Neighbor News
Another Pekau Concert Debacle
Mayor Keith Pekau's pet project is not only a financial disaster but a logistical nightmare.
By Kathy Fenton
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau’s pet project, the Centennial Park West concert venue has been a fiscal disaster since the earliest planning stages, but now is proving to be a logistical failure as well.
The Village of Orland Park shared many social media posts from the event on Saturday, July 13 as the event started. The comment section was quickly populated by residents who tried to attend the concert but left when confronted with organizational incompetence of the Pekau Administration.
Find out what's happening in Orland Parkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
When the volume of negative posts became overwhelming, the village deleted the posts entirely, once again denying the public a voice in the matter and possibly skirting state sunshine laws by deleting these posts.
Fortunately, we were able to grab screenshots of these posts before they were sent to cyberspace purgatory. A sample of these posts include:
Find out what's happening in Orland Parkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“This is a complete disaster”
“Big fail on Orland Park’s concert”
“Delays are sooo long. People are giving up and leaving”
“What a mess! They (Village of Orland Park and Mayor Pekau) have no idea how to run an event like this”
“Sorry i wasted $50 on this concert”
“Will never buy the season tickets ever again”
“...disorganized and poor planning for this venue”
There were other posts pointing out there was no handicapped parking or shuttle from Centennial Park, while others pointed out no permanent restrooms and inadequate Port-A-Johns for the venue.
The more disturbing element of this fiasco is that Mayor Pekau either ordered this censorship, or at minimum, approved these posts deletion. If he is allowed to delete supposedly innocent posts that cause him embarrassment for his ineptness, what else will he delete?
