Random Acts

Road Closed!
There will be a few road closures in Carpentersville over the next few weeks. On the west side, Miller Rd will be reduced to one lane to create the stacking lane at Liberty Elementary. On the east side, Maple Ave will be completely closed between Wilmette and Oak Ridge.

League of Women Voters opposes local immigration laws
“There was an overwhelming concern about the uneven treatment of immigrants — both legal and illegal — from one municipality to another, making it very difficult for legal and illegal immigrants to know what the law requires and sending illegal immigrants even further into the shadows,” [Lake County League Director Jane] Partridge said.

Based on a consensus of at least 75 percent of members, the League opposes local police enforcing immigration laws in Illinois. Waukegan and Carpentersville have applied to participate in a federal program that would train officers to initiate deportation proceedings for legal and illegal aliens convicted of violent offenses.[Read more]

On Board
• Tuesday, August 21st, 2007; 7:30pm, Carpentersville Village Hall — Regular Board meeting [Agenda]

• Minutes from the July 3rd, 2007 Meeting

• State of the Village Address to be given by President Sarto next Tuesday at Village Hall. [Courier-News announcement] One matter of correction to the notice: there will not be time allotted for comments and/or questions.

[BTW, when contrasting the Courier-News’ Ben Lefebvre’s report with that of the Daily Herald’s Larissa Chinwah, why does it appear that the Daily Herald always puts a negative spin on things? I guess, though I could be accused of the same thing — but, then again, I blog my thoughts …]

End of traffic-jam Liberty?

Though yet to be completed, the waiting/stacking lane at Liberty Elementary school at Miller and Huntley Roads on the Village’s West side will probably be one of the things that will be on President Bill Sarto’s list of things accomplished in the Village. The stacking lane will help ease traffic congestion along Miller Road, particularly at dismissal time at the school.

However, not everyone is happy about the new lane. Some residents have come forth at Board meetings to express their disappointment that the Village is spending $66,000 for a temporary waiting lane. The decision to get something done to ease traffic problems as soon as possible is due, in part, to the fact that members of the Village Board, in a special meeting with members of the District 300 Board, parents of Liberty students and residents, had agreed to work to resolve the problem.

Problems with acquisition of land necessary have put off going directly to constructing a permanent fix. In many cases, land owners will donate the portion of their property needed for such things to the Village or the school. That has not happened in this case. Eminent domain proceedings will have to be filed in order to obtain the land, which could take much more time.

D300 officials came back after the meeting and said that they would not contribute to the temporary fix, though. Despite the fact that this would benefit the school, and provide a quick solution to the matter, D300 opted to leave it all up to the Village to fix. This is a problem that D300 officials allowed/created when they built (and build) schools without any consideration for traffic coming to and from the school.

Now, once the stacking lane is completed, the Village is looking to put more restrictions in place to ensure that the money it has decided to spend for the parents and residents of Liberty is not in vain. Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski will call for a ban on parking west of the stacking lane.

This seems like a good idea. After all, if the Village is footing the entire bill to get a fix in place quickly, then folks need to be utilizing it. And, if there are further problems, then D300 needs to get those things fixed … while also living up their end of the deal on the permanent stacking lane.

[Read the Daily Herald story]