By Jeff Vorva
The Palos Park Village Council opened 2021 taking care of some insurance business.
During Monday night’s meeting via teleconference, the council voted unanimously to approve its insurance contribution to the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency of $88,051.
Village Manager Rick Boehm said that the council can use a surplus credit of $78,051 and the out-of-pocket cost will be just $10,000. He said the village will still have more than $238,000 left in reserve.
Risk management identifies, assesses and controls threats to an organization’s capital and earnings. One wrinkle is to set protocols for employees to follow and Palos Park Mayor John Mahoney lauded the village employees’ efforts.
“I want to thank all of our employees and staff for their contributions to risk management workplace safety that contributed to this good experience over the last several years,” he said. “I hope that we continue to observe strong workplace safety and risk management protocols.”
“It’s certainly a credit of everyone working together,” Boehm added. “We are keeping our risk management protocols correct and IRMA will keep after us moving forward as well.”
According to its website, IRMA’s mission to its customers are “to provide reliable protection against human and financial losses through a self-directed and proactive partnership which delivers high quality risk management services that are professionally managed for the benefit of members at a cost that is competitively priced.”
Members are protected by a tailored public entity coverage program including comprehensive liability coverage, public officials liability, boiler and machinery (including state required inspections), crime and fidelity and public officials bonds.
Other business
The council approved an electric service agreement with Dynegy Energy Services for the period of February 2022 through December 2023 at a rate of 3.6 cents per kilowatt hours.
It also approved an ordinance abating the tax levied for 2020 to pay the principal and interest on the $1.75 million general obligation bonds Series 2010A. The ordinance directs the Cook County Clerk’s Office to not levy property taxes for 2020 as sufficient funds are available from water sale receipts to make the bond payment.
Ice dam damage
Commissioner G. Darryl Reed, who oversees buildings and public property, warns residents who have icicles on their houses to check the roof for ice dams.
“Ice dams can cause serious damage to your roof and frozen water along the roof’s edge can cause an ice dam and melting snow running down the roof begins to back up,” he said.
The water can eventually leak into the attic and cause damage. He suggests to prevent ice dams in newly purchased buildings, put a water-resistant barrier under the singles, which will help prevent the water from seeping inside the building.
Wood chips available
Wood chip deliveries will be made in the late summer and early fall. Residents can call 708-671-3721 and leave a name, address, phone number and a request of either one or two loads to be delivered. One load equals eight yards.
Cops await vaccine
Police commissioner Dan Polk said that as of Monday, Palos Park police officers have not received COVID-19 vaccinations.
“We’re still working on it,” he said. “It turned into a kerfuffle, but we’ll get it done.”