LYNWOOD | Never stopping for red lights during an emergency received the green light from the village board.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the board passed a pair of resolutions to allow the village to implement the Opticom emergency system for the five main traffic lights in Lynwood.

The system allows fire trucks, police cars, and other emergency vehicles to control whether the traffic lights are red or green while they travel to an emergency site. By changing the lights from red to green as they travel, emergency vehicles can minimize the chance of a traffic accident.

The project is available through the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association. The SSMMA funds a portion of the system implementation, and the village is responsible for the rest. By passing resolution 08-66, the village used Motor Fuel Tax funds to pay for their share.

The Opticom system includes components mounted on both the traffic lights and the vehicles. When an emergency vehicle is on call, the vehicle operators can control changing the traffic lights.

The project will be implemented in 2009.

The board also passed a number of resolutions to authorize a redevelopment agreement for the continued development of the North Creek Project.

The project centers on the property at the intersection of Glenwood-Lansing Road and Torrence Avenue. To date, a First National Bank of Illinois building and a St. Margaret Hospital medical building have been built on the site of the old White Rose Inn.

The redevelopment agreement will provide a Tax Increment Financing incentive to spur further development of the property.

In other action, the board passed an ordinance for the issuance of senior lien tax increment revenue bonds, series 2008. They also passed a series of tax abatement resolutions to retire general obligation bonds from 1997 through 2006.