At last week’s board and committee meetings we discussed a few important items. At the committee of the whole, we started with the Quarterly Police Department Awards Ceremony. Several officers were honored with awards for saving lives and heroic actions in the line of duty. Our officers do great work day in and day out in the face of many unknowns. The results speak for themselves:
- Lowest number of index crimes in 2019 in 25 years.
- Eclipsed in 2020 with an over 20% decrease in index crimes.
- In 2021, index crimes are down another 20%.
- Lowest violent crimes of all towns over 50,000 people in Illinois.
A job well done and greatly appreciated by our residents, the board and me.
Later in the committee meeting, we discussed the village’s 457(b) and 401(a) plans for our employees. These are essentially government versions of 401K plans and involve no matching or cost to the village. Previously the village had four very high-cost plans. A couple of years ago, I identified that this cost was well above market and suggested that we look to improve our plans. For a few technical reasons, we needed to wait until now to do so, but cut the costs to our employees by over 70%. This is simply sound management and much better for our employees.
We started the board meeting by naming Rutledge Printing our business of the month. It was my pleasure to give this award to Rick Marks, the current owner of Rutledge Printing and long-time resident of Orland Park. Rutledge, like many businesses in Orland, is one that most people have never heard of that has been operating in Orland Park for decades. They are an integral part of the fabric of our community.
Otherwise, the board meeting consisted of mostly routine business including awarding contracts for boiler and HVAC replacements, an internet and data provider contract and a contract for sound and stage rentals for our concerts. It also included a bid rejection for a bid that came in well over budget with only one bidder. Staff indicated that we only had one bidder because contractors were too busy and materials were expensive and difficult to get for the required repairs. Since these repairs can wait until next year, we elected to wait for better pricing.
We also approved our recreation programs for the Winter and Spring recreation programs which are very robust as usual.
At the end of the meeting, I gave a COVID update and then closed the meeting with these comments. I encourage you to view both.
