East Oriole Avenue reconstruction slated for 2026 following Council approval

The Lennox City Council met Monday, July 28 at Lennox City Hall. With all members present, Mayor Danny Fergen and council members heard agenda items. With an addition to the agenda, Alderman Lauren VanDriel asked City Administrator, Nathan Vander Plaats to give more information on personnel changes. 

“Oakland Fergen is going to move into another position; he’s resigning from that position. This is for the following next few weeks. Brittany Klinger is going to help out as groundskeeper so Fergen can move into the position now that he’s old enough to be there,” Vander Plaats reported.

Under old business, the City of Lennox Park Board has recommended approval of a work order creating a Parks Master Plan. 

“This item was placed on your agenda first a few months ago back in May. At that meeting you expressed some support and interest in executing the work order but wanted to see what the next few months of sales tax revenue looked like. Our growth over last year has slowed in recent months. I certainly still remain concerned that we’re not going to reach significantly over last year. I think we’ll still be there, but it won’t be significantly over last year. If you combine that with the fact that our museum and band shell project orders have taken up a share of our available revenue for the year. I think from a financial perspective, I prefer to budget this in 2026. Instead of moving forward with an unbudgeted expense in 2025,” Vander Plaats said. 

A motion to reject the work order and move the project to 2026 made by Bill Daugherty, seconded by Laura Thiesse, motion carried.

In new business, the City of Lennox has secured funding and received draft work in order to begin design on the reconstruction of East Oriole Avenue from Main Street to Highway 44. 

“The project is expected to begin and end during the summer of 2026. It’s expected to cost just under $2 million. Of that, approximately $268,000 is expected to be spent on design and construction administration. We’ve secured $1.4 million funding with grants from the Department of Transportation and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, leaving roughly $586,000 to refinance,” Vander Plaats said. 

Mitch Mergen was present to give an overview of the project and the funding. 

“This project is solely city funded, so there’s no SRF funds or state funds or anything like that. There’s no red tape that I’m aware of at this point that we need to deal with,” he said. 

A motion to approve the financing package was made by Daugherty, seconded by Billy Welch, motion carried. A motion to approve the work order was made by Thiesse, seconded by Rob Peterson, motion carried.