Park Ridge aldermen on April 13 gave preliminary approval to purchasing five new tornado warning sirens, renewing the city’s municipal towing contract, and – just barely – the city’s contract for streetlight and traffic signal maintenance.
Because they met as the City Council’s informal Committee of the Whole, aldermen must ratify these votes at the Council’s regular meeting on April 20 – which is also the meeting at which they will vote to approve the city’s 2015-16 budget.
Aldermen unanimously approved a contract “not to exceed” $116,062.55 with Federal Signal, of University Park, to install five new warning sirens throughout Park Ridge. The new sirens will use AC/DC power, meaning they can tap electricity directly from power lines instead of the current DC-only system, which relies on batteries, officials said.
The city’s current warning sirens are 25 years old and have cost more than $20,000 to repair since 2010, officials said.
Aldermen also approved a one-year extension of the existing contract for municipal towing service with Lin-Mar Towing, of Morton Grove. The extension is a clause in the original two-year contract. Ald. Marc Mazzuca, 6th Ward, was the lone “no” vote.
But a one-year, $53,500 extension of the city’s contract with Meade Electric Co., of McCook, for maintenance of street and parking lot lights, traffic signals and preemption devices and pedestrian crosswalks was barely approved on a 4-3 vote.
Mazzuca was joined by Alds. Roger Shubert, 4th Ward, and Nicholas Milissis, 2nd Ward – who participated via speaker phone because he was out of town – in voting against the extension. City Council rules allow aldermen to vote via speakerphone in committee meetings, but not during formal City Council meetings.
Alds. Joseph Sweeney, 1st Ward, Jim Smith, 3rd Ward, Dan Knight, 5th Ward, voted in favor, as did acting Mayor and 7th Ward Ald. Marty Maloney.
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City Manager Shawn Hamilton said the Meade contract’s length, three years with four one-year renewals, and the fact that Meade has been the city’s service provider since 1986, drew that resistance.
“In this particular case, even though we had a contract that had an existing extension, the council has a propensity to want to go out to bid, to make sure we’re getting the best price,” Hamilton said.
Such a contract is not permissible under the city’s new procurement rules, he added.
Jon Davis is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.