The fiber-optic construction ban that the Village of Orland Park imposed in December will be lifted in March with a few caveats.
Astound, Abovenet and other internet providers were temporarily shut down after resident complaints piled up. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a Dec. 8 power surge that knocked out power to approximately 300 residents in the Catalina subdivision for seven hours on a freezing, snowy day.
Village Clerk Mary Ryan Norwell was one of those affected.
At the Feb. 16 Committee of the Whole meeting, Director of Public Works Joel VanEssen laid out the groundwork for the work to commence on March 1.
That includes better communication from the contractors and sub-contactors to the residents including door hangers and letters as to when work will be done in their yards and area.
Village Manager George Koczwara said the village would like to hire five part-time employees for approximately $45,000 a year to go to various sites and watch the work get done and to identify problems before the residents find them.
“We implemented something that is new – a quality assurance supervisor,” he said. “It’s one person and we have a very large town.
“Our goal with these five part-timers is to literally have somebody standing over the shoulder of these contractors.”
He said the part-timers could be retirees who have expertise in the field. VanEssen said he envisions 19-hour work weeks for each of the five.
Kocwara said that the problem that the village has experienced with some contractors is when they go “rogue.”
“They will go and get a permit and then they will tack on a couple of more properties, and we want to make sure they know we are there,” he said.
He said sub-contractors seem to cause the most problems by cutting corners and the village is toughening up on that.
“We’re tightening up our process,” Koczwara said. “They (village staff and lawyers) are coming up with a very biting fine ordinance. It’s going to start up high and it’s going to get exponentially higher after each (infraction).
“We’re retraining them that Orland Park is not the place to cut corners.”
Trustee Michael Milani seemed bemused by the idea of hiring the five part-timers.
“Just to clarify this, we’re going to pay $225,000 so people can watch people work?” he said.
Koczwara said it was more than just to watch them work – it was being proactive in quality assurance.
Milani suggested that staff present details on the scope of the job the part-timers would have.
Whether the village hires part-timers or not, Mayor James Dodge insists that the contractors and sub-contractors toe the line. Even though this is a state-regulated program, the village has its codes and rules that they must follow.
“You will hear me say this a lot, but laws are not suggestions,” Dodge said. “Until there’s enough emphasis in the ordinance for this to sufficiently sting the contractors, they are not going to pay attention,”
“Holistically, we are looking at the entirety of the code base including how we do fees and fines.”