I am not a frequent attendee at village board meetings (perhaps two or three in my 20+ years living in Oak Park) but I attended the June 18 five-hour marathon meeting.
I was very impressed with the very thoughtful and nuanced approach when dealing with the issues regarding the Oak Park Regional Housing Center. The respect for that organization’s accomplishments, the patience and devoted work to help that organization by the staff and board members over a number of years is commendable. But the lack of accountability and consistent lack of timely/accurate reporting/transparency and loss of HUD status justified the need for a change in the village’s ongoing support. The in-depth discussion of their mission and how it can be accomplished in today’s Oak Park was also very thought provoking.
I wish I could say the same about four of the board member’s approach toward the approved change in leaf collection. This change in policy seems to lack patience, accountability and transparency. This change was pushed through in a short time without much public interaction. And while it is not the most important issue in the village, it is one of the things that brings people to Oak Park — the trees.
Change in how we care for trees should be well-planned and thought out. Will the need to bag leaves or stuff them into garbage cans change peoples’ attitudes toward continuing to support a large stock of trees? I do not know.
Neither does the village. When staff was asked if the village could go back to the old way of street collection, they said it would be cost prohibitive as our contractor had already lost access to the equipment needed to fulfill our needs.
Really? LRS has already moved on? I find that hard to believe. And the discussion of rebates, assistance for the needy, total cost of bags — not just the $.50 but the environmental impact of more paper, more glue, more waste — is not completely understood.
I applaud President Scaman’s assessment of the situation when implementing change of this type: “Consensus is required.” The village does not have the consensus of its constituents on this topic.
It is a shame that both important issues could not have been handled in a similar fashion.
I truly thank you for your efforts to continue to improve Oak Park.
Steven Kastenholz
Oak Park