Monday Grab Bag

A little bit of a grab bag of information today …

First, for those of you wondering about the opening of the Village Fresh Market which was originally looking at a November or December open: It looks like the opening has been delayed as extra work is being done than anticipated, according to Economic Development Director Janice Murphy:

The Village Fresh Market was scheduled to open in December but because more work is being done than originally planned, that opening has been delayed. The owner/developer has not released an opening date but will a month or so before its scheduled opening. It looks beautiful on the outside and inside. It will be a much anticipated event once it opens but well worth the wait!

I agree. The owner/developer has put a lot of time and effort into making this a great looking location that should be a standard that future efforts should seek to meet or exceed. Not to mention a much needed eastside grocery location.

Next … some of the comments this weekend that were also critical of the casino idea requested alternative ideas to be shared. A few ideas I put out there for the Randall Rd corridor that I believe would complement the destination type shopping that has been created up the road in Algonquin are:

How about a comedy club? Restaurants? Dinner-theater? How about a resort-like setting (no water parks, please)?

With all the shopping down the road in Algonquin and Lake in the Hills, perhaps folks would think about coming for a weekend … Friday or Saturday night comedy club or dinner-theater, an evening in a hotel suite followed by a day of shopping or even pampering at a day spa…?

President Sarto chimed in with a few ideas that he had …

I still would like to see an “International Village of Restaurants” located at this prime location. These would be “white tablecloth” style of restaurants and I’d like to see a hotel at this location with banquet rooms and a piano bar with live music, also located at this location could be a live dinner theater and comedy club. Something along the lines of Pheasant Run in St. Charles or Drury Lane in Oak Brook.

[…]

Perhaps a new civic center with a performing arts building? Or perhaps a Cultural Center with an art museum.

Hmmm … obviously not all the ideas may fly, but they certainly seem worth considering; moreso than a casino that would bring no revenue to the Village.

And, finally, there was a comment or two that have tried to make the controversial gun veto/override issue into something it really isn’t: namely, a show of lack of trust in our Police Department. I don’t see this as the case at all.

First of all, this was a decision made by the Board, brought before it by the Police Department. There were two options the Board could have taken: 1) sell the weapons; or, 2) destroy the weapons. The Police Department seemed open to either option.

When all was said and done, 5 members of the Board — not the Police Dept — decided to put these weapons on the street. As was pointed out in editorials and letters to both the Daily Herald and the Courier-News this weekend, public safety was put at risk for the sake of politics.

There is still time for them to correct this mistake. Let’s hope they do it.