Patch gathered questions from readers, for Homewood Village President Richard Hofeld. Now, we're airing a series of video responses to the questions readers voted as most pressing.

In this edition, Hofeld answers: what is going on with the Homewood Metra station? His response? Metra wants to improve it, but they're lacking the funds to do so. He says the village is trying to help out.

Transcript:

With regard to the Homewood Metra station, Flossmoor is being done at this time and we have had the executive director of Metra out here two weeks ago along with Don De Graff the mayor of South Holland. Don is a Metra board member and he’s been very cooperative in trying to get some attention from Metra for our station. I say our station is the worst one on the Metra electric line—the water that comes into the tunnel, the stairs that are deteriorating, the ceiling tiles that are coming down—it’s terrible. On top of that, the station itself—they throw a ton of salt up on the platform in the wintertime and the stucco is just coming apart.

So when we had the director and the assistant director of Metra out here several weeks ago, they admit that it needs work and it needs work fast. So we’re trying to work with them to get funding and they put in grants and Metra has said they just don’t have the resources for capital improvements. I have written two letters on Metra’s behalf for grants for the Homewood Metra station. One was denied and the other one is still pending. We will continue to push to get improvements to the Metra station.

Flossmoor residents: be on the lookout for a Flossmoor edition of "Minutes with the Mayor" soon!

Want more Minutes With the Mayor? 

• On the blocked road near the north viaduct
• On dead ash trees
• On Portillo's
• On abandoned buildings
• On the Homewood Hotel
• On the closing of Caribou Coffee
• On Trader Joes

Related Topics: IDOT, Minutes With The Mayor, Richard Hofeld, Roads, and Streets