Deer Park sticks with Kildeer

After flirting with the idea of ending its relationship with the village of Kildeer for police services, Deer Park trustees Monday decided to continue the partnership.

Trustees voted 4-2 in favor of a new five-year agreement with Kildeer to continue providing police services to their community. Trustees Bob Kellermann and Joel Rotter voted against the deal.

"We are very pleased," said Kildeer Police Chief Jeff Lilly. "We have been part of this community for nearly 10 years."

Deer Park officials had also been considering a 10-year contract from Barrington to provide police services.

Trustee Howard Thrun said he was voting in favor of continuing on with Kildeer because of the relationship the two communities had developed, as well as the current department's knowledge of the village's heavily traveled Rand Road corridor.

Lilly said his department is excited about continuing to build bonds with the people of Deer Park.

"(The officers) care for the people here," Lilly said.

The new five-year deal, Lilly said, is different and less expensive for Deer Park than the three-year deal he proposed in October. Terms of the new contract were not immediately available Monday.

Under what Lilly proposed in October, Deer Park would pay Kildeer about $1.43 million in 2008-09, $1.57 million the following year and $1.67 million in the final year of the contract.

This year, Deer Park is paying $1.3 million for police services.

Barrington officials offered a 10-year contract.

Under that proposal, Deer Park would have paid Barrington $1.39 million in 2008-09, with costs rising to $1.69 million in 2012-13.

For the second five years of the deal, if costs rose less than 5 percent a year, the remaining years of the contract would have kicked in automatically. If the costs rose above 5 percent a year, then Deer Park trustees would need to approve the contract.

Moving forward, Rotter and Trustee Maureen Pratscher said they believe it is important to have better communication between the police department and village. Both said they want Lilly to start attending meetings at least once every other month.

"I would like to see better communication overall with whatever department we decide to go with," Pratscher said during the board's deliberations Monday.

Deer Park's current contract with Kildeer was set to expire in April.