TIF Hearings, Halloween Hours Return to Village Board Agenda

It’s a skimpy agenda for the Oak Lawn Village Board, which meets tonight (Tuesday) at 7:30 p.m. at ye olde Village Hall.

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Village board members should be rested and relaxed after two back-to-back monster agenda meetings, ready to tackle the important issues in Oak Lawn. Trustees will be voting on an A-D consent agenda. It should be a short evening but then we haven’t heard trustees’ new business or the village manager’s report yet. We'll bring some change for Cheetos from the vending machine just in case.

Read the pdf of the skimpy village board agenda.

Here’s what we’ll be watching:

• TIF Hearings – Trustees will be voting on ordinances to fix a time and date for two public hearings on the expansion of the Triangle (95th Street) and 111th and Cicero Avenue TIF districts.
• Halloween Hours – The village board will partake in its annual discussion of Halloween hours in Oak Lawn. Last year the curfew for trick or treating in the village was shortened to 7 p.m. after Trustee Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2) said he received calls from a concerned parent that 8 p.m. was too long of a window for kids to be out running around in the dark. Olejniczak also said that 8 o'clock was a little late for seniors to be opening their doors at night. Some parents complained on Patch that they couldn't get home from work until 6 p.m. Under Olejniczak’s proposal to end trick or treating at 7 p.m., by the time they arrived home and got kids changed into costumes Halloween would be over. prompting Mayor Dave Heilmann to sing “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” The village board is going to talk about it again. Perhaps this year the mayor will use his new board majority to reinstate the 8 p.m. Halloween curfew.
• No executive session is scheduled.

What’s not on the agenda:

• Fall On the Green Audit – No forensic audit presentation is scheduled for tonight, although we did hear that the auditors were interviewing village employees and others involved in producing Fall On the Green 2011 last week, including the current and former chairs, Trustees Bob Streit (Dist. 3) and Tom Phelan (Dist. 6).
• No recall of the Roberts Rules of Order vote - Unless someone tosses a curve ball after the confusing Sept. 11 village board meeting, there is no motion on the agenda to reconsider the vote on Heilmann’s amended Robert’s Rules of Order. Trustee Cindy Trautsch (Dist. 1) voted no on an ordinance to amend the village code’s “Rules and Order” with more Robert's Rules. The mayor says an earlier board vote approving the added rules' "language" still counted. The village attorneys are figuring it out. Patch needs to start hanging out more in the parking lot after village board meetings.
• Retaining Progressive Energy Group – Trustees will not be voting on whether to retain Progressive Energy Group of Evergreen Park to negotiate a contract with an alternative electricity provider, which came highly recommended by public works committee chair, Trustee Bob Streit (Dist. 3). Voters can expect to see a binding referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot authorizing the village to negotiate a lower electricity rate for residents and small commercial businesses. The Quality Control Committee interviewed alternative electricity suppliers last month, who explained that the process for soliciting bids and negotiating rates was fairly standard across the industry. Some suggested that larger municipalities, such as Oak Lawn, could eliminate the broker’s fee in the cost per kilowatt-hour by negotiating lower rates directly with alternative electricity suppliers. Streit, who is in the electrical aggregation business, said brokers offer such expertise as developing operation plans and dispensing information to residents. Oak Lawn trustees have yet to approve a contract for Progressive Energy Group. Streit's firm, Illinois Energy Aggregation, is the broker for Evergreen Park.

CORRECTION: Patch incorrectly stated that Illinois Energy Aggregation was a "co-broker" with Progressive Energy Group to negotiate electricity rates with alternative suppliers for the Village of Evergreen Park. IEA is the sole broker for Evergreen Park. We apologize for the error.

The Oak Lawn Village Board meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month at Village Hall, 9446 S. Raymond Ave. The meetings are free and open to the public.