By Stephen Nelson
The third time was the charm in an effort by Mayor Mike Watson to establish fees for future building projects in Bradley.
The matter was first brought to the village board on July 22 and was tabled over concerns about language in the ordinance some trustees thought might put developers at a disadvantage and cause them to decide not to build in Bradley. The matter again was resurrected on August 12 but tabled again when the redraft of the ordinance still did not meet the approval of the board.
At that meeting, Trustee Brian Teiri suggested one of the problems was that a fee of $10,000, on a project projected to cost $1 million, was too low a threshold. In the end, that threshold was not changed in the final draft of the ordinance passed at the Monday, September 9, meeting. Currently, there are no plans put forward by any developer that would be subject to the new fee.
In other business, Bradley trustees approved spending $45,000 that will be given as a grant to the Bourbonnais Township Park District. Recently, the district sent a letter to village administration requesting assistance in paying for a consultant to develop an updated comprehensive plan. The park district is paying half of the consulting cost of $90,000 from its own funds. Mayor Watson said future financial assistance for the park district could be forthcoming if there are ideas in the plan that would turn the recently annexed Perry Farm Park into a tourist attraction for Bradley.