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Politics & Government

Stone Avenue Station Renovations Move Forward

Village board approves plan for architectural services based on 2007 agreements.

The Village of La Grange Board of Trustees approved a plan to renovate the Stone Avenue Train Station, but Trustee Michael Horvath believes the village got the short end of the financial stick.

Horvath criticized the board’s decision to move forward on a plan to renovate the 110-year-old station based on prices secured in 2007. Horvath was joined by Trustee James Palermo in opposing the plan during Monday night’s board meeting. The vote moves forward a renovation project that has its roots in 20007. That year Legat Architects was tapped by the village to design renovations for the historic train station. After drafting preliminary plans Legat presented renovations that had an estimated cost of $985,000. Legat would receive approximately $101,000 for the design work. Horvath wanted the board to reopen the bid process and seeking proposals based on current market rates.

“This is just not good business. You do not base a contract on a four-year-old quote,” Horvath said. “A lot has changed in the world in the last four years and we could receive new bids that save the taxpayers money.”

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But reopening the project to a new bid process was not a wise course of action, said Village Manager Bob Pilipszyn. Listing several reasons to stay the course, Pilipszyn said the Local Government Professional Services Act limits the village’s ability to pursue architectural services based on pricing alone. The law requires local governments to seek out service who are the most qualified at completing the type of project and not based on the fees a firm charges. Legat’s fee structure is set at 9.5 percent of the total cost of the grant. However, they agreed with village officials to charge the work based on hourly rates with the caveat that their work will not exceed the 9.5 percent cap.

Marc Rohde, a Legat project manager, said the company’s price scale has not changed since 2007. He told the board his company would hold to the original fee schedule negotiated four years ago.

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Still, that was not enough to suit Horvath. He said he spoke with several architectural firms who indicated Legat was charging too much. Horvath also pointed out there were other firms who initially applied for the work in 2007 that charged a cheaper rate.

Trustee Jeff Nowak said they cannot determine what another architectural company would charge the village for the same work. Since the economy stalled in 2008 Nowak said he knows of many professional service companies that have raised their rates.

“I have not seen anything tonight that indicates their (Legat’s) rates are unreasonable,” Nowak said.

Attempting to appeal to Horvath, Trustee Mark Kuchler said if the process went out to bid again, it was likely the village staff would settle again on working with Legat given the companies solid track record and the legal parameters surrounding the grant money.

“I just don’t see how this gets us anywhere, where this goes,” Kuchler said.

The renovations will be funded by $1.085 million in grant monies, including $700,000 from the Federal Transportation Administration and $385,000 from the West Suburban Mass Transit District, which includes the communities served by Metra along the Burlington Northern railroad corridor, including La Grange.

Legat will not be able to begin work on the project until the Metra Board of Directors approves the plan at their Oct. 14 meeting. If Metra approves the project, Legat will draft the architectural plans construction will begin in the spring. Assistant Village Manager Andrianna Peterson said they expect construction to take two years to complete due to the number of safety requirements working on a rail platform requires. 

an additional $400,000 from the capital improvements budget aimed at other renovations due to the faltering economy and other pressing fiscal matters such as the village's underfunded contributions to its employee pension funds.

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