Burr Ridge To Fill Director's Post

Burr Ridge IL

07 January, 2022

4:33 PM

Description

BURR RIDGE, IL — Janine Farrell is resigning her position as a member of Burr Ridge's Plan Commission, but she is not going far. She is becoming the village's community development director, a recently approved position with a salary range of $89,000 to $129,000. As director, she will serve as the commission's staff support. According to a village memo, an employee cannot serve on an appointed board while employed with the village. Farrell has been a Burr Ridge resident since 2015 and a plan commissioner since 2018. "I look forward to many years of service to the Burr Ridge community," Farrell said in an email to the village. In November, the village decided to create the community development director's position. It previously had planned to hire a planner, paying between $60,000 to $65,000. But officials said the village received a lot of feedback that the range was considered too low. In the summer, the village hired a planner, but he left a few weeks later, taking another job in the same field. Many of the best candidates for the planner's position wanted about $85,000, Village Administrator Evan Walter told the Village Board in November. The village, however, did not see enough value in the position to pay that much, he said. Since the summer, though, the village created a downtown business district, enacted a moratorium on new development in downtown and began contemplating a new long-term plan for development, Walter said. This additional work, Walter said, justifies creating a community development director's position.