Journal Reporter

George Kirkland is a traffic gadfly who simply will not go away.

From either the City of Park Ridge or the media. Like an elusive mosquito, he keeps buzzing around, pushing his agenda that the city's traffic control plan for the Uptown redevelopment is flawed and unsafe.

Kirkland is a Park Ridge-based management consultant who has made himself somewhat knowledgeable about traffic engineering. Despite repeated assurances from two reputable traffic experts and city officials, he insists that the closing of Meacham Avenue at Touhy, and the planned installation of traffic lights at Summit Avenue and Northwest Highway, and Summit and Touhy, will create bottlenecks and dangerous conditions for pedestrians at both intersections, and will back traffic up into the residential neighborhood near Meacham north of Northwest Highway.

Some residents, especially those living around Meacham in the first ward, agree with him.

Kirkland feels so strongly that he recently formed an organization called CORRECTS (Citizens Organized for Reasonable Routes Enhancing Community Traffic and Safety). The group held a meeting this week at Summit Square Retirement Home. Kirkland told the Journal Tuesday that he is contemplating legal action against the city if he cannot persuade officials to reconsider their traffic plan.

"Should the city choose to proceed (with the Uptown plan), CORRECTS will file a request for an injunction to stop it. If we need to fight, we shall also add additional documentation and proof of our point of view. I don't live near Uptown, but this is my town, and I want to see it safe."

He said his interest in city traffic matters began last year when his parked car was booted for illegal parking at the Summit Mall. "Everyone I dealt with to try and straighten that out appeared to be so insensitive," he said.

Kirkland would like to see Meacham left open, and Busse Highway straightened and extended from Touhy to Prospect near the downtown Metra station. He believes this would remove a lot of traffic from Touhy and Summit.

Kirkland even went so far as to claim this week to the Journal that the city had violated its contract with PRC Partners, the Uptown redevelopment organization, regarding the approval of the traffic lights by the Illinois Department of Transportation. He said the matter was not resolved in a 60-day period that he claims ended earlier this month. He said the city should "use" the "contract-breaking situation" as a window of opportunity to revisit the traffic plan.

City Mgr. Tim Schuenke denied all of Kirkland's assertions, and said again that Kirkland is simply using questionable tactics to push his own traffic agenda. "There is no 60-day clause anywhere in any agreement regarding the traffic lights," Schuenke said. "All of our approvals and agreements with PRC Partners and IDOT are in full effect and valid. We are moving forward. We have gone over the traffic plan again and again, and our experts assure us it is a good one."

Ald. Howard Frimark, a candidate for mayor in the Apr. 5 election, attended Kirkland's meeting Tuesday. Frimark neither disagreed nor agreed with Kirkland's opinion in a talk with the Journal, but he said. "George is a man with an issue. He deserves to be heard. I went to the meeting to listen. I believe we should keep our options open on the Uptown traffic situation, and tweak it if necessary."

PRC is poised to break ground on phase I of its $122 million mixed-use development early this spring, but no firm date has been set for the start of construction.