Oak Park Meeting Roundup

If you missed Monday's Oak Park Village Board meeting, Patch has some of the highlights:

Snow piles add up: The monumental effort to remove Oak Park’s 20-plus inch snow fall cost the village an estimated $115,000 in straight time and overtime for crews and for contractors to plow streets and village parking lots, officials said.

Through Saturday, about 200 tons of salt were spread on roadways throughout town. Applying the salt at the start of the storm allowed the main streets to remain open during the blizzard, said public works director John Wielebnicki.

Residential streets were cleared and alleys opened up within 24 hours after the last snow fall, Village Manager Tom Barwin said. In all, crews filled 300 semi-trailers with snow, he added.

Village officials and their counterparts from other units of government in Oak Park now must assess if their total amount of extraordinary expenses to remove the snow could qualify them for federal disaster relief. They might know later this winter, Barwin said.     

Community agencies get Village funds:  Five community agencies that partner with the village to provide a variety of services will receive a total of $1.041 million this year as part of annual agreements renewed by Oak Park trustees. The agencies include:

•  — $344,200 for retail and commercial recruitment, performing market analysis and providing marketing materials, among other tasks.
• Oak Park Residence Corporation — $25,000 to operate the small condominium management program
•  — $365,000 for general administration and the multi-family housing incentives programs, among other responsiblities.
• Oak Park Area Arts Council — $104,438 to administer the Arts Funds grant program and raise community awareness about art and cultural happenings in Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park, among other tasks.
• Oak Park Area Convention and Visitors Bureau — $202,644 to promote Oak Park events and tourism attractions and help draw in other potential tourist attractions to the community, among other tasks. 

Most of the money will come from the general fund; approximately $130,000 of the money for the convention and visitors’ bureau will come from the 4-percent Hotel Tax.   An allotment of Community Development Block Grant funds for the housing center will be approved at a later date.

New B&B to open in Oak Park: Trustees approved a special use permit allowing for a third bed and breakfast to open in Oak Park. Samuel Gevisenheit and Charles Tupta, who own a Prairie Georgian Revival home at 605 Iowa St., in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, plan to call their establishment Bishop Hall and would use three rooms with private baths for overnight guests.  

There is off-street parking in the driveway garage area for seven cars. The pair, who have lived in the home since the late 1990s, sought a special use permit to set up the establishment in October; the zoning commission approved the variance in January.