The Orland Park Village Board agreed Monday to fund $12.1 million of renovations to the swimming pool at the Orland Park Health and Fitness Center and the Centennial Aquatic Center, while expressing hopes to better manage the businesses.
The board also discussed legislative priorities to be pushed forward by two lobbying firms that were hired in November.
Stuckey Construction Company, based in Waukegan, was chosen to complete pool renovations, which were judged as critical by village staff. A proposal from Reed Construction totaled only $11 million, but Public Works Director Joel VanEssen said the village had trouble working with the company in the past.
Stuckey’s proposal says the work includes modernizing roofing and flooring at the Centennial Park Aquatic Center and painting the ceiling at the Orland Park Health and Fitness Center. Board member John Lawler said he toured both facilities a couple of weeks ago and raised concerns about managing costs.
Lawler highlighted that while the Centennial Park Aquatic Center is open for public use, residents pay membership fees to use the health and fitness center.
“We’re basically asking all nonmembers in the village to kind of subsidize this,” Lawler said. “I’m a little concerned that we haven’t been building reserve capital to replace these things.”
Mayor Jim Dodge agreed with the concerns and asked village staff to budget for the development of an updated business plan.
Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown
Centennial Park Aquatic Center in Orland Park. (Daily Southtown staff)
“We’re going to have to do a lot of thinking about what we want to do with these amenities,” Dodge said.
The Village Board also discussed its 2026 legislative priorities, though no set list was approved.
While William Healy suggested additions to the running list of priorities, such as repealing the SAFE-T Act, that eliminated cash bail in Illinois. Other board members emphasized building relationships at the state level and funding local projects.
Listed priorities include requesting funding for the remainder of a Southwest Highway/143rd Street road project, including $40 million needed to complete 143rd Street from Wolf Road to West Avenue, $3 million needed to complete 143rd Street from West Avenue to Southwest Highway and $3.6 million to complete 143rd Street from Wolf Road to Will-Cook Road.
The village also hopes for $6 million to improve safety at the accident-prone 94th Street and 159th Street intersection, $1 million to complete traffic signal optimization at 159th Street and LaGrange Road and to complete a traffic study of 159th Street from Will-Cook Road to Harlem Avenue.
Officails also said they hope to support efforts to ease property taxes, ensure public pensions remain sustainable and increase funding opportunities for local services. Priorities also include increasing funding for police officer body cameras, training and less lethal equipment and for emergency preparedness training.
“This was intended to be a living document, so two weeks from now, we can take another run at this and have another discussion,” Dodge said. “We’re not writing this in stone tonight.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
