Residents in Clinton have been wondering what the hold-up is for planned residential development on Illini Drive near the Clinton schools campus.

Development of Illini Drive on the community's southwest side has been ongoing for roughly a year but since November, there's been minimal movement. Tuesday night at the Clinton City Council meeting, Neil Fenwick from the Farnsworth group indicates the rains of the spring have resulted in the moisture of the ground has resulted in problems that have held up pavement being laid.

Council members seemed to be upset the paving could have been done last November but it was not and now it is costing the City extra money to mitigate the extra moisture to allow the pavement to be laid without issues in the future. Clinton Public Works Director Steve Lobb says he is disappointed this was not done last spring but the reality is, they need to start finding solutions. 

Council members agreed to move forward with the recommendation from Farnsworth but Commissioners were adamant they let the contractor, Stark Excavating be aware of the displeasure the job was not done when at the opportune, and agreed upon time, of last fall.

To properly accept bids but to move forward on the work, City Attorney Steve Meyers recommended the Council recess the Tuesday meeting to next Tuesday night to approve the bids at that time but allow the contractors to move forward on work necessary. 

While Farnsworth stressed they could not guarantee the mitigations would be 100-percent effective, they felt it was a quality solution but also noted prime working days were being wasted.