Orland Park board rededicates village hall to former Mayor Frederick T. Owens

Orland Park trustees on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution rededicating Village Hall as the Frederick T. Owens Village Hall, honoring the late mayor’s decades of local service.

The resolution and rededication followed remarks from Maura Owens Kanacki, who identified herself as a family member, and Tracy Maureen Sullivan, a longtime neighbor. Kanacki described her father’s local leadership, including efforts to bring Lake Michigan water to Orland Park, to professionalize village government and to promote regional economic development through the Argonne Regional Consortium. Sullivan and other speakers recalled his community engagement, sense of humor and work preserving local historic assets.

Mayor Dodge read the resolution’s whereas clauses and invited family members to address the board; Kanacki thanked the board for restoring the name after it had been removed from the building in the prior year, and she expressed gratitude on behalf of the family. Trustees then voted to adopt the resolution and to place a sign in front of Village Hall bearing Frederick T. Owens’s name.

In discussion the mayor and trustees recalled specific accomplishments mentioned in the resolution, including Owens’s prior service on the school board, the village board and as village president, and his efforts to support the historic Old Orland landmark known as the Twin Towers. Trustees described Owens as a formative local official whose work shaped Orland Park’s growth.

The board took public remarks on the record and then returned to the regular meeting agenda.