Springtime in the Chicago land area in some cases can mean more noise from construction then the sounds of birds chirping. And although the nice weather at this time of year allows for field crews to work with little disruption, local residents would often disagree that they are not disturbed. When streets are suddenly closed or traffic begins to build, residents of a community can certainly become irritated and thus complain to the community staff. Even though it is impossible to stop these complaints completely, a community can do their best to notify the residents where and when these big construction projects will be occurring, this is exactly what the Village of Morton Grove, IL did.

With help from the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department, Morton Grove was able to create a construction location map detailing where all of the major projects were happening in town. In addition, the Village Engineer wrote a brief description detailing the scope of each project that was to be included as a legend to the map. Each description in the legend referred to a number on the map allowing a reader to gather information about any of the projects that were occurring. As an end product this map and the legend were then published in the spring newsletter and eventually mailed to all of the village residents.

Considering it is impossible to satisfy everyone all the time, you still have to make the proper efforts to at least try. In this specific case it is easy that publishing a simple map with a legend can allow the Village of Morton Grove to continue providing an important service of public announcements.