When taxpayers of Oak Park pay $30 million for a new public works building, they don’t expect something to go significantly wrong with it just four years later. In fact, one of the main benefits of paying $30 million for a new facility is to avoid paying for fix-ups on the old facility.
Now the village has the unpleasant task of chasing someone down to pay for fixing what shouldn’t have gone wrong in the first place, at least not this soon. Village hall is also put in the uncomfortable position of implying that any shortcomings in oversight were the responsibility of a previous administration and board.
That may be true, but it provides small consolation to taxpayers.
Neither are they likely to feel reassured when they see the Holley Court garage expansion undergoing restoration work just a few short years later. And taxpayers helped fund the development of the RSC building at 1120 Lake St., which has seen more than its share of problems, including water leaking into some of the condos below, and is now embroiled in legal action regarding needed repairs. As we recall, even the parking lot across Lake Street turned into a drawn-out fiasco.
Whether any or all of this resulted from a lack of village oversight or coming up short on due diligence, at the very least, it is not exactly a track record to boast about. And it doesn’t inspire confidence with an extensive renovation in the works for the Comcast building on Madison Street (not a village project, but oversight will be involved), not to mention the Lake and Forest development (and garage), and any potential future development that might come to the former Colt building site.
Nor will it make taxpayers in the future more readily inclined to give their consent to future requests for multimillion-dollar village facilities in the future.
At the very least, we hope the village board and administration are learning enough lessons here to prevent more fiascos in the future.