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The popular Girls’ Night Out event returns to downtown Downers Grove from 5 – 9 p.m. Thursday.
The event will feature sales, tastings, prize drawings, massages, makeovers and demonstrations — in short, plenty of activities to appeal to a group of girlfriends looking for an evening of leisure.
Click here for all the details and participating merchants.
Tonight Mayor Sandack broached the topic of putting three advisory referendum questions on the November ballot. November is an election that has no local offices involved. Although he offered up topics, the questions are expected to be finalized after council discussion.
The three topics after the break: [Read more →]
And this one counts!
The village is asking residents to complete a 16-question Garbage Service Survey online, or to stop by Village Hall, 801 Burlington Ave., Public Works, 5101 Walnut Ave. or the library, 1050 Curtiss St., for a paper copy. The village says the survey takes about seven minutes, but most will probably be able to dispense with it in half that time.
“The results of the survey will be presented in a report to the Village Council and will be used to help determine customer preferences regarding garbage services,” the village Web site states.
The survey will be available for about a month.
As for last month’s DGreport poll on preferences for local garbage collection, a third of respondents favored a toter for recyclables and half wanted a choice of stickers or toters for garbage. The current 18-gallon recycling bins were favored by only two of 74 respondents.
Two local officials appear largely supportive of bills sponsored by Sen. Dan Cronin and Rep. Randy Ramey that would put the DuPage Water Commission under the control of the county.
The water commission has come under increased scrutiny since November, when it was revealed administrators had spent down nearly $20 million in financial reserves.
While the Tribune is reporting that some area mayors are denouncing the effort — which they see as a “power grab” by Cronin, the Republican candidate for county board chairman — Mayor Ron Sandack reacted more favorably.
“Although I have yet to read the proposed piece(s) of legislation and fully think through the possibilities, it appears this may be a worthy endeavor,” he said in an e-mail. [Read more →]
→ 3 CommentsTags: DuPage Water Commission·Liz Chaplin·Ron Sandack
The D58 school board will hold a public hearing tonight on the limitation of administrative costs, as required by state law. Following the hearing, the board is expected to approve the district’s application for waiver of the limitation, which holds school districts to a five percent annual increase in certain administrative costs.
The meeting is schedule for 7 p.m. at Longfellow Center.
The move is necessary because the district’s administrative costs — including salaries, benefits and travel expenses for the superintendent, the business manager and other business personnel, and the assistant superintendent for personnel — increased by nine percent from FY09 to FY 10, or from $1,302,207 to $1,413,920. [Read more →]
The state is pulling us off the same cliff edge they jumped off years ago.
David Vaught, Governor Quinn’s budget director, announced Quinn’s intention of reducing income tax payments to municipalities in Illinois by 30%.
“You need to take a look and say OK, does everybody have skin in the game here?” Vaught said. “It just doesn’t make sense that the municipalities would get a pass.”
While there is no plan to fully fund the $4.1 billion in required state pension obligation, the state proposes refusing to distribute the normal 10% of state income tax receipts to local municipalities, creating a $300 million gain for the state.
For 2010, DG had budgeted for $3.75 million in state income tax revenue. That budgeted number represents a grimly realistic decline of almost 10% over 2009, and almost 19% from 2008. If adopted by the state, DG stands to lose up to $1.125 million in revenues, blowing another hole in the financials.
On Wednesday Quinn plans a state address to broach this topic, along with another pitch for a large increase in the state income tax.
→ No CommentsTags: budget·planning·Taxes
Financial projections released at last month’s D58 school board meeting included some assumptions that haven’t been part of the local scenery for some time. Namely, a two- to four-percent decline in existing EAV through 2012.
The projections don’t see a turnaround until 2013, when existing EAV is predicted to rise by three percent following dips of two percent in 2010 and 2012 and four percent in 2011.
The assumptions reflect a housing market that is a far cry from its heyday of double-digit appreciation. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the predictions will materialize and also whether local property tax bills will reflect the decline. [Read more →]
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I’m with Zorn. The Postal Service should not only cut Saturday delivery, but one or two more days a week as well. (See the poll in the right sidebar to vote your preference.)
With America’s reading and writing habits going electronic, most of the daily mail is both unsolicited and unwanted. I easily toss 75 percent of whatever winds up in my mailbox, and have for years.
Nor do I make regular use of snail mail. I pay my bills online. E-cards ensure that birthday greetings will arrive on the very day you wish. As for mass-mailings like Christmas greetings, those became a luxury when stamps hit 44 cents. [Read more →]
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The Village has put up a primer on coyote behavior that will be of interest to local pet-owners and walkers looking to avoid a confrontation with the wild critters, which in recent years have proliferated in the Western suburbs.
The information was posted last week on the recommendation of the Environmental Concerns Commission, which reviewed the coyote issue in January at the request of the village council, said Doug Kozlowski, village communications director. Others have also raised the issue with the council in recent months. [Read more →]
→ 3 CommentsTags: coyotes
This blog just marked its third anniversary, which I’ve decided to observe by sharing some of my experiences as a hyperlocal blogger –- experiences that have prompted me to reach out to the larger journalism community for support and to hire an attorney to look out for my rights.
I’ve decided to bring you in on these developments because you’re part of this experiment, too. An integral part, as it turns out.
I’ve alluded to some offline conflict in the past, but I’ve never made clear the full extent of the push back to which this blog has been subjected. [Read more →]