Cherry Valley may remove a stretch of its signature brick road

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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CHERRY VALLEY — The village may remove a few blocks of its signature brick roadway this year, but a group of residents want to work to keep the old-fashioned russet bricks in place.

Village officials plan to harvest the bricks on East State Street between Lawrence and Van Buren streets and pave that roughly three-block stretch with blacktop. That work is expected to begin after Labor Day, unless the village decides to change course.

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The bricks on that stretch date back to 1947, according to Village Administrator Jim Claeyssen, and they would be used for replacement and repair projects on other portions of the brick road a few blocks west.

“We know we’ve got some repairs coming up down by the corner of East Street and State Street,” he said. “Next year the plan was to take those bricks out and use those bricks for that.”

Some village residents are asking the Village Board to commit to keeping the bricks where they’re at.

The roadway includes the western edge of the bricks and runs east past Old School Park, which was the former site of Cherry Valley Elementary School. The school closed after the 2017-2018 school year and it was demolished about a year alter.

“They all say we should have tried harder to save the school. Well, that’s a done deal, so let’s move on,” said Pat Stegemann, a longtime village resident and member of its Planning and Zoning Commission. “Now we’re going to work double hard to save those bricks.”

Stegemann and Rachel Rawson are organizing residents to speak up against removing the bricks at tonight’s village Committee of the Whole meeting. They want the village to halt its plans to remove the bricks and give residents time to conduct their own study on how to preserve the roadway throughout town.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 806 E. State St.

The stretch being considered for brick removal is in good shape and doesn’t need to be replaced or paved, Stegemann and Rawson said. Rawson said those bricks shouldn’t be removed in order to fix areas of the street where previous replacement efforts have already been attempted.

“They should not be destroying and deconstructing roadways that are fine and have been here for many more years than their failed project,” Rawson said. “They need to have proof that the areas they’re going to deconstruct are failing, and we need to spend the money to deconstruct for some future need. … Why take out something that’s not broken to fix stuff that they don’t know how to fix?”

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Claeyssen said the village has had difficulty finding bricks that can be used for repair projects. The last time it bought bricks for a replacement project was in 2017, when the cost about $1.50 a piece. That’s expected to be higher now with the cost of inflation.

The board’s Committee of the Whole was presented with various options in February 2023 for the stretch of roadway, and it picked an option it saw as the most economical approach and one that preserves bricks in the western gateway to its downtown, Claeyssen said. The project, which was awarded to Rock Road Companies as the lowest bidder, is expected to cost about $250,000.

For residents of Cherry Valley, the bricks are a beloved part of their hometown’s charm.

Stegemann said a friend who now lives in Belvidere but grew up in Cherry Valley captured it best, saying “Once my tires hit that brick road, I feel like I’m home again,” she said. “That says a lot to me, and that’s our feeling.”

Claeyssen said there’s still time for the village to reconsider its plan with the project start more than two months away. He expects the board and its contractor will be open to alternatives.

“A lot of people in town are passionate about the bricks,” he said. “I’m positive that we’re going to work out a good solution to this.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas