Orland Hills officials have agreed to pay a Mokena engineering company an additional $4,000 for work related to lakeshore restoration, leading two village trustees to criticize the project.
The Village Board voted 4-2 Wednesday to amend an agreement with Brink Engineering Ltd. concerning shoreline stabilization of Ashbourne Lake in the 9000 block of Meadowview Drive.
The change brings the price for Brink’s services to $14,000, rather than the $10,000 maximum previously approved.
The full cost of the project, which still must be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers because of the area’s wetlands designation, is estimated at $72,000, said Trustee Dave Diggs, who voted for the amendment.
Diggs and Trustee Cal Million, who also supported the amendment, said the shoreline has been eroding for three years and is no longer safe.
The plan is to cut the shoreline back and replace it with a limestone wall, they said.
Brink, which was hired to do the design work and documentation, needs to supply the Army Corps with more paperwork, necessitating the change in the contract, trustees said.
“We’ve got Robinson [Engineering]. I don’t know why we don’t use them,” Trustee Marty McGill, who voted against the amendment, said after the meeting, referring to the company employed by the village to handle engineering matters. “We probably could have gotten the work done with half the money.”
McGill and Trustee Don Bigos, who cast the other dissenting vote, said the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association previously awarded a $5,000 grant to the village for the project, which now will be used for work on another lake.
The grant, they said, was for a shoreline restoration method using vegetation rather than “hard-bank stabilization,” which uses limestone.
“There’s still no guarantee that they’re going to approve the permit,” Bigos said, noting the Army Corps previously rejected the project. “The Army Corps wants to see vegetation [used to stop erosion].”
Residents of the nearby Ashbourne Lake subdivision objected to using plants, McGill and Bigos said.
Bigos also said the county, not Brink, did the engineering on the project.
“Why are we paying $10,000 for administrative purposes?” Bigos asked.
Phase 1 of the project, encompassing about 400 feet on the east side of the lake, would take about 30 days once approval is granted, officials said.
