A bid to fix the roof at Boley Farm alarmed one Orland Park trustee and that set off a conversation about looking into the future of historic building costs in the community.
The village owns sites that include Boley Farm, Stellwagen Farm, the Senator John Humphrey House and the Jacob Hastert Log Cabins.
They are obviously old and likely to be in need of repair in the coming years.
“We probably need a conversation on historic structures,” Village Manager George Koczwara said at the Oct. 5 Committee of the Whole meeting. “We have other historic structures that will be coming down the line and they will be expensive.”
Mayor James Dodge said he wants village staff to investigate projected costs of maintaining these structures over a period of time to see what kind of price tag they will be facing.
“We all can appreciate the character that it adds to the community, but it doesn’t mean we want to spend a million dollars a building, either,” Dodge said.
The topic got rolling after the board tabled a decision to spend $364,867 for roof and other repairs at Boley Farm.
“In 2020, the village undertook the Boley Farm historic assessment and feasibility study and a number of recommendations came out of that,” Koczwara said. “That included demolition of certain structures and which structures we were going to keep.
“It included a recommendation for roof repair. That’s why we’re at this point right now. These roof repairs were a part of that assessment.”
Trustee John Lawler balked at the fact there was only one bid, and he felt it was too high.
“I was looking at this, and I did an ariel measurement of the roof and I thought ‘man, that seems like a lot of money for a roof,’’’ he said. “The roof size is roughly 5,000 square feet, give or take a few hundred.”
He was particularly bothered by material costs and the cost for labor, which he said should be much lower after he did his own research.
“It’s a really large bid and when you go out there and look at the building, it’s not that big,” Lawler said. “We’re putting this really expensive roof on a building that still needs a little bit of work. We definitely need to look at some other bids and push back on some of these quotes.”
Trustee William Healy questioned if the cost was going to be worth it. While the farm sells food during the summer and fall, Healy was not sure how many people go there.
“I’m bothered by how much the Boley Farm is used,” Healy said. “Do 10,000 people a year go there? Except for the market, not that many people go there. And we’re putting how much money into it? It makes me realize it’s expensive to keep this up.
“As time goes on, how much money do we want to use to preserve this? We already have another farm – a very successful working farm over on the south side. If we can save a little more money on the roofing costs, it would be a little easier to swallow.”
