Wegolb: The WeGo Weblog for West Chicago |
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News about West Chicago, Illinois
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Thursday, January 22
Chicago Sun-Times picks up McAuley School story There's not a whole lot new in the Sun-Times report on the effort to save Illinois's last one-room school, which I noted last week. West Chicago School District 33 still wants the McAuley School Rescue and Restoration Group to present its fundraising plans by the end of the month--and still wants to sell the land the schoolhouse is on by the end of June. But while you're familiar with the story, you have to be glad about the attention of such a major metro daily. It can't hurt the effort to save the building--something everybody wants, but not everybody wants to fund. City buys three 19th century homes on Main Street As part of its efforts to beautify and reinvigorate the downtown area, the West Chicago City Council spent about $500,000 to buy three Main Street homes between downtown and City Hall. "The idea is to hold these for development and if there's no interest, we can turn around and sell them," Mayor Michael Fortner told The Daily Herald. A city press release posted on WegoWeb is more specific: "These properties ... are ripe for either rehabilitation into mixed-use houses with office/retail on the first floor and residential above, or for a larger development when assembled with neighboring properties, similar to what is being done with the former Mobil site down the street." 411 Main "has become somewhat notorious locally" for its connection with November's police shooting, notes the Herald. The city manager's analysis, posted on WegoWeb, estimates that the city could see a $43,282 return on their investment in four years. Lions Club awards The Daily Herald Wednesday dutifully noted the West Chicago Lions Club's annual dinner, along with its awards to Lulu Holguin (Citizen of the Year), Mickey Cox (Melvin Jones Fellowship Award), and Tom Feltes (Special Appreciation Award). Sad news, no details Today's Tribune has this sad obituary: "Cori E. Colford, 17, of West Chicago, loving daughter of Gisele (Michael) Flaynik and Patrick (Carol) Colford." No word in any of the local media about how Cori died, though one would have expected the death of a local 17-year-old--especially one of a long-time and notable local family--to make the news, no matter the circumstances. Any one know what happened? The Tribune also noted the death of former West Chicago resident Thomas L. Rucker, 68, who had been living in Aurora. Wednesday, January 21
West Chicago's history through the eyes of EBay I'm not selling this postcard photo of the Community High School in the mid-1950s. I'm just letting you know it's being auctioned on eBay.
Other items include two patches: an emergency services patch and a general West Chicago "Community Strip B&W RWS" (Translation please?) Gangland: The Sequel? The Courier News of Elgin this week ran a two-part report (part 1 | part 2) on local gangs with troubling conclusions: new troublemakers are arriving from California, and they may be harder to quarantine and eradicate than west suburban gangs of the past. The series quotes extensively from West Chicago police Cmdr. Bruce Malkin, noting that our fair city is one of the few to have resident gang members fingered in recent shootings or stabbings. After commenting that one emergent gang, Mara Salvatrucha, contains hard-core members who "are former guerrilla soldiers from Central America with extensive training in weapons and warfare tactics," Malkin is quoted as saying these new groups "are a force to be reckoned with." "When we started seeing [gang members] seven years ago, a lot of guys didn't know about them," Malkin told reporter John Dobberstein. "Then we caught on to what they're about, and now they're coming out of the woodwork." According to The Courier News, two of the main gangs in town are the Nortenos 14's (which has a long rivalry with the Mexican Mafia-aligned Surenos 13's, which is California's largest prison gang and is present in in 14 Chicagoland suburbs, including Joliet and Carol Stream) and 18th Street, L.A.'s largest street gang, with ties to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. The gangs are drawn here, says Malkin, because the large Hispanic population "provide[s] a tremendous underground network" for recruiting. So Malkin has been actively involved in making the town less friendly for such recruiting. Dobberstein writes: West Chicago police put together a plan several years ago to educate the public about gangs, to increase training of officers, to step up intervention efforts, to clean up gang graffiti and to put a higher priority on investigating gang-related crimes. (Notably, there's no word on West Chicago's innovative efforts at civil suits.) But even involving parents down't always help, West Chicago patrolman Ray Johnson told the paper. "The parents deny it, even if their kid's spiral notebook has 13s all over it and everything they wear is blue," he said. With problems like this, it's clear that education and intervention only go so far. West Chicago's biggest weapon, then, has become the immigration department: In the past few years, West Chicago police have requested deportation of an estimated 50 illegal aliens, most of them Surenos 13s, Malkin said.But "for awhile" may be soon ending, The Courier News report suggests. Better than Netflix When I lived in Seattle, the King County Library system had an incredible deal: you could order materials online, and the library would mail them to you for free. That was before the rise of the Internet, so I don't know if the system is still in place. But the West Chicago library has an even better deal, provided you have a disability (even a temporary one). Jessica Hausckuecht, the library's outreach coordinator, or a volunteer will personally drive to your house with your book, video, or whatever, then pick it up again three weeks later. Sound like a great deal, but don't know what to read? Ask Marilyn Dashiell, who'll help you pick a title or two based on your interests. The only stipulation for delivery, adult services manager Pamela Galion told the West Chicago Press, is that those requesting it "must live in the boundaries of the district and cannot make it to the library on their own." He's certifiable West Chicago resident Tim Holmes is DuPage County's first graduate of the Youth Development Practitioner Certification Program. Holmes, whom the West Chicago Press describes as "a former drug user and gang member," is the Latino liaison between the DuPage County Area Project and the city's Riverwoods Community Center. "I know that my calling in life is to use my past to better someone's future," Holmes told the paper. "Truthfully, I was lacking love, attention and comfort. After I gave my life to the Lord, He showed me what these children at Riverwoods were lacking was what I wanted as a kid." Thursday, January 15
Here come da judge You may know that town resident Robert Thomas is an Illinois Supreme Court Justice. You may also know that he's a former Chicago Bears place-kicker (1975-84). You may also know that Kane County Chronicle columnist Bill Page accused him of unfairly dealing with Kane County State's Attorney Meg Gorecki, who received a four-month suspension of her law license for ethics violations. You may not know that Thomas has filed a defamation lawsuit against Page, the Chronicle, Managing Editor Greg Rivara, and Shaw Suburban Media Group. Here's what today's Daily Herald says: In the columns, Page painted Thomas as a biased judge and a political enemy of Gorecki during last year's deliberations about what punishment, if any, she would receive for suggesting a bribes-for-jobs scheme in 1998. Page wrote that Thomas tried to influence the court to disbar Gorecki or suspend her license for a year. The Chronicle, which stands by Page's columns, ran an article on the subject yesterday. And since I have no interest in incuring any wrath from an Illinois Supreme Court Justice and former Bear who's on the warpath, I think I'll refrain from commenting on this item. Clear! Central DuPage Hospital announced yesterday that West Chicago will be among the four area police departments to receive funds for portable automated external defibrillators. But The Daily Herald isn't clear whether the devices have already been purchased (it's all in the past tense), but it sounds like that between the four local Ws--West Chicago, Winfield, Warrenville, and Wheaton--police will have 54 defibrillators among them. David Cooke, CDH's medical director of cardiovascular services, said the hospital sees about 1,000 deaths from cardiac arrest annually--and that number should drop with police carrying these devices in their cars. "The only thing keeping these people from surviving is the distance and time from one of these types of devices," Cooke told the paper. Michigan web site designed by West Chicago resident is a surprising hit Nearly 350,000 people logged on to The Leland Report last year. These days the site, devoted to the northwest Michigan town between Lake Michigan and Lake Leelenau, gets about 2,350 visitors each day--more than the townhip's 2,033 population (according to the 2000 census). Perhaps more surprising is that the site is designed by West Chicago artist James Burnham of Burnham Graphic Arts, Inc. The graphic arts business was started by whose father, who now runs the day-to-day operations for the Leland Report. Hmm. Wonder if he's ever heard of Wegolb? We could use a few thousand daily readers... Recent deaths in town:
Wednesday, January 14
Part of historic downtown to be razed Part of one of the town's historic districts, at Washington and Fremont streets, will be torn down to make room for the STAR Line, the high-speed commuter rail linking Joliet and O'Hare. "Because one of the stops is proposed for McConnell Avenue in West Chicago, some historic buildings in the area are in prime redevelopment locations," The Daily Herald reports. One building won't move: "The Tastee-Freez is a contributing building and almost a significant (architectural) structure," Luann Bombard, West Chicago's director of cultural services, told the paper. More recent articles:
DuPage County officials slam look of tech park West Chicago's technology park has had one headache after another. Funding for the first building has stalled in Congress, though Tech park executive director Jack Tenison said U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert still has confidence it will be included in a $100 billion transportation bill. "Funding is still on track, though," Tenison told tech park board members, according to The Daily Herald. "They are hopeful this will get done in the first quarter." Trouble isn't only in the nation's capital; down in Springfield, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has held up some funding. Over in Wheaton, so have DuPage county officials. Now comes word from the tech park board that the landscape plan ain't so pretty. Among the phrases, according to the Tribune: "An architectural blight," "an eyesore," and " downright ugly." The comments were apparently deemed so amusing that the story was picked up by The Miami Herald. I am not making this up. And when Miami residents are laughing at you, you've really got a problem. Saving West Chicago's schools The Trib has an article on the effort to save McAuley School, which was the last operating one-room schoolhouse in Illinois. Selling the 1.8 acres off of Roosevelt Road upon which it sits could almost totally wipe out the $237,000 deficit in the budget of West Chicago Elementary School District 33, but it's unclear what will happen to the building, the paper reports. Of course, you knew all of this if you've been reading Bob Lemon's WegoWeb, or if you attended the McAuley School open house in December. Taxes go up on video, DVD, and videogame rentals If you rent videos or videogames at West Chicago's Hollywood Video or Blockbuster stores, be prepared to spend more. The City Council last Monday voted 9-3 to approve a 3 percent tax, which starts in March. Good news for the city: the tax is expected to bring in between $30,000 and $35,000 a year. Bad news for renters: prices at the two WeGo chain stores are already the highest around. At Hollywood, on Neltnor (Rt. 59) and Washington, new release DVDs are $4 (20 cents off if it's a VHS tape instead), and $2 for older titles on VHS. Videogames are $6 for 5 days. Blockbuster, at Roosevelt and Joliet, is basically the same, but charges $3.79 for both new DVDs and VHS titles. Like Hollywood, the price doesn't go down for DVDs, but older VHS titles are $2. Videogames are $6 here, too. the big difference between the two? Blockbuster takes competitors' coupons, Hollywood doesn't. Just down Washington Street/Geneva Road, however, is Video Images, an independent store with lower prices acoss the board: New releases are $3, dropping to $2 for older DVDs, and $1.50 for older VHS titles. Most videogames are $5 for five days, except games for the popular PlayStation 2. Ironically, these are a buck cheaper. And since Video Images is in Winfield, it's not subject to the West Chicago tax. So the question becomes: Whom do you support? The more expensive chain store in town, or the cheaper independent store down the road? ( I should add that Video Images used to have a West Chicago branch at 139 W. Roosevelt, but it's long gone.) Back to the tax: Not surprisingly, the Encino, California-based Video Software Dealers Association isn't happy with the council's efforts. "Tax rates should be equitably applied so as not to favor one type of business over another, absent a compelling justification," spokesman Sean Bersell told Supermarket News. "Although the amount of the additional tax that would be levied on each rental may seem small, it would change the competitive dynamics of the market for home viewing or movies." Supermarket News also reports that the council raised raised license fees for currency exchanges and businesses that cash checks. Since I think most of these places exploit the poor (or do they?), I'm conflicted: on one hand, I don't like having these businesses in my town, and such a tax may discourage such . On the other hand, this tax is clearly only going to affect the poor--not too many rich dudes cash their checks at these places. Back, for now at least Since there's so much West Chicago news in the last few days, I figured I might as well update a few posts. It's been early a year, but hey. It's not like traffic dropped off! Tuesday, April 8
District 33 lobbies Springfield The West Chicago Elementary School District #33 legislative initiative is in full force this week as Superintendent Jon Mink and others are visiting state lawmakers to ask for additional school funding. "The administrators are seeking help on a number of fronts: additional state aid for schools, an end to unfunded mandates, an end to local property tax caps and a recalculation of a census poverty count," writes the Chicago Tribune's Ana Beatriz Cholo in today's edition. Mink calls the $3.7 million school referendum passed April 1 "a Band-Aid," and says the real solution must come from Springfield. "It's frustrating every year to be faced with financial crisis. People say education is important ... but then you need to back that up with money," he said (and I'm pretty sure the Tribune quoted him better than the Press did earlier this week). Mink, Chicago school chief Arne Duncan, and other local administrators, are asking for several changes and funding additions. Check out District 33's legislative initiative page to see how you can help. Blotto blotter: West Chicago teens busted for drinking Police busted ten underage drinkers at the Naperville Red Roof Inn early Saturday morning, the Daily Herald reports. Most of the young partiers were from West Chicago, including family members Sirenia and Noe Huerta (29W144 Bolles Ave.), 18-year-olds Caesar Garcia (823 Lincoln Ave.) and Joshua W. Aramburo (500 Belleview Ave.), 19-year-olds Bobby M. Dieter (124 E. Stimmel St.) and Brian J. Toms (405 Arbor Ave.), and 20-year old Alejandro Salinas (600 W. Forest Ave.). A cited 16-year-old, who may or may not have been from West Chicago, was not named. (Note: several of the above names were cited for consumption, others merely for possession.) Saturday, April 5
District 33 will soon begin rehiring teachers A blurb in today's Chicago Tribune says that West Chicago Elementary School District #33 will "begin rehiring teachers as soon as possible, with a partial list to be submitted by Supt. John Mink to the school board April 17." Friday, April 4
The last $300,000 in the district 33 budget Tuesday's vote for the District 33 tax referendum "means only $300,000 has to be sliced from the coming year's budget," the Daily Herald reports today. "The goal of the board is to reinstate all programming that had been scheduled for cutting if the referendum had failed," Superintendent Jon Mink said. "I imagine there will be some administrative recommendations." There was a list made up of how to cut $1.3 million from the budget, but that was before teachers and staffers agreed to freeze their salaries, saving $1 million. "The board identified some $300,000 in supplies and equipment in that list," Mink told the paper. However, the Winter 2003 district newsletter says the board may decide to "raising the minimum number of students in a class so that there will be no fewer than 20 students per classroom. This change alone could generate the additional revenue still needed." The remaining budget cuts will probably be determined at the April 27 meeting of the school district board, the Herald says. Why David Sabathne lost Finally, a piece of election analysis. The Daily Herald examines how political novice Greg Kauth won the Ward 2 city council race, defeating 10-year incumbent David Sabathne in a landslide. "Certainly I was outspent," Sabathne, the town's longest-serving alderman, told the paper, "but I'll give credit to Greg because he walked out there and did what he needed to do." "I just worked a lot door-to-door and introducing myself around the neighborhood," Kauth said. "And a lot of it is Dave being in office 10 years. Anyone at that point gets a lot of baggage." Kauth was more than happy to point out some of that baggage, as one of his main campaign issues was that Sabathne is director of the chamber of commerce. "In my opinion his being the paid director of that was a big conflict of interest," he said. Sabathne says the claim is ridiculous and beside the point. "I'm embarrassed by the lack of support the city provides the chamber," he said. "Did they just want me off the council, or are they willing to continue hurting the city based on their personal agendas?" Sabathne counteres the criticism by saying that Kauth may be beholden to city treasurer Don Earley, who asked him to run. But Kauth denies it. "Don said to me all he expects of me is to return the phone calls of my constituents," he said. Now how about an article about what issues face the new city council, and what the passions and promises of the new members might mean for the future of the city? Freeze still frozen According to a press release posted at the West Chicago Elementary School District #33 website and WegoWeb, the West Chicago Press really blew it this week. "The district, School Board and teacher's union agreed to a pay freeze March 12, saving the district an estimated $1 million," an unbylined article about the District 33 referendum reported. "However, Superintendent Jon Mink said April 1 the pay freeze for teachers and support staff would likely be lifted." That apparently came as quite a shock to Mink. "The reporter claims Dr. Mink spoke these words during his victory speech the evening of April 1. What Dr. Mink did say was that, 'the pay freeze by teachers, support staff, and administrators is what put us over the top' in winning the campaign,'" the press release says. The Press will reportedly correct the error on the front page of its next issue. The tax referendum that didn't pass "Wheaton mosquitoes soon may be packing up and heading to West Chicago," The Daily Herald reports today. Wheaton passed its tax increase for mosquito abatement, but West Chicago voted it down, 2712 to 3703. Supporters of the tax increase blame the wording. It looked like it would be a huge tax increase, but actually the owner of a $200,000 house in West Chicago would have paid about $2.91 more a year. "Needless to say, the board is disappointed," Tom Eckhardt, attorney for the West Chicago district, told the paper. "The amounts are so small." Blotter Tuesday night, Batavia police arrested 26-year-old Sandra Cardoso, of 806 Burr Oaks Drive, Apt. 102, for shoplifting at the local Kohl's. |
