Village Managers Message

As you know by now the public hearing for establishing the new St. Charles Road Commercial Corridor Tax Incremental Financing district planned for Monday night has been canceled. During the most recent review of The Union, a 220-unit apartment complex, the developers revealed that the costs for the project and the request of funds from the tax increment generated on their property would be substantially higher than expected. Instead of starting now and then restarting again in three months with a completely updated report and budget, we are pushing back the launch a few months. The project is still very much viable and will proceed in 2023.

This Wednesday Parks Director Greg Gola, his Parks Superintendent Brian Roche and I met with Kevin Carver, Director of Building, Jeff Eagan, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Dr. Tony Palmisano, Superintendent of School District 45 (D45). Tom McQuillan from Villa Park Youth Baseball also attended the meeting about cooperation between D45 and the Village on mowing and setting fields for baseball. Since the intergovernmental government agreement expired a few years ago, the Village and D45 have taken care of their own turf and the costs went up for Youth Baseball. This week all parties agreed that the first goal was to make sure the kids have a good place to play, and that D45 and the Village would work together to make that happen. Before we left, we had the outline for a plan in place.

There have been a lot of questions at Coffee with the Board and from other members of the public concerned about preparations for rail accidents. Recent high-profile train derailment events in East Palestine and Springfield, Ohio, have caused heightened awareness of the village’s public safety response to these disasters. While regulations about what is allowed in urban corridors on the rails is beyond the powers of the Village, preparation is not. All of the VP firefighters are trained in responding to hazardous material releases/spills/leaks and fires, which include rail accidents, and mass casualty incidents. Likewise, the command staff at the VP Fire and Police Departments are well versed in Incident Command Systems and in a variety of responses to catastrophic events. Any incident similar to the tragic accident in East Palestine, Ohio would trigger an immediate response from our first responders, which include the MABAS Div.12 Haz Mat team as well the DuPage County Office of Emergency Management.

Finally, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Web Based Accident Prediction System, the Village has a very low (0.3108%) chance of a collision of any type which includes car accidents. The risk of a derailment accident, while always possible, is greatly reduced due to the curved tracks leading into Villa Park on the Union Pacific line and on the east side of town on the Kansas City Southern/Canadian National line. This requires trains to slow down reducing the likelihood of an accident occurring, and the likelihood of catastrophic tank rupture.

This week I consulted with Al Stasch about the videos being developed for the new solid waste program, reviewed the RFP for demolition of the Community Recreation Building, met with residents on several issues, and met with department heads individually and collectively. Next week is the last week of winter. Soon we are planning for the VFW – Villa Park Independence Day Parade and will be in full swing as we seek participants and sponsors. Parks and Recreation is interviewing staff for summer jobs, and warmer weather is fast approaching. Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Matthew Harline

To access full report, visit here

To access last week's report, click here

Public Hearing Cancellation for proposed St. Charles Road commercial corridor TIF district 

The public hearing scheduled for March 13 has been cancelled.  The budget in the redevelopment plan needs to be adjusted to account for the recently received financial analysis of The Union project as well as including all the potential public improvements that may occur in the proposed district.

Job Openings

We are hiring! The Village of Villa Park is hiring for multiple summer positions. For a full list of job postings visit here

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