Oak Lawn Sunday Summer Concert Series 2013 Lineup

Oak Lawn's summer concerts on the Village Green debut this Sunday, May 26.

The Village of Oak Lawn and the Oak Lawn Park District are pleased to announce their 2013  Sunday Night Summer Concert schedule. Patch is also pleased that the village included links’ to the featured bands’ websites and provided a Google map this year. The summer music concert series kicks off this Sunday (May 26) with the pop, rock, R&B, country and oldies sounds of Coax and Foilks. The concerts are free, so bring your picnic baskets, refreshments, lawn chairs and blankets, and enjoy some summer fun with the whole family. Don’t forget the mosquito repellent. Food will be available from the Oak Lawn Boy Scouts (hot dogs, soda, & chips), Christensen’s Wagon (popcorn & lemon shake-ups). All concerts take place on the Village Green, located …

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Oak Lawn Retention Areas At Full Capacity -- UPDATED

Village officials say Oak Lawn is likely to experience continued basement flooding for another 24 to 48 hours. Burbank experiencing massive flooding.

Thursday, 6:27 p.m. -- Oak Lawn Public Works continues to keep the flood water at bay. No streets are closed in Oak Lawn, and retention and detention areas, while full, are not overspilling their banks. Burbank, however, is a different story, as public safety officials continue to watch the MWRD reservoir at 87th Street and Natchez, on the Oak Lawn and Burbank border. Thursday, 2:20 p.m. -- Oak Lawn retention areas are at full capacity with four more inches of rain predicted through Friday as the southwestern Cook County remains under a flood warning. Village officials completed an emergency conference call with the Cook County Incident Command Center on Thursday morning. The Oak Lawn area and surrounding communities are likely to continue…

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Tom S.

4:16 pm on Friday, April 19, 2013

I'm good. Got a permit from the village, connected to storm sewer , which in my case is on the other side of the street. Would have been much cheaper to connect if it had been on my side.   more ›

Sign Up to Recieve Emergency Alerts from the Village

Residents can get emergency alerts through the Everbridge System on their home and business phone, cell, text messages, hearing impaired receiving devices and more.

Get alerts about emergencies and other important community news by signing up for the Oak Lawn Emergency Communications Emergency Alert Program (serving Oak Lawn, Bridgeview, Burbank, and Evergreen Park). This emergency notification system enables the village to provide residents and businesses with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, such as severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons, and evacuation of buildings or neighborhoods. You will receive time-sensitive messages wherever you specify, such as your home, cell, or business phone, email, text messages, hearing impaired receiving devices, and more. You pick where, you pick how. Sign up for the village's emergency alerts here. Source: Village of Oak …

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Village Schedules Public Meetings to Discuss Power Surge

A letter went out to residents affected by last weekend's power surge who lost electronics and appliances. Village has scheduled two public meetings to hear ComEd's final report on the surge on April 10.

Oak Lawn residents living in the area affected by an intense power surge when power was restored after an outage in the early morning hours of March 10 should be receiving a letter this week from the Village of Oak Lawn. Click on the pdf on the right to read the village's letter to residents. About two-dozen residents showed up at Village Hall on March 13 to meet with Commonwealth Edison representatives and village officials, including Trustee Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2), and fill out claim forms for items that got damaged by the surge. Residents say they lost computers, cable boxes, video game players, TVs and major appliances, including stoves, refrigerators and washing machines. Power lines were reported down at 91st Street and Cicero …

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Village Posts Employees' Salaries

Who are the highest paid employees in Oak Lawn?

Vehicle Sticker Scofflaws Get Hit With Tickets on Private Property: Feedback Friday

Readers discuss the facts and myths of police coming on to private property to ticket cars.

There were numerous hot conversations taking place on the old Oak Lawn Patch Facebook page this week—how to get rid of a skunk (set out coyote urine), the closing of Leona’s in Oak Lawn—but nothing stoked readers’ emotions more than a casual mention of cars being ticketed for not having village vehicle stickers while parked on private property. My neighbor, who lets me know what happens before 8 a.m. while I am often still asleep (e.g., Oak Lawn Metra Station fight), emailed to let me know that our cars got hit last night with tickets last night. She was upset because her mother, who lives in LaGrange, has her car parked in her building's lot after getting hit by drunk driver by the train station last week, and her car got a “no-vehicle …

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Deb Riley

1:49 am on Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Help me understand why 2 vehicles parked on someone else's property is your business.   more ›

Oak Lawn’s Highest Paid Village Employees

The Oak Lawn village manager, emergency telecommunicator, police chief, and public safety employees draw the highest salaries among village employees. See the full list of all village employees' salaries.

The Village of Oak Lawn posted the 2012 salaries of village employees on its website. Earnings include gross wages (before taxes) and do not include benefits, such as healthcare. We've included some of the top earners, and randomly chosen municipal employees for perspective. Sign up for Oak Lawn Patch breaking news alerts. The highest paid employee was Larry Deetjen, whose salary remained the same from the year before at 154,732. Laura A. Skala, a telecommunicator who works in the village’s Emergency Communications Center, was the second highest-paid, village employee earning 151,999.90. The village fire department out earned the police department, leading with 65 100K+ salary earners, compared to the 32 police officers that made $100,000 …

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JC

3:05 pm on Friday, April 19, 2013

In this economy you could hire 3 people on this ridiculous salary ($150K) for a woman answering the phone. She is laughing all the way to the bank on our backs. Fire her if she will not take a wage cut. Unions are to prevent abuse but they bring abuse. Also, if these public service jobs are so dangerous-quit. There will be 50 people in line for each job. Oak Lawn is corrupt. Please listen Mayor-…   more ›

Village Attorneys Want Court To Sanction Kurtz

Village attorneys file sanctions requesting that attorney who represented a former employee in an unsuccessful age discrimination lawsuit be disqualified from case and pay attorney fees to village.

Oak Lawn’s village attorneys from the law firm Peterson Johnson and Murray want a judge to sanction the attorney who represented a former village attorney in a discrimination lawsuit. A jury delivered a verdict on Jan. 31 in favor of the village after deliberating less than two hours after a four-day trial. Hinsdale-attorney Dana Kurtz represented the former village employee in her age discrimination lawsuit against the village, whose position as a business regulation officer was eliminated in 2008 in a round of budget cuts. The employee alleged she was fired due to her age after the village finance director told members of the village board in executive session that he “wanted to hire someone younger.” The former employee was seeking $500…

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Jury Verdict Favors Village in Age Discrimination Lawsuit

Jury returns speedy verdict saying village staff and elected officials did not discriminate against former employee terminated during budget cuts because of her age.

A jury decided that the Village of Oak Lawn did not engage in age discrimination when it terminated a village employee one day shy of her 60th birthday in April 2008. Diane Cipolla filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the village in February 2011, seeking $500,000 and other damages from the village. Sign up for the Oak Lawn Patch newsletter and breaking news alerts. Cipolla, now 64, was employed as a business regulation officer between 1996 and 2008 for the village finance department when she was terminated for “budgetary concerns.” Cipolla alleged she was terminated idue to her age and that village finance director Brian Hanigan told members of the village board in executive session that he “wanted to hire someone younger.” The …

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OakLawnGuy

10:50 am on Monday, February 4, 2013

I was thinking the same thing, and of course your comment, supported by your extensive expertise in vetting law firms and attorneys (such as Brennan's) convinced me. ;-/   more ›

FBI Opens Criminal Investigation into Roofing Bids

Feds subpoena all records related to bids to replace roof on Oak Lawn Public Works facility.