It happened shortly after Oak Park reopened the fancified version of South Marion Street in November — pigeons, pooping on the pretty bluestone sidewalks.
The village has viaducts all along the CTA Green Line tracks, at Harlem, Austin and so forth. But for some reason, those pesky pigeons have preferred to congregate under the viaduct at Marion over the past few months.
Some business owners and pedestrians have complained to village hall recently, asking officials to take action to stop the droppings.
“It creates an intimidating as well as unhygienic environment for our pedestrians,” said Mary Jo Schuler, who owns two shops on South Marion, and is head of the Pleasant District business association. “It doesn’t send a good message, and the business owners are very much in support of whatever the village can do to help encourage the pigeons to spend time elsewhere.”
Village hall obliged, spending about $7,500 last month to have a company install netting, bird wires and angled surfaces meant to nudge the birds elsewhere. But they’ve persisted, nestling in other nooks and crannies buried deeper under the viaduct.
“They keep figuring out another place to go,” said Public Works Director John Wielebnicki. “We’re just going to keep at it and hopefully at least move them to an area where they don’t cause any mess where people are walking, or shoo them away so they don’t come back.”
Public Works has also enlisted the help of the village’s health department, which deals with pests such as pigeons and rats. Oak Park recently asked its contractor, Schaumburg-based McLeod, to come up with a detailed analysis of the viaduct’s underbelly, along with additional deterrents, according to Mike Charley, environmental health supervisor.
He expects that report back later this week, but is unsure of the next step until then. Oak Park may need to do some non-bird-related work to the viaduct in the coming months, Charley said, before further pigeon-proofing.
“We don’t want to spend money to exclude pigeons on areas that are just going to be worked on anyway this year. It just doesn’t make sense,” Charley said.
