Independent
TAKE ONE
Villa Park
10th Annual
Antique Quilts Quilter’s Barn Sale $4 adults ages 18+ $1 ages 5-17 Pay at the door
16W680 Grand Ave. , Bens
enville
For more information vis it bensenvilleparkdistrict.o rg
also serving Oakbrook Terrace
VOL. 13 • NO. 13
March 25 & 26 10am-3pm
WWW.THEINDEPENDENTNEWSPAPERS.COM
274670
FREE
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2017
Villa Park Capital Improvements figure into budget Plans in place to realign fiscal year to calendar year
FOR THE VILLA PARK INDEPENDENT
The Villa Park Board of Trustees held a budget workshop meeting on Wed. March 15 at Village Hall to serve as a public forum before the annual budget goes before the Board for approval in April. The fiscal year is set to begin on May 1. According to Village Manager Richard Keehner, the Village staff has proposed aligning the fiscal year with the calendar year. The fiscal year for Villa Park currently runs from May 1 to April 30. For next year, Keener indicated a 20-month spending plan will be proposed. This will pave the way for the 2019 budget to begin on January 1 to coincide with the calendar year. “Many municipalities across Illinois have already done this,” Keehner said. “This will enable better planning and follow up for, say, capital projects.” By switching to a calendar year budget, tracking of projects will flow better for purposes of tracking and auditing, according to Keehner. Village Director of Public Works Vydis Juskelis then presented an overview of fiscal year 2016/17 projects using the Street Improvement Fund. This was the second year using this fund where bond referendum money was placed to pay for street rehabilitation, maintenance and rebuilding. “We did complete a total of 33 miles of streets, which includes four miles of rehabilitation and 29 miles of maintenance,” Juskelis said. “We touched about 45% of our streets in some manner.” Total expenditures for these projects was $5.44 million, with $3.25
million coming from the bond funds. The total bond expenditures over the two years since voters approved the bond issue is $6.68 million. Juskelis said staff is ‘cautiously
optimistic’ that there will be a surplus of bond funds when all the proposed projects are completed over the next few years. Projects such as improvements to 1.67 miles of
streets including Park Boulevard, North Princeton and High Ridge along with maintenance such as pavement patching on 4.76 miles of streets, crack sealing of 13.73 miles
of streets and asphalt rejuvenation on 5.25 miles of streets were completed. Design and engineering for
See BUDGET, Page 18
COURTESY PHOTO Villa Park Independent
Grade school welcomes Irish dancers
Students at an area grade school got a real Irish treat on Friday, March 10 when performers from the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance came to entertain them. Afterward the dancers taught the audience how to perform the first step of a jig, preparing everyone to properly celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!
Inside:
Police Reports...........6 Classifieds..........23-24 Sports �������������������� 19 Travel ��������������� 25-26
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