WILL COUNTY
Panel backs more construction bonds
The County Board Finance Committee is endorsing a proposal to issue more construction-related bonds for the County Jail expansion project.
Committee members Tuesday unanimously agreed to support adding $15 million to the current $50 million bonding powers. The action potentially allows Will County to keep pace with construction costs, now estimated at $67 million.
The move came in response to a request from Mel Rull, executive director of the Will County Public Building Commission, which is overseeing expansion of the County Jail, formally known as the Adult Detention Facility.
Rull told the committee that adding an $800,000 jail-management system and $900,000 radio system have brought the total cost of construction cost closer to $67 million. The full board must approve issuing more bonds.
Will County already has issued $45 million of the $50 million that county officials previously authorized for the jail. Funding comes from an increase in the county’s supplemental tax.
Rull told the Capital Improvements Committee that construction of the facility should go more smoothly now that all of the underground work has been completed.
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Work was slowed when excavators encountered 10 home foundations earlier in the process, he said.
Dennis Sullivan
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Participation urged on forest board
Two County Board leaders are calling on board members to become as active in the Forest Preserve District as they are in county government.
Board Chairman Jim Moustis (R-Frankfort,) who also is chairman of the Forest District’s Finance Committee, said he will begin looking more closely at the budget as part of a bipartisan effort to make forest district employees more accountable to elected officials.
Moustis and Republican Majority Leader Wayne McMillan (R-Bolingbrook,) chairman of the Land Acquisition Committee, also want commissioners to actively advise Forest Preserve District President Kerry Sheridan (R-Shorewood) on hiring, committee appointments and other issues.
Elected County Board members also serve on the 27-member Forest District board.
Forest District Board members have shied away from offering advice because state law gives the panel’s president unbridled powers to appoint and hire.
Republican board members caucused over the weekend to address the retirement of Forest Preserve District Executive Director Michael Pasteris.
Attendees appeared to agree to eliminate the executive director position after the highly praised Pasteris leaves in July. Plans call for hiring someone to take on policy-related duties, while significantly expanding the role of Operations Director Marcy DeMauro Roth.
Moustis said the district previously had versions of the two positions, but combined them into one role for Pasteris.
The Republicans also discussed the idea of the four Forest Preserve District committee chairmen preparing their own agendas, as County Board committee chairmen do. Typically Forest Preserve District employees prepare the committee agendas.
Dennis Sullivan
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HICKORY HILLS
Night parties to end at Pepe’s restaurant
In the wake of mounting city pressure, the owner of a Pepe’s restaurant has agreed to stop throwing late-night parties at the eatery.
Last month a neighbor of the restaurant at 8128 West 95th St. complained to aldermen about noisy parties near his home.
Police Chief Alan Vodicka said officers have been monitoring the restaurant and have made some arrests.
City officials were in the process of reviewing city code and preparing an ordinance to outlaw the parties when Pepe’s management announced they would stop because they had become too much work.
Mayor Mike Howley said the council could still move forward with the ordinance to ensure similar problems don’t arise.
Jeff Borgardt
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