As you know, I used temporary emergency powers to declare an emergency and implement a curfew on Sunday night. On Monday night the board unanimously approved extending this to Monday night and Tuesday night.
You can watch the comments here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXzXDYnJ-j0
I want to thank our police department and the other departments that helped us ensure that Orland Park stayed safe. I have heard from a few people upset that we took the actions we did. I can tell you that these actions were necessary and certainly saved a lot of property damage and may also have prevented many injuries or worse. Being proactive made all the difference. Chief McCarthy and his team were on top of it, made outstanding decisions and gave me outstanding advice. Also, thank you to the residents and businesses for cooperating.
At the board meeting we dealt with several agenda items related to COVID. You can watch these here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkJLjIw3S5k&t or a summary follows:
- A resolution to the state and county to release federal funds that were earmarked for municipalities – to date this has not been done and we think they should be distributed on a per capita basis
- A resolution to the governor to ask him to do the following:
- Open indoor seating at restaurants
- Allow regions to be based on emergency response regions and not tie our opening to Chicago
- Move the phases from 28 to 14 days in the “Restore Illinois” plan
- Ensure that “Restore Illinois” provides guidance for the safety of our most vulnerable populations and long-term care facilities
- Share the data he is using in his deliberative process
- Economic incentives for businesses including the following:
- Hotel tax sharing to help our existing hotel when it re-opens
- Small business sales tax sharing for 90 days to help them as they begin the return to normal
- Sales tax sharing for sales tax generating businesses in industrial areas to incentivize these businesses, including equipment distributors to relocate in Orland Park
- Restaurant sales tax incentive to back-fill existing vacant restaurant space
- Hotel tax sharing incentives to foster new hotel development. Since we currently only have one hotel and there is a market need, we are offering this to encourage hotels to locate in Orland Park
- Orland Park Commercial Impact Program – which allows for commercial projects that apply and move forward by September 30, 2020 to have a 25% reduction on permit/impact fees and water tap fees. This is to encourage them to resume their projects.
- Property tax incentives to advanced manufacturing facilities that relocate to Orland Park. This will be particularly helpful for our industrial sites and the I-80 corridor.
I had closing comments on the COVID situation as well.
We also opened the “nature center” which is a new park between LaGrange road and Southwest Highway, north of 143rd Street. It is a beautiful space. You can see the opening here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opNXUqOIgRI
Thank you and enjoy your week.
