La Grange Park’s Village Board unanimously approved over $500,000 for public works projects on June 25.
Projects addressed included design engineering for the Edgewood and Richmond Avenues water main project, design engineering for the Green Alley project with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), and replacing a snow plow truck first put into service in 1999.
“This comes in under budget by a pretty large amount,” Public Works Committee Chair Mike Sheehan said of the water main project. “Hancock has served us well … so it would be nice to get this done, too.”
The water main project includes replacing the water main between Woodlawn and Ogden avenues and installing a new “feeder main” on Richmond Avenue between Edgewood and Park avenues.
Edwin Hancock Engineering, a firm often used in Village projects, will perform the work for $151,400, coming in well under the $180,800 the Village had budgeted for the project in its FY 2024/2025 budget.
Hancock will also handle the design engineering on the Green Alley project with MWRD for $43,000, which the Village will pay for using 31st Street/Barnsdale Avenue Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) funds.
The project includes excavating and removing existing pavement, installing a storm sewer, and decorative permeable pavers in the alley north of 31st Street between Newberry and Blanchan avenues.
The largest item approved, by far, was the $351,971 purchase of a 2025 Peterbilt truck with a snow plow and salting attachments. The truck replaces an aging vehicle the Village has used for more than two decades and will come equipped with a side “wing plow,” attached to the side of the truck, and salting equipment.
Sheehan noted that the Village originally budgeted $300,000 for the purchase, only to see the price for the truck and equipment increase by $19,971.
“I like the idea of the side plow for plowing operations in the middle of the night because you only have to go down the street once, so you’re going to cut the hourly time spent on the street during snow events,” Sheehan said.
The next La Grange Park Village Board meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. July 9, in the Village Boardroom, 447 N. Catherine Avenue.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
