Village of Godfrey Board of Trustees
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GODFREY – Property owners near Straube Lane in Godfrey asked village trustees on Tuesday to consider widening the road to accommodate heavily increased traffic.
Longtime Straube Lane resident Marilyn Kuhn said she’s seen firsthand how traffic in the area has grown, while the road itself has not.
“I’ve been living there 46 years, and over the years, more people have moved out there. It’s getting quite busy and Straube Lane is very narrow,” Kuhn said. “When there’s a school bus or dump truck or … any kind of larger vehicle, I have to go in the grass – and if the grass is soft, it’s in mud … I’m just asking if the village would consider widening Straube Lane.”
Kuhn also voiced concerns about a derelict property in the 900 block of Straube Lane, and asked the board to look into ways to mitigate a sharp left turn on Straube Lane where there was recently an accident.
Carol Baker also spoke in support of widening Straube Lane. While not a Godfrey resident, she’s owned a farm near the narrow road since 1972 and has also noticed significantly more traffic in the area.
“My husband and I … travel Straube Lane every day; traffic has increased markedly over the last few years,” Baker said. “Many people today order things online – that means that there is a steady procession of Amazon, FedEx, and UPS trucks up and down Straube Lane.
“When I see one of these vehicles coming towards me, I pull over as far as I can – but a couple years ago, my husband lost a side mirror from a woman coming around the corner.”
Aside from the many vehicles in the area, Baker said the neighborhood also includes a bicycle club, joggers, dog-walkers, and “power-walkers,” each of which can take up considerable space on such a narrow road. Baker also echoed Kuhn’s concerns the S-curve and derelict properties, adding the village’s recent deepening of area ditches has not made sharing the road any easier.
“StraubeLane will never be a straight road ... but you could certainly eliminate a lot of the danger by taking off part of that S-curve,” she said. “Worse now is that a couple weeks ago, Godfrey sent a trencher truck down, and they deepened the ditches and widened them – so now when I try to pull over because somebody’s coming towards me, I am inches from being down in that ditch.”
Trustee Craig Lombardi asked if the village has previously looked into widening Straube Lane, agreeing with residents that space on the road is “very tight.” Village Engineer Rich Beran said that while sections of the road have been considered for improvements in the past, they’ve never considered widening the full length of the road. He offered to put together an estimate for the board’s future consideration and approval.
As for the derelict properties in the area, Mayor Mike McCormick encouraged residents to report such properties to the village’s Building & Zoning Department, who he said will look into them without disclosing who filed the report.
A full recording of the Feb. 18, 2025 Godfrey Village Board meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
