Last week’s board meeting was mostly routine business with one very big announcement.
First, we approved a program we call “Snow Angels”. This is a great program that came about because of the 32” of snow we received over 17 days and emails from Orland Park residents, Mrs. Posch and Mrs. Klein. They were very thoughtful emails, and since this was the first really big snow I have experienced in my tenure, they helped highlight a serious problem.
Village resources are focused on cleaning the streets, and to do that, snowplows push the snow to the side which results in snow in front of people’s drives. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about that if we want to keep the roads clear.
Many of us help our neighbors and friends that need it, especially here in Orland Park because we’re such a supportive community. But what about our seniors and/or those who physically cannot remove the snow themselves and who don’t have neighbors, family or friends that can help? This program will help give those people the support they need.
This program will create a list of volunteers (including high schoolers that can get community service hours) and get that list to those who physically cannot and/or should not be doing this chore themselves. If you’re someone who has the ability and desire to help others in our community, please volunteer as many people need help. I want to thank our staff for helping develop the details of this awesome program so quickly.
The other item of interest was the investigation into the special insider deals that involved former Mayor Dan McLaughlin and occurred under his watch. Trustee Katsenes pointed out that this is under investigation by other authorities so she moved to “table” the item for now to let those official investigations play out. The vote to table was unanimous.
The big announcement Tuesday was that Orland Square Mall has instituted a youth supervision policy requiring minors to be accompanied by an adult on Fridays and Saturdays after 3PM. This is the FIRST TIME that Simon Properties has instituted this policy in ANY mall in Chicagoland. I applaud Simon Properties for listening to customer feedback and working proactively with Orland Park to implement this policy. Orland Park is the safest mall in the Chicagoland region as it has been during my entire tenure. The cooperation and collaboration is exceptional and we are happy to support them as they believe this policy will make for a more family friendly shopping experience.
When I took office four years ago, one of my first actions was to meet with Simon Properties. Their executive team came to Orland Park to meet me, something that nobody recalled ever happening before. At this meeting, I learned that the last time that Simon Properties had met with the Mayor of Orland Park was 6 years prior to my election when then Mayor Dan McLaughlin drove to Indianapolis to ask the mall to demolish and then rebuild itself with smaller shops and residential. He never spoke to Simon Properties again after they politely said no because McLaughlin had just told them he wanted them to tear down their mall that was in the top 1% in traffic and top 10% in sales for all malls in the United States. (Those numbers still hold true today).
Since my first meeting with Simon Properties, I have had several meetings with their executive team in Orland Park as well as at retail trade shows. It is critical to build and maintain a strong relationship with a business that represents over 10% of our tax base directly and approximately 40% indirectly. I view this as a partnership between Simon Properties and Orland Park, and since I took over as mayor now Simon Properties does as well. We continue to work together to ensure that all shoppers enjoy a safe and family-friendly experience when shopping at Orland Square Mall.
Also, this week the village introduced the new OP311 Non-Emergency Reporting System which is a non-emergency reporting system for village concerns such as potholes, street light outages and/or code violations.
Orland Park was also named a Tree City USA for the 33rd straight year. As many of you know, I am a Certified Arborist and have a great appreciation for the positive impact trees, and our various tree programs, have on Orland Park.
On the campaign front, I want to remind everyone that I have a March Madness Fundraiser on March 11th (www.keithpekau.com/March/).
Also, volunteers can meet us at 9:30am on Saturday at Southfork to get information on volunteer opportunities for the campaign for our People Over Politics team.
Lastly, if you are interested in sending out friend-to-friend cards or displaying a yard sign, please let us know how many you need and we will get them delivered to you.
