Oak Park’s village board unanimously approved the five-year capital improvement plan for 2025 to 2029, adding back in some projects staff had recommended deferring and leaning toward spending down cash reserves to cover costs.
The capital improvement plan helps village staff do strategic planning work for major construction plans and other types of work. The 242-page document outlining all projects and priorities is available online.
Trustees discussed the five-year plan on Sept. 10, Sept. 26 and Oct. 15. Topics discussed ahead of the final approval included parking infrastructure, electric vehicle charging stations, alley improvements, fire- and police-related upgrades, street resurfacing, bike boulevards and Oak Park’s Village Hall remodel.
The first year of the CIP will be incorporated into the fiscal year 2025 budget. Trustees are expected to approve a finalized budget Dec. 3.
Deferred projects no more
Village staff recommended deferring or reducing some capital improvement projects to help reduce the cost burden and avoid spreading employees who work on such projects too thin. Two of those projects, however, were added back to the 2025 timeline ahead of Tuesday’s meeting based on board direction: the feasibility and space study for Fire Station 2 and design and some construction for Fire Station 3.
But Trustee Brian Straw also asked for two other deferred projects to be added back in 2025: traffic signal retiming efforts and the addition of a left turn signal at the intersection of Garfield Avenue and Oak Park Avenue.
The traffic signal retiming efforts are intended to benefit pedestrians crossing streets. Straw said in October that this was a long-overdue safety need, and repeated that sentiment Tuesday. Trustee Cory Wesley agreed. It would cost an additional $300,000.
“If we save one life next year because we do it a year earlier, that’s worth $300,000,” Straw said. “If we save one serious injury, that’s worth $300,000 to me.”
“We’re talking about $300,000 to increase pedestrian safety, and we’ve got a fund balance of $45,878,206,” Wesley said. “We could pay for this in pocket change.”
Village Engineer Bill McKenna said the work for locally owned streets could be done in 2025. But streets in Oak Park owned by the Illinois Department of Transportation, including Washington Boulevard and Ridgeland Avenue, could not be part of the effort until after IDOT approves.
Trustee Lucia Robinson said she’d like the conversations with IDOT to happen first, before implementation. Trustee Ravi Parakkat agreed, adding that he’d like to wait a few months for the Vision Zero recommendations to come back to the board.
Trustees ultimately approved bringing this work back to 2025, instead of deferring to 2026. They also approved work for a left turn signal at the Garfield and Oak Park avenues to happen in 2025. The hope is that this would help prevent a bottleneck of traffic, especially during morning rush, at this intersection, McKenna said.
Wesley also asked to raise the priority level of the Percy Julian Streetscape project from “D” to “B.” The board approved.
Spending down reserves
In October, Interim Chief Financial Officer Donna Gayden explained that Oak Park could help fund costly 2025 projects by spending down cash reserves or by issuing bonds.
Most trustees said Tuesday they’d prefer to spend down reserves by up to $27.8 million. Of that, $20 million will cover a major sewer and streetscaping project on Oak Park Avenue between Pleasant and Ontario streets.
Oak Park has about $45.8 million sitting in its unrestricted fund balance. It’s advised to keep that balance between 10% to 20% of normal prior year expenditures. For Oak Park, that would be about $11.2 million based on 2023 expenses. By spending down reserves, the village will still have about $18 million in its fund balance.
But Wesley said he would still rather issue a bond and let residents living here in future years, who will benefit from the long-term improvements, pay for them. He also said he’d prefer to save resources following the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
“We’re going to have a new administration in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I’d like to have a lot of cash on hand. I’d rather not do anything to reduce that.”
Robinson, however, countered that the board has a “unique opportunity to dip into a very robust fund balance and still be comfortably within the recommended fund balance range.”
Taking money out of the fund balance would mean, however, that there could be less available to fund a major Village Hall remodel and construction of a new police station. But that endeavor, last estimated to cost between $132 million and $138.3 million, might require the village to take on debt, anyway.
Gayden also recommended Tuesday that the board use $4.5 million of lost revenue, or leftover American Rescue Plan Act funds, to help cover the cost of 2025 projects that have no funding. Wesley said he was against using leftover ARPA funds for capital projects. Parakkat disagreed.
The village board will discuss the entire 2025 budget at its next meeting Nov. 19.