Village Manager's Message

This week is a bit of a good news bad news. The bad news is that several roads will be impassable; the good news is that it will be for repairs to them. For starters, after numerous calls from President Cuzzone, the Canadian National Railroad will be repairing the crossing on Addison Road all this week. We are also beginning work on Wisconsin Avenue from Vermont to Ridge today, as well as the sidewalk replacement program and flushing hydrants around town. We also will be announcing a date for the Tri-Trail Connector Project ribbon cutting soon.

I spent a lot of last week working on draft intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with our legal team and the two school districts affected by The Union 238 unit apartment complex – District 45 and District 88. State law requires the Village to make payments to the school districts to make them whole if TIF projects stimulate an increase in students in the district. The district has the right to waive part or all of those payments in order to see the overall growth and development of the property in their district. With an IGA in place the Village will be able to go to the Bond market with assurances that the project will be able to cover the bond payments and all obligations.

Budget meetings continued last week. We have finished with the departments and taken a first glance at the Capital Improvement Budget. We are also reviewing revenues which are okay, but not exceptional. This will be combined into a draft summary of the budget for review on October 21. The first draft of the complete budget (minus some text) should be ready for review on November 11 and the Public Hearing will be held on November 25. We will be continuing the leasing of vehicles for an additional year, but we will be focusing more on leasing vehicles for public safety only.

I met with AFSCME last week as we voted on a package of proposals to negotiate in the contract opener they were promised for the contract that ends April 30, 2026. I attended the Kiwanis Annual Installation Dinner and met with both D45 and D88 leadership together. We had Cory Plasch at the weekly department head meeting to work on Strategic Plan implementation where I met with department heads, and I also met with them individually. To all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah a belated Shana Tova and Yom Tov for the upcoming Yom Kippur Holiday. View full weekly report here.

Matt Harline

Village Manager