In 2021, Forest Park received $1.86 million of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Joe Biden signed that year to stimulate the national economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the Oct. 28 village council meeting, Forest Park commissioners attended a public special meeting to discuss and vote on how to spend the remaining $226,177 of the village’s ARPA funds.
Village Administrator Rachell Entler presented to the village council items that they previously discussed budgeting for. The village council unanimously voted to dedicate the remaining ARPA funds to the following projects:
- $35,177 to improve the insulation in the fire station’s bunk room, plus $4,400 for the maintenance of the fire station, including painting and grounding the radio tower on the building’s roof
- $15,000 to update the Forest Park Police Department’s locker rooms, where Entler said many lockers don’t lock, and the women’s portion is too small.
“The women’s locker room just isn’t adequate for the number of police officers we have,” Entler said at the ARPA meeting. Locker updates would cost about $27,000, with the remaining $12,000 coming out of the village’s general fund.
- $100,000 to rewrite the village’s decade-old comprehensive plan, which outlines the community’s vision for the likes of local land use, community facilities and transportation.
“It would help take $100,000 of pressure off of the general fund if we were to use ARPA funding for this,” Entler said at the meeting. Though, she added, it would likely be more than $100,000 since that cost doesn’t include paying Muse Community Design, the village’s planning consultant, to review the plan.
Entler said she would get a request for proposal to the village council at its next meeting. The request for proposal would advertise to the public what the village is looking for when it comes to hiring help to rewrite the plan.
- $17,500 for a potential electric vehicle charging station. Entler said she and Public Works Director Sal Stella met with ComEd to discuss locations for the station. ComEd told them it could possibly pay for the entire cost of the project with ARPA funding that Cook County gave the company to help with EV projects. Forest Park is setting aside $17,500 in ARPA funding for the project, just in case. Constitution Court on Madison Street is the primary location the village is considering for the charging station, followed by the parking lot on Circle Avenue just south of Madison Street.
- $4,000 for engineering and legal fees associated with the Van-Buren Prairie Path extension.
“Until we get the whole situation situated with the Altenheim, we wanted to have some funds to pay for any consultants fees,” Entler told the Review. The village is still trying to acquire the land from the Altenheim.
- Entler said she and Mayor Rory Hoskins recently met with a family that owns space on Madison Street and wants to donate it to the village.
“The idea that we have for this space would be one that could be used for the community,” Entler said during the ARPA meeting.
She mentions possibly moving the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce from the basement of Forest Park Bank to the new building. Entler said the likes of the Forest Park Historical Society and Arts Alliance could also share the space. Entler suggested setting aside about $50,000 in ARPA funding to cover the approximate cost of the building over the next three years. This includes about $10,000 to get a consultant to help get the property off tax rolls, plus the cost of renovations, like installing a security system, replacing the building’s awnings and repainting. Entler suggested setting aside an additional $8,000 a year for three years for building maintenance.
The village of Forest Park must assign its ARPA money by the end of the year – and spend it by the end of 2026 – or return it to the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Since the village received its ARPA funds, staff has had budget meetings to discuss how to spend them.
Entler said that, while the village was keeping track of how it spent the $1.86 million ARPA funds, there wasn’t really a timeline of how much to spend each year.
Previous ARPA funds have been spent on the likes of a new air conditioning unit for the Howard Mohr Community Center, replacing the fire station’s roof and an ambulance, the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce’s marketing efforts, and for a construction services company to evaluate the village’s aging facilities.
The village’s original ARPA budget set aside over $522,000 to buy seven police vehicles and upfit them to the police department’s needs. This year, the village set aside an additional $20,000 to upfit two of those vehicles, since the cost was more expensive than the initial estimate.
Before last month’s ARPA meeting, Entler said she individually spoke with commissioners, who also approved dedicating $80,000 of ARPA funds to buy a new vehicle for the public works department.