Secretary Of State Facility In Orland Park To Close Permanently

ORLAND PARK, IL — The Illinois Secretary of State Express Facility inside Orland Park Village Hall will not reopen. The decision to permanently close the facility was made by the Secretary of State's office, according to a news release from the village of Orland Park. The facility had been closed since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

With the closure of the Orland facility and the recent fire that forced the indefinite closure of the facility in Chicago Heights, this leaves the Secretary of State facility at 14434 S. Pulaski Road in Midlothian as the nearest to both residents of Orland Park and Tinley Park. Other facilities remain open in Bridgeview and Lockport.

According to the village, plans before the outbreak were to create a permanent facility with ful services in Orland Park. Mayor Keith Pekau is among those who continue to back that possibility.

"I understand the dire financial situation in which the State of Illinois has found itself," Pekau said. "However, the residents of Orland Park and surrounding communities deserve a full-service Secretary of State facility.

"For a quarter-century, the taxpayers of Orland Park provided the Secretary of State's Office rent-free facilities in exchange for a very limited number of services. In addition, the taxpayers of Orland Park contribute approximately $250 million in tax revenue annually to the State of Illinois."

But Dave Druker, a spokesman for the Illinois Secretary of State office, said the administration in Orland Park has actually requested that the state remove the facility for "some time."

"The intergovernmental agreement between us and the village of Orland Park actually dates back to before Jesse White was Secretary of State," Druker said. "They (the village of Orland Park) made it very clear they didn't want us and asked us to leave."

Druker said the village had also requested the state pay rent for using facility and "that was beyond anything we could consider," noting the rent-related dispute led to the decision to permanently close the express facility.

He said the Secretary of State office is "definitely looking for something in the area" to continue to serve the residents of Orland Park and Tinley Park.

This article originally appeared on the Orland Park Patch