Talk Of Secretary Of State Facility Opening In Tinley Park Begins

TINLEY PARK, IL — Officials in Tinley Park are looking into the possibility of an express Illinois Secretary of State facility opening in town. The area has been without one since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic as the express facility that was open inside Orland Park Village Hall has closed permanently.

Tinley Park Village Manager Dave Niemeyer said Thursday the village has been looking at possible places to house the Secretary of State office over the past couple of weeks.

Trustee Michael Glotz, in a Wednesday email to Niemeyer and other village officials, listed three possible landing spots for the Secretary of State in Tinley Park.

Currently, the nearest Secretary of State facility for Tinley residents is in Midlothian. The facility in Chicago Heights remains closed after a fire broke out as a result of civil unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd last month. Others in the south suburbs are in Lockport and Bridgeview.

Glotz asked Niemeyer to look into the possibility of the facility opening at the former site of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's vehicle emission testing center on Duvan Drive, which has been left vacant since the Illinois EPA closed the site in 2016.

The trustee also asked if the village could "assist" the state in finding a spot in a vacant Tinley Park storefront or, as a "last resort," see if they could open in a portion of the Kallsen Conference Center at Tinley Park Village Hall.

"We have not specifically looked at the emission facility and Kallsen Center but will look at those too," Niemeyer told Patch.

Dave Druker, a spokesman for the Secretary of State office, said the state is "definitely looking for something in the area" to continue to serve the residents of Orland Park and Tinley Park earlier this month when the Orland Park closure was announced.

He said again Thursday the state remains "committed to having a facility in the area and are talking to several people about locations," although he did not indicate if any of the possibilities mentioned by Glotz were among the ones under consideration.

This article originally appeared on the Tinley Park Patch