Plans, and costs associated with plans, for the renovation of Oak Park’s village hall and construction of a new police station have turned into the single hottest topic in the race for village president in the April 1 election.
Village President Vicki Scaman has said that Trustee Ravi Parakkat, her challenger for president, has been tossing around recklessly high numbers on what the projects will cost. Parakkat, for his part, has said the projects will cost $140 million not counting interest and relocation costs. Scaman has countered that no firm amount has ever been set but that the full board has offered guidance to staff and architects that the projects have to come in under $100 million.
Amid this intense debate, there was hope for some level of clarity in the long-planned March 18 unveiling of the latest round of architectural schematics and broad cost estimates. Unexpectedly when late last week the village government posted the agenda for the March 18 board meeting, there was no mention of a village hall/police station discussion.
Instead, a village government spokesperson said that agenda item will be shifted to a post-election April board meeting.
Hard to know now where the expected clarity will come from before Oak Parkers vote. Scaman supporters have accused Parakkat of lying about what the project will cost and that the board has been united in setting a reasonable cost cap for the project that is nowhere near $140 million.
But in the absence of fresh information from the architects Parakkat’s claims will be harder to refute.