With three new aldermen on the Oakbrook Terrace City Council, Mayor William Kallas says he sees an opportunity for cooperation that didn’t exist before the April elections.
Time will tell if he’s right, especially because Oakbrook Terrace long has had a reputation for contentious council meetings and divisiveness. At one point, extra security was brought in because of fears of aldermanic fistfights.
With a new council in place, Kallas has released a 15-point plan of capital projects that he would like to see completed in the next three to five years.
Some of the goals, such as installing a street lighting system in the town’s main single-family subdivision and acquiring a new City Hall building, are expected to carry high price tags. In fact, Kallas estimated that the projects together would cost as much as $10 million.
But he suggested that state funding might pay for some of the items and noted that “revenue streams exist” in the city, like the off-track betting revenues that have benefited the city’s water fund.
“It only takes $1 million a year to pay off a $10 million loan,” Kallas said.
At the meeting when the new aldermen were sworn in, Kallas won City Council approval to tackle one of the thorniest items in his plan: the widening of Butterfield Road. Kallas was in Springfield to meet with Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown and legislators in an effort to secure funds–perhaps some dollars from Gov. George Ryan’s recently announced $12 billion Illinois FIRST plan–to widen the state highway from two to four lanes, plus a turn lane.
Although aldermen in 1994 told the Illinois Department of Transportation that they didn’t want to see a wider Butterfield, some of the opponents have had a change of heart.
Kallas said he believed a wider Butterfield is the key to attracting a top-quality development on the 80-acre vacant property owned by developer Robert Krilich.
“Gov. George Ryan has said $12 billion is going to be spent through his new infrastructure program,” Kallas said. “All I need is about $5 million.”
But some aldermen say Kallas has not specifically discussed his plan with them and they aren’t so sure state funds will come pouring in.
“I would like to know how he intends to finance this plan with a budget the size of our city’s,” Ald. Arlene Chval said. “I don’t want to saddle the city with an albatross of a project, and I am suspicious of any major municipal project. I don’t want to see a repeat of our town’s past mistakes.”
Krilich’s property is the target of many of Kallas’ objectives. He supports developing a city-owned, nine-hole golf course on the property. And he announced his goal of persuading Krilich to sell land to allow the construction of a Meijer superstore, and said a deal between the two parties is pending.
But one of Kallas’ most intriguing ideas is to move City Hall from its present building on Butterfield Road to Krilich’s largely vacant, three-story office building on Royce Boulevard.
The mayor suggested buying that building, which houses only Krilich’s development company. Kallas said he wants to use a small portion of the building for City Hall, the Police Department and a community center, and then lease the rest of it to other office users.
“Half of the first floor is all we’d need,” Kallas said. “We could spin off the acquisition by selling the building to an honorable, professional real estate firm, which would then give us a rent-free lease for 50 years or 90 years.”
Other objectives include restructuring city operations, setting up a municipal World Wide Web site, burying electric lines and utilities and improving storm-water drainage on the west side of town.
