Oak Lawn Trustees Put Troubled Miami Motel On Notice For Possible License Revocation

OAK LAWN, IL -- An Oak Lawn motel with a checkered past has raised alarm among village officials after 250 police calls were logged over the past 18 months. Oak Lawn trustees authorized the village attorney to set a hearing date to possibly revoke the business license of the Miami Motel. The village board also appointed an independent law firm to lead the possible business license revocation hearing.

Oak Lawn’s Miami Motel at 9140 S. Cicero Ave. has garnered a reputation among Oak Lawn residents over the years as a magnet for crime, drugs and quick sex that has frequently landed guests in the police blotter. Incidents and police reports obtained from the Oak Lawn Police Department through the Freedom of Information Act detail a wide range of calls for service, including prostitution, drug overdoses, child endangerment, domestic disturbances, shots fired, fights and a “hand waver.” There are also an equal number of premises checks, parking lot accidents, “suspicious person” investigations and well-being checks.

“I’ve been pursuing this for the last eight months,” Tr. Alex Olejniczak said, whose second district includes the Miami Motel. “A pregnant woman was treated for a heroin overdose earlier this year. This is about the safety of our neighborhood.”

According to a letter to Oak Lawn village board members from village manager Larry Deetjen, village officials have attempted to meet with the current owner, Vipal Patel, to discuss ongoing public safety issues at the Miami. The motel's business license is not set to expire until April 30, 2018. Deetjen said the village has established goals actions to be undertaken by the owner. He claimed the owner has ignored the village’s directives. Deetjen's letter also cites the purported continued use of drugs as well as personal injuries and death.

One appeal of the Miami are the cheap room rates ($43 per 8-hour stay) and $260 for weekly rentals, as well as the ability to fork over cash as opposed to securing and paying for rooms with a credit card.

“If you [have] people paying cash for a room that should be sign that something is wrong,” Olejniczak said. “Once you get the consistent police reports you have to ask yourself what type of people are they catering to there? Then you get somebody coming from out of town who innocently stays there, when there’s a high frequency of undesirable instances happening.”

Tr. Terry Vorderer (Dist. 4), a retired Oak Lawn police officer and deputy chief, said he was surprised by the number of 911 calls to the establishment.

“Certainly 250 police responses to any business is of concern,” Vorderer said. “Chuck E. Cheese didn’t even have that many responses in the total volume of numbers.”

Vorderer said he looked at some of the police reports, which included a mother leaving her 2-year-old child alone for two hours. Police were called when the child was found running naked in the parking lot.

“When you bring that type of clientele to the community, indirectly there are ramifications for the community,” Vorderer said.”I would support looking into ways to make this a better business and eliminating the calls for service.”

Sitting in the office of the Miami, where a sign is posted instructing staff not to rent a room to any potential guest that smells like pot, the manager, who gave his name as Dave, said the motel is trying to reduce the number of so-called transients that it rents too.

“Guests will check out in a week or two,” Dave said. “If they’re nice working people they can stay longer. We don’t rent a room to anyone who looks like a druggie.”

Dave said a majority of reservations at the motel are made online from foreign travelers passing through Midway Airport. He said the motel staff have a good relationship with the Oak Lawn Police Department.

“We’ve done a lot of remodeling,” Dave said. “We’ve remodeled the rooms and now we’re doing the outside.”

Photo by Lorraine Swanson | Patch Editor