By Bob Bong
Palos Heights aldermen rejected a $1.7 million renovation project for its aging City Hall building at a sometimes testy City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Aldermen voted 5-3 to shoot down a plan that would have made some bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, moved the Building Department back to the front of City Hall, repair the heating and air conditioning system, update electrical systems, and move offices.
“A ‘no’ vote will incur extra expenses,” proponent Ald. Heather Begley said. She estimated new architectural work would cost about $30,000 on top of $67,000 already spent on the plan that was killed Tuesday night.
She was clearly disappointed that the project was shelved after 18 months of discussions about the renovation.
“This has not been the smoothest bathroom remodel,” she said, adding that City Hall needs work that will not go away, but will cost more after this latest delay.
Ald. Robert Basso voted against the project and brought up the idea of building a new City Hall instead of spending more money on the existing building.
“This building is functionally obsolete,” he said. “We should be able to find a way to build a new City Hall.”
After Ald. Michael McGrogan and Begley disagreed on whether he had attended any of the planning sessions for the renovation project, Ald. Brent Lewandowski brought up the idea of eliminating committees headed by different aldermen and replacing it with a committee of the whole meeting.
Several area communities, including Orland Park, hold committee of the whole meetings ahead of their regular village board meetings.
Mayor Bob Straz said that sounded like a possibility.
An unscientific poll conducted by The Regional was unanimously opposed to the project.
“I, as a longtime resident of Palos Heights, am appalled that the mayor thinks nothing of $110,000 on average per remodel of each of the very small bathrooms. He said the bathroom remodels was $440,000. That very high number seems quite high for such small bathrooms. I feel they didn’t really try hard to save the taxpayers money and are trying hard to spend all those raised tax dollars so they can keep raising them,” said Harlan Weivoda.
“I’m not for spending $2 million. I’m ok doing an update on needed infrastructure and, of course, some updates. But not a full remodel of the city hall,” said Mary Sodetz.
Tuesday’s vote means the planning for any future renovations will have to start over.
Ald. Jeffery Key expressed obvious frustration after the vote complaining that hard work done during committee meetings ahead of City Council meetings is often ignored or overturned when the projects come up for a vote.
“I’m becoming more and more frustrated,” he said citing money spent on a new parking lot that was later killed among other projects.
“We kick the can down the road,” he said adding it winds up costing more when the projects are finally approved.
Aldermen Begley, Key and Lewandowski voted “yes” on the renovation. Aldermen McGrogan, Basso, Jerry McGovern, Jack Clifford, and Don Bylut voted “no.”
