Board Meeting: Redevlopment Plan, Music Makers Building Proposed, South Fire Station Staffing

If you have an interest in the development of downtown Western Springs, be sure to mark your calendars for next Monday, April 18.

A special public meeting of the Plan Commission will be held that Monday to present the Village’s long-time-coming Downtown Redevelopment Plan. The presentation was announced at this Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting. All interested residents are invited to attend.

Additionally, the same Plan Commission meeting will consider a proposal from Jeremy Michor to transform the lot at 4332 Howard Ave. into a permanent location for child music school Music Makers, currently located in the Grand Avenue Community Center.

4332 Howard sits next to First United Methodist Church and across from Field Park Elementary School .It currently holds a vacant 1940-built home in questionable condition that has been on the market for nearly three years. The lot would have to be rezoned to accommodate Music Makers.

The other notable discussion from the meeting concerned upcoming Fire Department staff and equipment distribution between the current fire station and the new Ridgewood station that is nearing completion.

After a risk-hazard analysis conducted by the Department, an agreement was reached that while two fire engines with life support equipment will be moved to the south station, both Village ambulances and both paramedics will remain at the north location.

According to Trustee Susanne Glowiak, the tough economic times make it unfeasible to hire two new paramedics for the south station, even part-time, as was the plan several years ago. The Department does not wish to split its two-paramedic team between the stations, saying it would weaken effectiveness and that many calls are back-to-back anyway, requiring the paramedics to work quicky in tandem.

Thus, the southern station will remain an unstaffed station for the time being, primarily serving paid-on-call staff. Department officials say that the station will still provide a dramatic improvement in response time and fire-control effectiveness.

“When the decision was made to build the fire station, staffing was left open, and I said that the board would be guided by the recommendation of the professional staff,” said Village President William Rodeghier. “Nothing’s carved in stone. We’re going to see how this plays, and if it needs tweaking… we’ll make adjustments as we go along.”

“Overall, the Village will be receiving a better level of service,” said Fire Department Chief Tony Bednarz. “It’s not perfect.”

Also announced at the meeting was that the Village has applied for a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to cover some of the $37,000 spent in managing the gigantic February blizzard. They expect to receive $25,000-$28,000.

St. John of the Cross continues to move smoothly through the hoard of ordinances required for the parish to put on its July 21-24 Family Festival. The latest ordinance necessary to pass will amend the Village code to allow games of chance in a setting where alcohol is served, for the occasion.

Finally, the Department of Public Works made several announcements, including that $40,000 of sidewalk repairs would be implemented soon, that the recently-repaired Well No. 4 will be servicing the Village while the water plant undergoes transformation to a reverse-osmosis purification system, that part of Hillgrove Avenue will be resurfaced in a project partially funded the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and finally that Public Works will spend $76,948 to purchase two Ford F-150 one-ton trucks to replace aging vehicles from the early 1990s.