Debate about $30,000 bill delayed in Island Lake
A planned discussion of a $30,000 bill from a consultant that was publicly contested by an Island Lake trustee this summer was postponed Thursday night.
The invoice from Draper and Kramer, a Chicago firm, stemmed from the now-scuttled plan to build a new village hall.
The company's vice president, Larry DiVito, was scheduled to appear at the village board meeting to discuss the matter but was unable to attend, Mayor Charles Amrich announced.
The board pushed the discussion off to its next meeting.
Draper and Kramer was hired to develop the village hall project in 2012, during Debbie Herrmann's tenure as mayor. As part of the contract, Draper and Kramer was to be paid $30,000 regardless of whether the plans became a reality.
The project died shortly after Amrich and three new trustees took office in May.
The plans called for a municipal complex at Water Tower Park, which is on Route 176 at Newport Court. Proponents of the plan, including then-Mayor Debbie Herrmann, said the complex could house village offices, a police station, a community center and other services.
Village staffers and the police share a building on Greenleaf Avenue. The facility — a former school that dates to the 1950s — also contains a preschool, a senior center and a gymnasium.
When a nonbinding referendum about the village hall plans was placed on the ballot as part of a grass-roots effort in November 2012, Island Lake voters overwhelmingly opposed the project. Amrich and his allies later made stopping the project a campaign priority.
The $30,000 bill was delivered to the village in August. Trustee Keith Johns, who ran with Amrich and now leads a committee that oversees finance issues, questioned the bill at a subsequent board meeting.