Licolnwood Village Board of Trustees Nov 15 meeting
by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
The Lincolnwood Village Board of Trustees at its meeting Nov. 15 ratified a $68,888 contract executed by the village manger with Dahme Mechanical Industries to replace the village’s chemical feed equipment for the water system after the old equipment malfunctioned and stopped feeding chlorine to the water.
Public Works director Ashley Engelmann said that the system malfunctioned on Nov. 10, and village manager Timothy Wiberg executed an agreement for the new equipment before coming to the board for permission.
Englemann said that the system was installed in the 1970s and that after it stopped feeding chlorine, operators switched to manual operations and will continue until the new system is installed on Nov. 21.
The village receives its water from Chicago, and it adds chlorine to the water at the pumping station. Englemann said that repair parts are obsolete and that the system cannot be integrated with the village Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, which is used to monitor the water system and therefore must be manually adjusted each day.
The village planned to replace the old system this year. However, on Oct. 5 the village board rejected bids that were received from two companies because they were significantly above the $20,000 that was allotted for replacing the system.
Since Wiberg executed the contract, the City of Chicago has been providing sufficient chlorine to the water while operators monitor the system so that the required levels are met.
Also at the meeting, the board amended the village code so that its emergency systems board and emergency telephone system surcharge comply with state law. The state formerly required that any municipality with a dispatch center needed to have an Emergency Telephone Systems Board, and in Lincolnwood that board has had five members, the fire chief, the police chief, a dispatcher, a firefighter and a resident. The village has collected a surcharge on all phone calls that helped fund the operations of the center.
In 2015 the state amended the Emergency Telephone Systems Act and repealed the Wireless Emergency Telephone Safety Act to consolidate all 911 systems to prepare for a statewide conversion to a "next generation" system, which became effective in January.
The act transferred the administration of dispatch systems and the distribution of surcharge revenue from the Illinois Commerce Commission to the new office of the statewide 911 administrator, a department of the Illinois State Police.
The act limits local control of dispatch centers and rescinds authority to collect fees from telecommunication carriers and wireless carriers. The act replaced local fees with a statewide surcharge and imposed a mandate requiring all dispatch centers serving a population of less than 25,000 to consolidate. The goal is to reduce the number of dispatch centers in the state by half by July.
Under a recent agreement, the Village of Skokie will provide emergency dispatch services for police, fire and emergency medical response for Lincolnwood. The first-year subscription fee of $736,791 will increase by 5 percent annually throughout the agreement.
It is expected that the combined emergency dispatch operations will begin during first quarter of 2017. The village attorney recommended amending the code to reflect the establishment of the joint emergency systems board.
The trustees also approved a covenant restricting any addition or expansion of the Airoom building, 6825 N. Lincoln Ave., into the Keystone Avenue right of way that the board vacated on Oct. 20 to allow additional parking for Airoom Architects and Builders. Upon payment of $70,000 and the recording of the plat, the village will sell the property to Airoom.
