of the shed property north of Hardee's. The expected city cost for that property is $50,000 of the $100,000 purchase price.

Rezoning is needed for the two northern properties, and one alley vacation also is needed for the development.

Construction investment for the development is expected at $3 million to $4 million. There also are sales points to meet for sales tax dollars into the Tax Increment Financing District.

Building permits are to be sought within one year for the project. Then there is one year to get it built.

"I think they will be open way before then," Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said.

City officials expect one access point off of Vermilion Street for the site.

Other decisions must come from the Illinois Department of Transportation regarding Illinois 1/Vermilion Street.

City Engineer Sam Cole said access that goes through to Walnut Street is planned.

"We think we are set up for success," Cole said about traffic flow.

The committee also heard the city's yard waste site had a failure with its grinder, which is nine years old.

Public Works Director Carl Carpenter said it was a possible piece of iron that got in it and ruined the drum, cutters and frame of the machine and screens.

The city hauled it to Vermeer Midwest and the cost to repair it is $127,000.

Carpenter said a new grinder is estimated at $700,000.

A used one that's four years old was $450,000.

He said the city will be using the old tub grinder in the meantime.

It's costing about $10,000 to get that into good enough shape to use, with rollers, hydraulic lines and fuel tank repair.

He said the city is a week behind on yard waste processing right now.

He recommends the city repair the grinder. He will bring a resolution to the full city council next week.

Carpenter said there's money in the solid waste budget to transfer to cover the repair cost.

Ward 5 Alderman Mike Puhr asked if the grinder could have a magnet to screen metals.

Carpenter said an old iron post stuck in a tree could have had the tree wrap around it and there's no way to see it.

He added that the city spent $30,000 on the grinder during the last seven years, which equates to about $25 per operating hour.

The old tub grinder is from 2002.

The city put about $103,000 in it from 2006-2014, according to Carpenter. 2014 was when the city bought the horizontal grinder.

Carpenter also told the aldermen the city helped put up seven speed reader signs now installed in school zones.

They are on Jackson Street by North Ridge Middle School in both directions, one heading west at Danville High School, on Griffin, English and a couple other school areas.

Carpenter said if a driver is exceeding the speed limit, the miles per hour number will post on the sign in red. The number will be green if they are within the speed limit.

The Danville Police Department can patrol an area if it sees a lot of speeding during specific times.

The digital signs don't have camera capability.

They are not used for tickets but to collect data to send back to the police department.

The aldermen also learned there is a citywide neighborhood association meeting on April 29 at Harrison Park Clubhouse.

Aldermen too talked about a sidewalk conditions survey, and Vermilion County Safety Action Plan through Danville Area Transportation Study to be completed by June on safety of areas to be compliant for a certain federal grant, among other grants.

The committee Tuesday recommended approving: the city's 2023 Community Development Block Grant annual action plan; and contracts for 2023 crack sealing, overlay, cape seal, seal coat, miscellaneous concrete improvements pressure pave and Sager and Washington intersection improvements.

The FY2022-23 infrastructure development budget will be amended by increasing the pavement maintenance line item by $3.205 million and overlay program line item by $1.37 million, with reserve fund transfers.

Cole said pressure pave will be a new treatment for the city that Springfield and other cities use to help treat and seal roads.

He said the surfacing skips the gravel layer. The patented system reportedly pressure-injects a crack sealant into pavement while simultaneously applying a thin asphalt overlay.

Cole said the city should be addressing about 27 percent of streets this year in some form.

"That's a very exciting thing for me," he said.

The committee pulled from the agenda a professional services contract and subscription for city facility asset management with Brightly Software Inc. Puhr said it needed more clarification.