Our last Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting and board meeting had very full agendas. At the Committee of the Whole, we approved several items, including:
Orland Fire Protection District – An agreement with the Orland Fire Protection District to handle their adjudication which allows them to go through our municipal hearings rather than going to the Bridgeview Courthouse. The village will share any revenue collected. This makes sense for both the village and OPFPD.
Orland Park Therapy Dog – We are receiving a trained therapy dog that will live at the police department. The dog will offer victims and children comfort when needed, will help with many of the mental health calls (that are up 50% in the last year), and will be helpful to officers that have experienced stressful situations.
Body Worn Cameras – The village board unanimously approved a 5-year contract for body worn police cameras. Our unions unanimously support this as they have proven to be helpful in providing evidence that leads to convictions and provide evidence that exonerates police officers in over 97% of all complaints. In Orland Park, the 3% of complaints that have been upheld have all been procedural violations (e.g. the use of foul language) and have been corrected with additional training. We were ready to approve this 6 months ago until HB3653 was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Pritzker, which tried to make criminals of our police officers for doing their jobs. Since its passage, there was a trailer bill that fixed the problems with this bill. As a result, we were finally able to move forward with the cameras. The efforts that the board and our residents took, including the resolutions we passed asking for this bill to be fixed, made a difference.
The body cam contract was not the low bid, but it was the best product that we tested. It was important to all of us to provide the best equipment to our officers. It has many outstanding features including auto turn-on of all cameras within 30’ if a taser is powered on or a gun clears leather in the holster.
At the COW, we also received an update on our road program, which represents the most money the village has ever allocated to the local road program in one year. For those of you who are having roads done in your area, please be patient as it is a multi-step process (markings, remove damaged concrete, place safety barriers, frame for new concrete, tree trimming and sewer repairs, pour new concrete and allow it to cure, mud-jack damaged concrete, remove forms and asphalt layer, place first layer of asphalt, do punch list items, place last layer of asphalt, apply paint to pavement, and lastly do landscape restoration). Doing all of this takes some time, but it is more cost effective to do at one time when we repair the roads. The benefit is your roads will be in great shape.
We also received an update on our park improvements. One fact that was shared is that on average in the U.S. there is one park for every 3,859 residents. Orland Park has one park for every 1,090 residents. Additionally, playgrounds are inspected monthly for safety by certified inspectors. In 2020, we improved 7 parks. In 2021, we are improving 9 parks. On top of this we have resurfaced dozens of tennis and basketball courts and added over a dozen shade pavilions. Additionally, we have put a process in place that notifies all area residents of improvements and invites them to our Recreation Advisory Board meeting, which makes park recommendation to the COW and the village board. This process gives residents several opportunities to provide input. It is important to give us your input before these projects are completed because it is usually far too costly to make changes after the fact. This is why these procedures and opportunities were put in place.
Staff also updated us on the 151st and West Avenue project which is on time and scheduled for completion late this summer/early fall (not including planting which needs to wait for spring per IDOT guidelines).
Lastly, we were updated on our bond program. We took advantage of new rates to issue new bonds and pay off old bonds, saving several hundred thousand dollars. Additionally, we are paying off our TIF bonds (we lost approximately $8M on these bonds related to 9750). Thankfully we are out of the apartment development business, and will be prepaying the last of these bonds saving another $180K by paying earlier.
At the Board of Trustees meeting, we honored Diagrind as our business of the month, approved the engineering for a multi-use path on 167th Street, and approved several items that were passed from the COW. Additionally, we approved the over 200-page Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. For those of you who understand finances, there is a lot of good information here on the village’s finances.
I want to remind everyone of several upcoming events:
- Drive in Movie – July 31st at Orland Health & Fitness parking lot
- Drinks with the Mayor – August 4th at Square Celt, 6PM
- Taste of Orland – August 6th through 8th
- August 14th Concert at 4:30 – Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mark Farner and the Great Amercian Band, and Blue Oyster Cult
- Veterans Golf Outing – Tuesday, August 31st at Silver Lake Country Club
- September 5th – Concert at 4:30
- September 27th – Mayor’s Golf Outing, 2nd Annual Golf Outing – Keith Pekau
