Oak Forest Needs More Money for Water Negotiations

,administrators are ready to take the next step in negotiations. Public Works Assistant Director Rich Rinchich recently requested $10,560 to continue negotiations with Oak Lawn to try and finalize a contract this year.

"The agreement that the city had previously had signed on with, in terms of the negotiations, has reached a limit in terms of dollars where we've agreed to," Rinchich said. "Going forward, it is believed we can resolved the final negotiations with Oak Lawn in the coming year."

Oak Forest is one of five municipalities including New Lenox, Mokena, Orland Park and Tinley Park, negotiating as a consortium with Oak Lawn to supply water to the five municipalities for the next 30 years.

The requested money is to pay two consultant firms Oak Forest's portion of their fees. The two firms are WRB, LLC and Malcolm Pirnie Engineering, which Ishler said have made substantial progress in negotiations over recent months.

Currently the two firms have submitted proposals necessary to move forward with the contract with Oak Lawn.

The proposal from Malcom Pirnie Engineering's included reviewing Oak Lawn contracts, meeting with working group members, negotiations and finally reviewing the preliminary design. The total cost of the proposal is $50,000.

WRB, LLC proposal included three sets of meetings with the Oak Lawn negotiating team, support and assistance to two committees for finance and operations, general coordination of the consultant team and dealing with project administration related to the Chicago rate and system improvements. The cost of the consultation work would be $46,000 for WRB, LLC.

Oak Forest would only be on the hook for 11 percent of the total $96,000 due to the two firms, as the other four municipalities are also paying their portion. 

Theapproved the expenditure for the cost of the consultant in a 5-0 vote March 27.