Officials in La Grange Park faced some difficult decisions in 2025, they said at the annual State of the Village presentation.
“The work that we’re getting ready to start on are very difficult projects and took years of planning and years of saving in order to bring them to reality,” village manager Julia Cedillo told a crowd of about 30 residents at the July 22 event at the La Grange Park Public Library, which was moderated by deputy village manager Maggie Jarr.
“It’s very hard to pick any one of the items on the agenda. There are so many wonderful things that the staff and Village Board have been working on together during the last year and few years that we’re so proud of,” Cedillo said.
She pointed to three major projects the village is currently working on; the Lead Service Line Replacement Project — an unfunded mandate from the state, the Central Area Sewer Separation project, and the voter-approved road program and associated bond issuance.
The agenda also highlighted numerous other projects the village was addressing, including commercial revitalization and new businesses, the 31st Street Corridor Transportation Plan, pedestrian safety and streetscape improvements, the Americans with Disabilities Transition Plan, and La Grange Road traffic safety initiatives.
Safety on La Grange Road was enhanced in 2025 by the success of the “Take 5” effort ,where after several years of effort the Illinois Department of Transportation was persuaded to lower the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour.
“If there’s one message that I would like to share is that none of these projects we’re working on is isolated,” Cedillo said. “They are complimentary, they are part of a vision, and that vision is about making the vision better, making it safer, more connected, and more enjoyable for families in La Grange Park.”
La Grange Park Fire Chief Dean Maggos talked about the challenges faced by the department.
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“Our call volume has increased dramatically in the last few years and that places a strain on our combination fire department, which is staffed mostly by part time paid-on-call personnel,” he said. “In calendar year 2025, our department responded to over 1,900 EMS calls and over 800 fire calls.”
Maggos stressed the “great deal of training” that his staff had undergone in 2025, including in-house training on how to better operate fire equipment, five department members who had graduated from a part-time fire academy in Western Springs, and becoming compliant with new national emergency response standards.
Maggos said the department would be getting a new ambulance and replacing the older cardiac monitors, which he stressed are used on virtually every ambulance call.
Public Works director Rick Radde said one project in particular was his most significant in a busy year.
“If I had to choose one project that stands above the rest, it would be the Central Area Sewer Separation project,” he said. “This project has been discussed and planned for many years and its primary goal is to reduce flooding around the Homestead/Monroe area, that corridor, to improve the quality of life for our residents. As many of you have probably heard before, this is the largest capital project the village has ever undertaken and construction is expected to take two years.”
Other department heads gave updates on their areas of responsibility, including police Chief Tim Contois, finance director Larry Noller, and building director Jose Nieto.
Park District executive director Jessica Cannaday, La Grange Public Library executive director Gabe Oppenheim and Chamber of Commerce president Patrick Smith also gave updates on their organization’s activities.
The next La Grange Park Village Board meeting is 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 28th in the Village Board Room, 447 N. Catherine Ave.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.