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Politics & Government

Orland Park Insurance Costs to Stay Even With New Vendor

Property tax rebate applications have been pouring in to Orland Park Village Hall, according to officials, and other news from Monday night's village board meeting.

 

Orland Park had been facing a 10 percent increase in its health insurance costs, but a change in vendors decided on at Monday night’s village board meeting will keep insurance costs the same for the coming year.

“Changing from Aetna to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will keep insurance costs flat,” said Michael Wojcik, senior vice president at Horton Benefit Solutions, the village’s insurance consultants.

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Aetna had been planning to increase the village’s health insurance premium by 10 percent, which would amount to a $500,000 increase, Wojcik said.

Blue Cross will keep the premium the same as it had been before, according to Wojcik.

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“This is not a case of being dissatisfied,” said Mayor Dan McLaughlin. “We are making the change to keep our costs down.”

Potentially higher health care costs had been a sticking point in contract talks between the village with police, as well as its union workers.

2 new liquor licenses approved

Trustees approved liquor licenses for Blissful Banana Café and the Round the Clock restaurant. Blissful Banana will receive a Class A license allowing a full bar, while Round the Clock will be able to start selling beer and wine under a Class C license.

Rebate applications under way

Trustee James Dodge said the property tax rebate application process has “gotten off to a good start.”

Dodge said some initial glitches with the online application process have been ironed out.

“We have tweaked a couple of things in the online process, which seems to be working,” Dodge said.

Village staffers said almost 2,000 applications have been received online since the process began in October. More than 700 others were filed with help from village staffers. Another 2,500 were mailed or dropped off by residents lacking Internet access or who declined to file electronically.

Dec. 14 is the application deadline. Rebate checks will be issued next March.

Waste contract up for bid

Village staffers are preparing to accept bids for the waste hauling contract that has been held by Waste Management for several years. The contract expires in October 2013.

The new bid has several options including weekly recycling pickup instead of every two weeks, going to a two-cart system for residents with one for recycling and the other for trash, using compressed natural gas powered trucks, going to longer contracts for cheaper rates.

“We are not dissatisfied with Waste Management,” said McLaughlin. “It’s just time to rebid the contract after a couple of renewals under the old one.”

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Looking for more government stories?

  • 2012 Election Results: How Orland Park Voted
  • Live Blog Captures Election Day 2012 With Words and Images
  • How To Apply for the Orland Park Property Tax Rebate
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