With only 4.5 square miles and 54,500 residents, some may say Oak Park is a small town. But the municipal services that make our community such a great place to live, work and do business are anything but small.
Oak Park has more than 100 miles of Village-owned streets, 500 alleys, nearly 18,000 parkway trees, 7,000 lighting fixtures, 104 miles of water mains, 110 miles of sewer mains and some 4,000 public parking spaces.
Services are delivered by a workforce of about 350 full-time employees who bring a wide range of formal education, experience and expertise to their jobs.
From a highly trained and motivated police force focused on neighborhoods to firefighter-paramedics who routinely eclipse national emergency response times, Oak Park’s public safety programs rival those of much larger communities.
The Village’s public works programs are at the core of municipal services. They pump the water, maintain the streets, plow the snow, keep the traffic signals operating, trim the trees and keep a fleet of roughly 250 traditional, hybrid, compressed natural gas, bio-diesel and electric vehicles running smoothly.
One of only a handful certified by the state, the Health Department keeps our restaurants clean, pets licensed, childcare facilities safe and the community prepared for emergencies.
Other municipal services nurture business investment, foster diversity, equity and inclusion, plan for future development and protect the community’s housing stock, one of Oak Park’s most valuable assets.
Since approved by voters in 1952, Oak Park has operated under the council manager form of government, in which an elected Village Board hires a professional manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of municipal services and programs.
Though employees are assigned to different departments, and the jobs performed vary, all have the common mission of serving the many needs of the residents of Oak Park. So how did they do in 2022? Here’s a snapshot of some of their activities from last year…
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