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Accident Settlement Prompts Tax Hike, Loss of Bookmobile ServicesOrland Park (Ill.) Public Library has indefinitely parked its bookmobile as the result of a recent $8.5-million personal injury settlement stemming from a December 2001 traffic accident that left an Orland Township man severely brain-damaged.Library Executive Director Sharon Wsol decided to pull the vehicle off the road after about 40 residents raised concerns at a March 21 board meeting that despite the accident, the 35-foot, 13-ton bookmobile was still in use with only $5 million in liability insurance coverage. “It was something I was thinking about before,” Wsol said in the March 24 Chicago Daily Southtown. “We’ve certainly taken people’s concerns into account.” Because the library’s liability insurance coverage cap at the time of the crash was $3 million, village taxpayers are forced to pay half of the $8.5-million settlement through a one-time tax that will add $100 in property taxes for every $100,000 of their homes’ market value. The library, which is a separate government entity with its own elected board, is using about $1.5 million in financial reserves to cover the remaining cost. The accident involved then–78-year-old library maintenance employee Clyde Kennedy and then–24-year-old Brian Kelly, who reportedly ran a red light and collided with the bookmobile. Kelly does not remember the accident. Kennedy, who was not ticketed, continued as a substitute bookmobile driver until a year ago when he stopped for what Wsol called “health reasons.” The library denies that he was at fault. Meanwhile, Orland Park Mayor Daniel McLaughlin has asked the library to sell the bookmobile. “We’re suggesting that they just get out of that business altogether,” he said. Posted March 25, 2005. |
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