New Garbage Cart Program 

LRS will deliver a 95-gallon garbage & 65-gallon recycle cart to each home in June 2023. You do not need to do anything if you want the standard cart sizes (95-gallon-Garbage, 65-gallon-Recycle).  You may submit a request for a 65-gallon garbage cart in place of the 95-gallon cart before April 21st. Additional garbage and recycle carts are available for $3.00 a month per cart.  

To access the garbage portal, visit here: https://www.lrsrecycles.com/villa-park-cart-selection-portal/ 

**Only complete the following section if you’d like additional or smaller carts, Do not submit more than one request online Please call 844.633.3577 to make changes to a request you’ve already submitted**

NO-MOW MAY 

The Village of Villa Park Board of Trustees is proud to announce the passing of a "No Mow May" resolution. This initiative invites residents to avoid mowing their lawn or a section of their lawn through the month of May. 

Why Mow Less?

The start of the growing season is a critical time for hungry, newly emerged native bees. Floral resources may be hard to find, especially in urban and suburban landscapes. By allowing it to grow longer, and letting flowers bloom, your lawn can provide nectar and pollen to help your bee neighbors thrive.

Mowing less creates habitat and can increase the abundance and diversity of wildlife including bees and other pollinators. One way to reduce mowing is by participating in No Mow April, No Mow May, or Low Mow Spring.

Just allowing weeds to grow is better than no flowers, but the typical lawn weeds may not be the best for bees, or the best neighbors to other flowers. Dandelions, for example, have pollen that is low in protein (poor nutrition for bees) and is known to suppress other flowers. You can go beyond reduced mowing by changing your lawn to include more flowering species. A “bee lawn” may include white clover (Trifolium repens) and other low-growing flowering plants such as creeping thyme (Thymus spp.), selfheal (Prunella vulgaris), and others. Some plants, such as native violets (Viola spp.), may already be present and should be encouraged as they are valuable host plants for fritillary butterflies. 

Regular lawn care code enforcement will resume in June. 

Annual Independence Day Parade 

Happy Independence Day! Hosted by the Villa Park VFW Post 2801, Join us for this annual Villa Park event. This year’s theme is “Reflections" The parade route is approximately 2 miles long. We step off at 10:00 AM, going west on Central to Harvard, South on Harvard to Madison, East on Madison to Summit, North on Summit to Park, and West on Park to Ardmore for dispersal. Thank you to the Villa Park Chamber of Commerce, Tri-Town YMCA, and the Villa Park Public Library for making this event possible. 

Do you want to sponsor or participate in the event? 

Participant and sponsorship forms can be found here.

Village Manager's Message 

The best news of the week is that we have a tentative agreement with Local 2392 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. With six new firefighter/paramedics on their first week on the job, securing a contract was important to both the Village management team and the Village fire-fighters. We have more than three trained first responders in both fire stations for the first time in many months.

Speaking of first responders, I get a chance to ride along with the with the Villa Park Police Department later today (Friday). I never get to spend enough time, out and about looking at the employees in the field, but as we sort out some contractual and policy development in Village Hall I hope to do more of this. Part of building an organization with leaders at all levels requires me to get some understanding of the day-to-day operations.

Staff had a Teams meeting with Hawthorne Development Corporation about their EcoTerra project and the frustration we had with the lack of progress. They do understand that the project could be a signature project in the Village of Villa Park. They reviewed their project schedule, and their current financing issues. They let us know to expect them at the next Board Meeting.

I dropped in briefly to see the Metra Safety Blitz at our Villa Park train station. I got to meet Jarrett Sardin the Metra Public Safety Coordinator and in the short time I was there saw Joe Amore who serves on the Bike, Pedestrian and Transit subcommittee of the Environmental Concerns Commission, Trustee Christine Murphy and Trustee-Elect Jorge Cordova before he caught the train to work.

Staff is working to prepare informational panels for the Recreation Center at Lions Park and the Lufkin Park renovations. Bid packets are being prepared for demolition of the CRB as well as the key materials for the construction of the new Recreation Center. At last Monday’s meeting we learned that we are not eligible for additional State Grants for this project from IDNR as we already have been awarded $10 million through them. We are still bidding the track as an option and will review funding options during the 2024 budgeting process.

The Village continues to assist VFW Post 2081 with planning this year’s Annual Independence Day Parade that will start at 10:00 a.m. on July 4th. Groups and businesses can sign up to participate or sponsor the event from this link: Annual Independence Day Parade - Hosted by VFW Post 2801. Many thanks to the Villa Park Chamber of Commerce and the Tri-Town Y for their assistance in planning the event as well. This week in addition to meeting with the Parade Committee and Hawthorne I met with Enterprise again about possibilities for updating our fleet through leases, and I finished the ICMA Leadership course. Don’t forget, if you want to receive a smaller (65 gallon) trash cart, please log onto https://www.lrsrecycles.com/villa-park-cart-selection-portal/ by Friday the 21st. I also met with Department Heads individually and together.

Matt Harline, Village Manager

To view the full manager's report, click here

To view last week's report, click here

Job Openings

We are now hiring for multiple summer seasonal positions. To apply, please visit here.

Upcoming meetings and events

Never miss a meeting or special event. To access our full calendar, click here.