The Oak Park Village Board of Trustees approved a combined $3.25 million to fix deteriorating street and alleys throughout the village.
Chicagoland Paving Contractors was awarded a $2.34 million contract to repave 10 streets, and Triggi Construction $916,221 to fix eight alleys. The street renovation project includes 15 blocks in total.
“The streets on this contract are some of the worst ones in the village,” Village Engineer Bill McKenna told the board at Monday night’s meeting. “These are the ones that require curb replacement and a deeper layer of asphalt to be replaced as part of it.”
Liquor licenses
Trustees also approved two liquor licenses to businesses in the village — one a new restaurant and the other a tea shop.
Michael and Natalie Connolly gave trustees a brief snapshot of the forthcoming restaurant, Connolly’s Public House, at 1107-1109 South Boulevard. The restaurant is expected to open by August.
“In the tradition of Ireland, a public house is an extension of the proprietor or proprietress’s living room; It’s meant to be a community center, a place to gather,” Michael Connolly said.
He noted that Connolly’s will not be a “stereotypical from-the-freezer-to-the-deep-fryer sports bar-type food.”
Natalie Connolly said the restaurant will feature “farm-to-table, home cooked meals” with healthy choices such as vegetarian as well as meat-and-potatoes dishes.
Trustees also approved a liquor license for Serenitea, a tea shop located at 1046 Pleasant St.
Owner Tracy Boone said her inability to provide liquor with tea parties has lost her business.
“We have had a lot of requests for afternoon tea parties with Champagne or mimosas and we’ve had to say no,” she said, adding that some customers have chosen to take their business elsewhere as a result.
Zoning fees
Trustees also approved an ordinance that is expected to reduce some zoning fees in the village.
Tammie Grossman, development customer services director for the village, said the new structure creates a flat fee for certain permits to make the cost more equitable.
“In the past, we used a percent of construction costs [to determine permit fees], so if you had two homeowners basically doing a renovation of their home, one might have a higher construction cost because they are doing higher upgrades than somebody else, and so it really wasn’t an accurate way to determine permit fees,” she said. “We believe this method is more accurate; distributes the cost evenly among all the permit applicants, and it is an easier way to calculate the fees. It should result in most fees lowering a little bit overall.”
Contact: tim@oakpark.com