All of the candidates running for the open Oak Park village president seat or one of the three open village board seats spoke to a crowd representing the business community last week.
The forum, hosted by the Business and Civic Council of Oak Park and held at the Carleton Hotel Friday morning, gave candidates a platform to speak on several key issues, and meet and greet community members over coffee.
The prospect of whether a major renovation of Village Hall will be tethered to the construction of a new stand-alone police station for Oak Park Police Department was again a sticking point between presidential candidates Vicki Scaman and Ravi Parakkat, as it had been at previous forums. Scaman is the current village president. Parakkat is a village trustee.
“Our much-needed police facility has been delayed because it’s been attached to an unnecessary village hall proposal,” Parakkat said.
Scaman, reiterated her position that moving the Oak Park police into a new building will reveal issues and opportunities within Village Hall, and that renovating the entire municipal campus will save the village money in the long term.
“Every time we defer we pay more,” Scaman said.
None of the village trustee candidates said that they would feel comfortable with costs for Village Hall and a new police facility eclipsing $100 million, but most spoke to the need for some renovations to village hall, particularly in the area of accessibility for people with disabilities.
“That’s one of the things that has really bothered me at the board table,” incumbent trustee candidate Chibuike Enyia said. “When we had our Aging in Community people come, we watched a man almost fall down the stairs.”
“You ought to be able to walk into the place no matter how old you are, so there are aspects of that facility project that do need to be addressed, and the accessibility part of it is the biggest one for me,” he said.
Other topics covered in the forum included how the village will account for disruptions to federal grant funding, how will candidates look to promote affordable housing opportunities and increase population density, as well as how to navigate funding infrastructure projects as building costs reach dizzying heights across the region.
Election day in suburban Cook County is April 1, with early voting begins Monday, March 17.
