Elburn Village Board holds off on payment for Elburn Station Community Park

ELBURN – The Elburn Village Board did not entertain a motion for approval of a payment for the Elburn Station Community Park at its meeting on June 15.

At its June 1 meeting, the Village Board approved a construction contract with Wilkinson for a bid of $760,969 in a 4-3 decision. Per a memo from Village Administrator John Nevenhoven to the Board, the total estimated cost of the Park is at least $181,673 over the $800,000 budgeted.

"The construction contract is $760,000. There's the permits that were in there which ran about another $3,500," Nevenhoven explained. "And, then there is about another $124,000 for playground equipment."

An Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant the Village has covers up to $400,000. Shodeen Development Inc., the Village of Elburn and Blackberry Township agreed to split the remaining $400,000, or $133,333.33 each.

Per the memo, Blackberry Township voted on June 9 to expend only the agreed upon amount, leaving Shodeen Inc. and the village needing to split the cost of any amount over $800,000.

With costs over $181,000 still projected, it would then leave an additional $90,836.50 apiece from both the village and Shodeen – on top of their original commitments – to make up the remaining balance.

With the lack of a motion moving forward, the Village will simply pay its already-agreed to amount for the bid.

"As much as I want to see this happen, It's hard to say that we can just cough up $91,000 more knowing departments are making cuts; it's really tough," member Sue Filek commented in the discussion.

The board also approved two ordinances for allow the sale of personal property, including a portion of excess black dirt of pile located in Blackberry Creek South of Well Five and the southern water tower that the Village could look to sell for between $6 to $10 per cubic yard. The village would like to keep a portion for public works projects.

Other items approved for sale were a salt spreader, and a public works Ford F150 vehicle.

The village also received three bids for concrete work improvements at Prairie Park, and the it approved the second-most expensive option of $23,200 from West Suburban Concrete. The bid from WSC is expected to include more structural steel, stronger-grade concrete and likely complete the work in one day.