In these seven villages the plow on the street in front of the house may be village, township road district, Cook County, Lake County, McHenry County, IDOT — or nobody at all. The villages publish most of the answer; here it is in one place.
Ordinances are summarized from each village’s published code and pages, with the section cited. A summary is not the code; confirm any rule with the village before relying on it. Work arranged through this site is done by an independent operator, not by this site.
Barrington’s two pages disagree about Ela Road — one lists it as IDOT, the other splits it between the counties at Lake-Cook. This page follows the road-information page. The Barrington Hills mileages and road names are from the village’s published road jurisdiction list.
The Village of Barrington Hills keeps a road jurisdiction list and says on its website that “road maintenance in the Village is managed by four jurisdictions: State, County, Village and Private.” The 39.0 miles it plows include Aberdeen Drive, Barrington Hills Road, Braeburn, Buckley, Chapel, Church, Cuba Road, Dundee Lane, Haeger’s Bend, Hawley Woods, Helm, Merri-Oaks, Oak Knoll, Old Hart, Plum Tree, Ridge, River Road, Spring Creek, Steeplechase, Three Lakes Road and some thirty-five more. The 24.5 private miles begin with Abbey Woods Lane, Acorn Lane, Ashbury Lane and Bateman Circle and run to more than sixty names.
The village contract sets the standard for the area: under the 2021 agreement, “snowplowing and/or salting shall commence within two (2) hours and without notification when there is a minimum of one (1) inch of accumulated snowfall,” and “all plowing will be completed within 8 hours of the end of the snowfall; in addition, plowing is expected to be completed by 7:00 a.m. on any weekday.” Private roads are outside it, though the village has said its contractor will extend village pricing to private-road owners who ask. For a hazard, the village directs residents to IDOT at 847-705-4000, Cook County DOT at 847-397-4145, the village at 847-551-3000, or Quadcom dispatch at 847-428-8784 for a dangerous condition. Barrington Hills.
Plows “over 170 miles of township and village roads,” including Lake Barrington, South Barrington and Tower Lakes under agreement. “A typical route takes up to 4 hours.” Parking on the street “may result in those areas not being plowed.” Pushing driveway snow into the right-of-way is prohibited. Cul-de-sacs are limited by the 35-foot length of a plow truck. Liquid pre-treatment; stay 50 feet back. Service requests through cubaroads.org; 847-381-7793.
Plows Deer Park and parts of North Barrington under agreements, plus Echo Lake, Forest Lake, Long Meadows Farm and other unincorporated subdivisions. “Plowing generally begins when snow is more than one-inch deep and freezing temperatures indicate that the snow will not melt.” Cul-de-sacs take 20 to 30 minutes each. “There is no practical way for the snow plow operator to cut off the wind row of snow when crossing a driveway.” (847) 438-2371.
Lake County DOT runs 26 plow routes over nearly 840 lane miles and says plainly: “We do NOT plow state routes.” Its roads carry five-sided blue-and-gold route markers. In this area that means Kelsey, Miller, Roberts, Timber Lake, Ela north of Lake-Cook, Long Grove, Quentin and Cuba. 847-377-7400. Cook County has Bateman, Brinker, Donlea, Old Sutton, Otis, Palatine, Penny, Bartlett, Mundhank, Ela south of Lake-Cook, and Quentin, Roselle and Euclid on the Inverness side; its District 1 yard is in Schaumburg. McHenry County takes County Line Road west of the power lines and Elgin Road north of IL 62, and tells residents: “If you contract to have your driveway cleared, please inform the contractor that they cannot deposit snow on the roadway.” IDOT District 1, 847-705-4000, has every numbered route — US 14, IL 59, IL 68, IL 22, IL 62, US 12, IL 25, IL 72 — and Lake-Cook Road through Barrington and Barrington Hills.
Lake and McHenry counties both run living-snow-fence programs, paying farmers to leave rows of corn standing along county roads “that have a history of blowing and drifting snow.” In five-acre country with open fields, that is the reason a county road can be drifted shut an hour after it was plowed.
In Barrington Hills, look at the village’s road jurisdiction list. In Barrington, the village’s road-information page names the state and county roads and the rest is village. In Deer Park, the Transportation page names the IDOT and Lake County roads and Ela Township plows the rest. In Lake Barrington, South Barrington and Tower Lakes, the village pages name the county and state roads and Cuba Township plows the rest. In North Barrington, the winter notice names IL 59, IL 22, Miller and Timber Lake as not the village’s. If a road is in none of those lists and no public truck has ever turned onto it, it is private, and the plow is a private contract. Private roads and HOA streets.
Knowing the rule and having the time at 5 a.m. to meet it are different things. Describe the property and get a season price from an operator who already works in that village.
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