TINLEY PARK – The Tinley Park-Park District announced a project manager to oversee cleanup of the 280 acres of the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center.
Tinley Park resident Michael P. Maloney will serve as project manager for the Park District to oversee remediation of the property. Maloney is the former President of Local Union 597, the largest pipefitters union in Illinois with more than 7,000 members in Illinois and northwest Indiana.
Prior to his executive role with the union, Maloney worked for decades as a construction superintendent, managing large workforces on a variety of multimillion-dollar projects involving highly radioactive components in nuclear power stations across northern Illinois.
“We are thrilled to have Mike Maloney aboard to oversee this exciting project,” said Lisa O’Donovan, Park District Board Commissioner and Chair of the Remediate 280 Committee. “Maloney’s 40 years of leadership and project management experience are a tremendous asset for the Park District as we clean up the property for our community.”
Maloney becomes project manager as the initial landscaping work at the site is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. The landscaping work is critical to provide access around and within the property, which was massively overgrown, preventing environmental experts from being able to fully access the site and buildings.
Once the landscaping work is completed, it will pave the way for the next steps in the cleanup process – removing asbestos in buildings and hazardous materials on site as well as building demolition. In addition to the landscaping, a Phase 1 environmental report was completed this fall and provides more information and detail about the current state of cleanup work. Find the study, photos and video of the landscaping work, and other information on the Park District’s website.
Guiding the Park District’s cleanup efforts are environmental experts Renee Cipriano, former director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and Elizabeth S. Harvey, an environmental attorney with Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP.
The cleanup work will be funded through a $15 million state grant that was awarded to the Park District in this fiscal year’s state budget. The Park District is finalizing the grant agreement with the state to unlock that funding and officially take ownership of the property.
