League of Women Voters Observer Report

Village of River Forest

Board of Trustees Meeting

October 12, 2015 7:00 p.m.

Observer: Jane Schlichting

Present: President Adduci, Trustees Corsini, Cargie, Colwell-Steinke, Conti, Dwyer and Gibbs.

Absent: None

Also Present: Village Administrator Eric Palm, Village Attorney Lance Malina, and Village Attorney Greg Smith.

Board Packets are available at https://www.vrf.us for the Village Board meetings. More information is available from the October 12 Board Packet on pages noted in this report.

COMMENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Trustees congratulated Lincoln School on becoming a Blue Ribbon School.

President Adduci congratulated Lincoln School and added that Roosevelt and St. Luke’s are also Blue Ribbon Schools. The president announced: the sub-committee for the inter-governmental group will meet October 27.

A letter was sent to Representative Welch and Senator Lightfoot in favor of HB 4305 for the state to restore payments to local governments. Currently, the state needs to reimburse the Village of River Forest $650,000 for state funded programs.

CONSENT AGREEMENT

The following Consent Agenda was approved:

Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes - September 21, 2015 (packet pages 2 - 5)

Executive Session Meeting Minutes September 28, 2015

Approval of Business District Plan for the West Lake Street Business District #2 and Designating the Business District - Ordinance (packet pages 7 - 43)

Approval of Parkway Tree Purchase from Walnut Creek Nursery, Algonquin, IL for $25,010 (packet pages 44 - 45).

MONTHLY VILLAGE DEPARTMENT REPORT

Police Department Report (packet pages 46-52)

Fire Department (packet pages 53 to 56),

Public Works (packet pages 57 to 60),

Building and Zoning Report (packet pages 61 -62),

Monthly Finance Report (packet pages 63 - 123),

Village-Wide Performance Measurement Report (packet pages 124 - 126),

Village Administration’s Report (packet pages 127 - 131).

Trustee Conti requested information about the planting of trees on the parkways, and Trustee Corsini recommended minor changes in the minutes.

Motion passed to approve Consent Agenda.

LAKE and PARK REDEVELOPMENT

DISCUSSION: President Adduci commented that this has been an ongoing project since 2004, and the board will finalize plans for the downtown business district. The president reviewed the process used for developing the plans: the Economic Development Commission developed three plans. These plans were presented to the Board in December of 2014, and again in April of 2015 to answer questions from the Board, and at Special Meeting on September 27, for residents to give their input about the three plans. (More information: chicagotribune.com forest leaves)

Developers Pitch Plans for Lake and Forest in River Forest).

TRUSTEES COMMENTS:

Plans will include the whole block, great plan, happy to vote for it,

Pursue the plan with Keystone, lots of challenges,

Keystone president is a resident of River Forest and pleased that the Board is

working in this direction,

Skeptical and hopeful at the same time,

Residents were not in favor of the plan with apartments,

Hopeful that we are moving in the right direction and thanks to the Commission for all of its work. The President added her thanks and stated that all three proposals were very good.

MOTION PASSED UNANIMOULY

“To authorize the Village staff to enter into negotiations for, and to

prepare a redeployment agreement for the area of Lake Street and Park Avenue in the Village with Keystone Ventures, LLC based on their proposed Scheme C

submitted to the Village on December 12, 2014 and April 24, 2015, with an

executable redevelopment agreement on or before March 14, 2016,”

(packet page 128).

LED STREET LIGHTS REPLACEMENT

Motion passed to:

Waiver of formal bidding process; award contract to Eye Lighting, Inc. for the

purchase of 675 LED streetlight retrofit kits in the amount of $201,825 (packet

pages 129 - 162).

Meeting adjourned.