On a piece of scrap paper, Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin draws a triangle, its three lines representing 143rd Street, LaGrange Road and the Metra tracks that run parallel to Southwest Highway. Within those lines, he quickly labels 12 pieces of property.
That triangle, known as the Metra Triangle, represents the future of Orland Park for McLaughlin. The site will be the location for an expanded Metra station that will accommodate the 50 trains the commuter railway plans to run every day by the year 2020. That number would be enough to serve this growing town of 51,077 and its surrounding communities.
But most important to McLaughlin is the opportunity to create a downtown for 110-year-old Orland Park, which currently has none.
The mall is no downtown
“I hate that kids who grow up in Orland Park think that downtown is the [Orland Square] mall,” McLaughlin said. “My goal is to create a heart and soul for Orland Park, for its residents and as a gateway to our community.”
From the time he first became involved in Orland Park politics as a village trustee, McLaughlin has been aiming for the day when the triangle will become the center of town.
In 1989, negotiations began to move Davidson Concrete from its present location along 143rd Street to another site. In August, the Village Board approved a purchase price of $2.6 million if the company vacates the property within 12 months.
The village is also talking with the owners of every parcel within the triangle and is poised to purchase another piece of the land in the coming months.
Last year the village and the Regional Transportation Authority shared the cost of a consultant in establishing a plan that would include a mix of uses in addition to an enlarged station and a 1,100-space parking lot.
Link to historic district
McLaughlin envisions buildings that will tie in on the west with the historic district, which features quaint antique shops. He wants a pedestrian walkway, a gazebo and a historical museum. The space also could include residential uses, restaurants and community space.
“In a year or two we will start to see something happening in there. In three or four years we should see the majority of the work completed. At least, that is what I am hoping for,” McLaughlin said.
If the past is representative of the future, McLaughlin’s timetable will be on target. Those who know the mayor say he has a penchant for getting major things accomplished.
“He’s a visionary,” said former trustee Tom Dubelbeis. “He has brought Orland Park to a leadership position in the southwest suburbs and in the Chicagoland area and within the state of Illinois.
“He was the catalyst for the renewal of [Orland] Park Place Mall … and he has taken us to the [Interstate Highway] 80 corridor. People can’t see that now, but in five years they will,” Dubelbeis said.
Built in the 1980s, the mall was mostly vacant for several years until the village worked with a developer to create a tax increment financing (TIF) district in 1998. It has since been gutted and remodeled and now has a high occupancy rate. The refurbished mall adds to the healthy sales tax base of Orland Park, helping to cement its place as Illinois’ eighth-largest retail center.
That sales tax has allowed the village to reduce Orland Park’s portion of a resident’s tax bill to only 4.8 percent. A homeowner with a property tax bill of $4,000 pays only $192 of that to the village for all its services, which include police protection, an extensive Recreation Department and a library.
“Dan is the main reason why the services in Orland Park have gotten better and better,” Dubelbeis said. “Residents in Orland Park have the best thing going. They get a tremendous amount of services for their dollar.”
The I-80 business corridor required years of negotiations to establish boundary agreements with Mokena and Tinley Park and with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to allow the village to bring services to that area.
McLaughlin’s leadership has helped the I-80 corridor develop, said trustee James Dodge.
“Under Dan’s administration we got down there, and it took a long time to get down there,” Dodge said. “But the infrastructure is now being put in place. Roads, services, everything is ready to go.”
Orland Park broke ground in February on the construction of Orland Parkway, which will align with 183rd Street.
“We had to build that roadway,” McLaughlin said. “We can’t attract developers in here when people can’t get into the area.”
Economic diversity
The goal is to create a corridor that will attract different industries, creating yet another economic boom for the village and bringing diversity to a tax base so heavily weighted toward retail sales.
“It will alleviate even more tax burden from the people and bring in higher-end jobs,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin, 48, was born in Chicago and moved to Oak Lawn in early grade school. His father and grandfather were both involved in politics. His father was a precinct captain in Oak Lawn, and his grandfather was Democratic committeeman for the 18th Ward in Chicago. When he was as young as 10, he tagged along to work the polls, staying up late watching the ballots being counted. That wasn’t his first taste of politics, however.
“I had a paper route, and on it were all the apartments on Pulaski. [Campaign workers] couldn’t get in there. But I could. So I gave out the literature,” McLaughlin said.
But politics was put on hold for a few years. He graduated from Brother Rice in 1972, after which he attended Moraine Valley Community College for two years. During that time, he and his father, along with his two brothers, started an asphalt business.
Universal Paving soon grew, and he left school to concentrate on the family business. A few years later in 1975, he married his wife, Patricia, and the couple moved to Crestwood. There he became involved in Bremen Township as a precinct captain.
Four years later, McLaughlin and his wife moved to Orland Park, where they raised their four children: Bridget, Mary Kate, Dan and Mathew.
Political beginnings
McLaughlin first officially entered politics in 1982, when he ran for Democratic committeeman in Orland Township. He lost to opponent Tom Charnogorski. Then in 1983, the late Fred Owens, who at the time was running for village trustee, asked McLaughlin to join a slate. Seven people ran for three open trustee positions that year. Owens received the most votes. McLaughlin came in second.
“I guess at the time, 20 years ago, I thought I could make some changes–positive changes,” he said.
In 1991 McLaughlin decided not to run for re-election as a trustee. But in 1992, Fred Owens died while in office. The next year McLaughlin was approached to run for mayor against Rich Nogal, Penny O’Sullivan and Ed Schussler. He did, and he won. He won again in 1997.
In 1998 McLaughlin entered the race for state treasurer.
“I felt that the state treasurer’s office was unique in the fact that it had the ability to start or establish programs for neighborhoods and groups when they had no place else to go,” McLaughlin said.
He won the Democratic primary and went on a campaign tour of the state.
“It was a real old-fashioned campaign,” he said. “I spoke in barns that had dirt floors. … It was a real grass-roots campaign going all over the place. And I learned what a big-time campaign was all about.”
Judy Baar Topinka won the general election by less than 1 percent.
In 2000 McLaughlin was a Bill Bradley delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
In 2001 he won his third term as mayor of Orland Park. And although he doesn’t have any plans now to venture outside of Orland Park’s political arena, he said: “My father said, `Never say never.’ But right now I don’t have any plans.”
Concrete and green
In the last eight years, the village has widened 143rd Street from Harlem Avenue to LaGrange Road. The $13.6 million project, paid for with federal and state money, turned the two-lane road into a four-lane thoroughfare.
The project was in the plans of the Illinois Department of Transportation for years but wasn’t given priority until McLaughlin worked with the trustees to incorporate money in the budget to pay for engineering and design. Over the years, the village completed phase one (paid for with a grant from the Southwest Council of Mayors) and phase two engineering before the state even approved the project.
“Then Governor Ryan’s Illinois FIRST program began and we were one of the first projects done because we had all the engineering finished,” he said.
Phase one engineering is nearly complete for widening LaGrange Road to six lanes from 131st Street to 179th Street, which was funded by a .75 percent increase in the village sales tax. The village expects to raise $5 million to $10 million for road improvements.
While traffic is a major concern for McLaughlin, he also wants to save green space. It was McLaughlin who started the Open Lands Commission to help buy some of these open parcels using private money.
“We wanted to purchase some of these properties before it was too late and to help control growth,” he said.
However, the $900,000 raised by the commission did not give it the purchasing power it had hoped for. In 2000 the village went to the voters asking for approval of a $20 million bond referendum to purchase 300 acres of open space within the village. It passed by a wide majority. The village has already purchased a small farm on 151st Street and bought open space from a developer on 143rd Street.
“I’m certain the future Orland Park will be a little different because of the open space,” he said.
While McLaughlin often concentrates on the future of Orland Park, many of the programs he started reflect his dedication to its past.
“He is doing an excellent job of helping the veterans of Orland Park. He has created services for the veterans that will only help them,” said Harold Lasch, a World War II veteran and a member of the Veterans Commission.
Assistance for veterans
McLaughlin recently implemented a program that would provide assistance to military veterans who live in Orland Park. Three people on the village staff have been trained to help veterans access programs and benefits.
A history buff, McLaughlin is often found in the schools sharing some of his personal collections, which range from sports to presidential to military memorabilia.
“He spends a lot of time here,” said Pete Yuska, superintendent of Orland School District 135. “But beyond that he has been a big help to the district.”
He added that he meets with McLaughlin on a regular basis to discuss the needs of the school district and how the two can work together. McLaughlin and Yuska created an intergovernmental agreement that would allow the Parks Department to be in the schools from 6 to 10:30 p.m.
“He truly believes that the quality of life in Orland Park centers around our schools,” Yuska said.
Mayor Dan McLaughlin
Local position: Mayor of Orland Park.
Profession: Executive director, Plumbing Contractors Association of Chicago and Cook County.
Age: 48.
Wife: Patricia, married since 1975.
Children: Bridget, 24; Mary Kate, 22; Dan, 17; Mathew, 15.
Background: Graduated from Brother Rice High School. Worked with family asphalt firm, Universal Paving, until taking position with the Plumbing Contractors Association of Chicago and Cook County. Moved to Crestwood after marrying. Settled in Orland Park in 1979.
Political background: 1982, ran against Tom Charnogorski for Democratic Orland Township committeeman and lost; 1983-1991, served as Orland Park trustee; 1992 to present, mayor of Orland Park; 1998, ran for state treasurer, winning the Democratic primary but losing in the general election; 2002, elected Democratic committeeman for Orland Township.
Lifelong hobby: “I have collected political memorabilia since I was 10. My grandfather was in politics, which aided the collection. I expanded it to Chicago memorabilia and have tickets to world fairs; signed documents like a letter that was handwritten and signed by Captain [Nathan] Heald, who was the commander of Ft. Dearborn during the Ft. Dearborn massacre; a land grant signed by President Monroe; and other various documents and letters from Chicago mayors to presidents. I also have an extensive collection of books, many of which are signed by the authors, including ones by Adlai Stevenson, another signed by John Kennedy when he was senator, and books signed by Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Then I have hundreds of campaign buttons and baseballs. I have boxes and boxes of items on different categories such as World War II items, sports, Chicago, presidential and national conventions. The list goes on and on.”
