Lyons adds police vehicles
Two former squad cars are being sold
By Steve Metsch
Lyons will be selling two former police vehicles online after replacing them with two new vehicles.
They will be sold at www.obenaufauctionsonline.com, Mayor Christopher Getty said.
A 2009 Ford Crown Victoria and a 2013 Ford Explorer are currently for sale.
“We’re putting them up for auction, for sale to the highest bidder,” Getty said during the June 19 meeting of the village board.
The board unanimously approved the move.
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Lyons police chief James Keating shows a new vehicle to Mayor Christopher Getty. Photo by Steve Metsch.
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In other business, the board unanimously approved entering into an agreement with Oak Lawn, which will field emergency calls for the Lyons Fire Department.
It’s related to a state directive that has communities bundling their emergency dispatch services together.
Based in its village hall on 95th Street, Oak Lawn fields calls for itself along with Burbank, Evergreen Park, Hodgkins, Bridgeview, Bedford Park, Alsip, the Central Stickney Fire Protection District, and now Lyons.
It will cost Lyons roughly $80,000 a year, Getty said, and provides a clearer, more reliable radio system. Lyons annually gets 12,000 to 13,000 calls.
Earlier, in the board’s finance committee meeting, Public Works Director Ryan Grace said he expected the village to net nearly $17,000 to $18,000 through the sale of replaced water meters as scrap metal.
Three vacant houses in Lyons soon have dates with the wrecking ball.
The village board, at its June 5 meeting, unanimously approved a resolution that will pay Bechstein Construction Corp., of Tinley Park, an amount to not exceed $43,984 to demolish the three houses.
Bechstein crews will tear down two houses at 8440 and 8442 W. 45th St., and another house at 8603 W. 45th St.
The first two houses are on a block that shares space with light industry and those two lots could one day be used for a future business, Mayor Christopher Getty said.
The third house, in the 8600 block, sits beside property already owned by the village.
The village owns the vacant lot west of that house and a vacant lot to the south, stretching down to 45th Place. The demolition will create a vacant L-shaped property once the demolition is completed, its future use to be determined.
Best of all, as Getty noted after the board meeting, the demolitions are not costing Lyons a penny. The village board, at its May 15 meeting, unanimously approved a $180,000 grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority to pay for demolitions of such properties.
A man living next door to the house in the 8600 block of 45th street said he was happy the vacant house would be demolished.
“We’ve been hearing about that for a year,” he said.
Now, with funding in place and a contract approved, the next thing he’ll hear will be the house tumbling down.
— Desplaines Valley News
Email Steve Metsch at sm4610@sbcglobal.net
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