Pact Creates Executive Panel for South Suburban Airport Commission

Pact Creates Executive Panel for Airport Commission 
Star Newspapers, IL

Thursday, January 8, 2004

The Park Forest Village Board plans to vote next week on a revamped 
intergovernmental agreement regarding the structure of the South Suburban 
Airport Commission.

The original agreement, approved by the board in October, needed an update 
because of changes within the commission, village attorney Mat Delort said. The 
structure of the group is different, but the project itself has not changed, he 
said.

"This really does not change the concepts that we talked about back in 
September," he said. "We're basically creating an executive committee to run 
the authority."

When the board approved the agreement, the commission's only members were Park 
Forest, University Park and the northwest suburbs of Bensenville and Elk Grove 
Village. Since then, about 30 additional communities have expressed interest in 
joining the commission, Delort said.

So many communities having an equal voice would be counterproductive, he said.

Village President John Ostenburg said there is no need for each commissioner to 
have an equal voice. He said each of the commission's communities supports the 
overall regional growth that will come from the airport rather than any benefit 
to individual municipalities.

"We are all committed to the same regional success," he said. "The 
establishment of an executive committee is the opportunity for much broader 
representation in the commission."

The executive committee will have the most power, but the other communities 
involved will be able to provide input through advisory committees, Ostenburg 
said.

"The way this agreement is structured increases the voice in decision making 
for everybody," he said.

Delort said the executive committee will include commissioners from each of the 
four original members.

He said it also will include one member appointed by the governor, one 
appointed by the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association and one member 
from a "ring" community surrounding the proposed airport site. That member also 
can be someone from the Kankakee River Valley Area Airport Authority.

The rewritten agreement also includes a new procedure by which the south 
suburban communities in the commission may force Elk Grove Village and 
Bensenville to leave the group if they do not do so voluntarily once certain 
goals are complete, Delort said.

The northwest suburbs have an interest in the project at this point because a 
new airport may inhibit further expansion of O'Hare International Airport, 
Ostenburg said. However, those communities no longer will have an interest in 
the project once the south suburban airport is open and operational.


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