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Cal Skinner at McHenry County Blog reports that D300’s Lakewood School is getting a new track … courtesy of Otto Engineering’s Tom Roeser, and others.
Dedication ceremony will be 10am Saturday, followed by a work day to plant landscaping to beautify the area around the track.
Also, being reported: the Minutemen will bring Sheriff Dan Beck back on Friday, October 26th, from 6pm – 10pm, at McHenry County College.
Tickets for the Oct 26Th 2007 6:30-10pm event will go on sale Oct 1st 2007
Tickets are 10 dollars for members of the Illinois Minuteman Project, and Members of FAIR and Members of Numbers USA. (MEMBERSHIP HAS IT’S REWARDS!)
Tickets for all others are 50 dollars apiece. No tickets will be sold at the door.
All attendees will be asked to sign in the day of the event with a picture ID.
Court date set for Village Trustee
A December 2007 trial date was set Wednesday in the criminal case against [Trustee Paul] Humpfer, 43, of the 6100 block of Coventry Court, Carpentersville. On Aug. 3, Humpfer was charged with four counts of misdemeanor domestic battery based on a complaint made by his wife. Humpfer opted not to waive his right to a jury trial, which could slow the court proceedings somewhat.
In December 2005, Humpfer was also accused by his wife of domestic battery, but she later dropped the charges. One count, which alleges that the Trustee hit his wife in the legs with a baseball bat, is punishable by up to 364 days in jail.
A conviction on these counts would likely put Humpfer’s trustee seat in jeopardy.
Pre-trial motions begin December 13, with trial set to begin on December 17th.
[Read the Courier-News article]
Residents in 6 counties will get federal disaster aid
The federal government will provide assistance for people and businesses in Kane, DeKalb, Grundy, LaSalle, Lake and Will counties who were affected by severe storms and flooding in late August.
This means that residents affected by storms and flooding may apply for funds to reimburse their losses.
FEMA, which administers the federal assistance program, planned to open the toll-free (800) 621-FEMA (3362) — or (800) 462-7585 for hearing- and speech-impaired people — this week for people to apply for assistance. Registration may be completed online at http://www.fema.gov.
[Read the Courier-News article]
County must provide bi-lingual voter support
Kane County must adhere to the stipulations until Dec. 31, 2010.
They include providing Hispanic voters with Spanish translations of all election-related information and providing a number of trained bilingual election judges proportionate to precinct populations. The county also must provide trained bilingual interpreters at polling places, invite eligible bilingual voters to become election judges and educate and train them.
A civil suit had been filed by the U.S. Department of Justice when they noted failure to comply with requirements of the Voting Rights Acts in Carpentersville in November 2006. See the announcement from the US Department of Justice.
In the November election, the number of Hispanic voters was the lowest ever, said Hollie Kissane, a County Board member who represents Carpentersville.
“We’ve been very disappointed in the turnout,” Kissane said. “We thought that for sure, with what’s going on in Carpentersville with the illegal-immigration act that they’re trying to pass, we thought [Hispanic residents] would really get out and vote, and they didn’t.”
She conceded, though, that some residents were probably frustrated with the process, not because of the lack of bilingual information but because of delays in opening polling places.
“Three of our precincts did not open until almost 10 o’clock,” she said. “So a lot of people came to vote but couldn’t.”
CTA-Roads deal could create fast-track to gridlock
While State Rep Mike Tryon works for McHenry County, the issues he’s speaking of affect the Northern end of Kane County … specifically the Longmeadow/Bolz Rd bridge and the Western Bypass in Algonquin.
The only specific road improvement mentioned is the Western Bypass (to ease the traffic flow at Routes 62 and 31 in Algonquin). There is no mention of the Bolz Road bridge, in southern Algonquin and Carpentersville, without which the Western Bypass will not work. Local municipal and county officials seem intent on making people pay a toll to use the Bolz Road bridge … which means, of course, that those who don’t want to pay a toll will continue to cross the Fox River at Route 62.
Yep!
Some people have asked … “why didn’t the caregiver simply take the child to the hospital?”
In my view, this is beside the point. She called 9-1-1 for help. Perhaps she didn’t have a car. Or maybe she didn’t have a license or insurance.
Others have said the mother was at fault for leaving the child with someone who did not speak English. But, what if you had “that nice Polish lady” cleaning your house, who couldn’t speak English and an attic fire was detected while she was cleaning and she called 9-1-1, but couldn’t communicate with the operator? Would you be to blame for having hired someone to clean your home who couldn’t speak English?
Still others have said that this occurred before the illegal immigration ordinance was introduced. While true, the contention is that the ordinance was already being talked about and introduced only about a week after this incident. For the ordinance to be introduced, would have required things being in motion before that. It is those things that I believe the Plaintiffs will contend contributed to the negligence, because they may have been directed to limit those situations where Hispanics, or even just those who’s residency status could not be established, were transported.
By the way … if there are any derogatory comments posted containing things like “anchor baby”, etc … I’m going to delete them completely without hesitation. Such language is indicative of the kind of atmosphere/environment which this lawsuit contends exists in Carpentersville. I won’t tolerate it.
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 …]
During his report at Tuesday night’s Board meeting, Trustee Paul Humpfer said that he was “disappointed” that information delivered to residents on the new waste management program was translated into Spanish.
Apparently he would prefer the garbage pile up at residences, or the job of ARC workers be made more difficult. Just another example of an unwillingness to communicate even important information to residents.
Later, Trustee Judy Sigwalt reported on an incident she said occurred at “a Hispanic bakery”. An email that was forwarded to the rest of the Board members noted that a resident was not served at the bakery because “no English”. “There are two sides to every story”, Sigwalt charged, seeming to infer that Hispanics were not welcoming either — perhaps to justify her own position and attempt to recover from the damage done by the New York Times Magazine article.
But, Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski reported that “indeed there are two sides to every story.” She said that the person did not refuse service simply because the person was an Anglo, but rather said they did not speak English. Another Anglo who went into the store (and a member of the audience raised his hand) was served at that bakery. “So, yes, there are two sides to every story.”
Yet, not all was roses for Ramirez-Sliwinski at the meeting. At one point, countering Sigwalt, she uttered a phrase in Spanish. When asked by Sigwalt if she could translate into English, Ramirez-Sliwinski said she couldn’t. Sigwalt then asked President Sarto to ask her to translate … Ramirez-Sliwinski’s reply was a curt “no”. I do not feel that this was appropriate and is representative of the kind of cattiness that does not need to be brought tit-for-tat to these meetings.
And finally, let me say that it would be nice if President Sarto could offer a bit more brevity to his commentary. He offers many good points, I think, but needs to use fewer words to make those points, especially because those good points tend to get lost in the verbosity. It would also be helpful to not belabor the points in attempts to hammer them home.
BTW, today marks Day 10 of Border Patrol Ad Watch. The Village still insists on advertising for a job that would move folks out of the community. It would be nice to see them at least advertise for job opportunities in and around Carpentersville. But, politics is the rule here; not common sense. And everyone is dug in so deep that they will never accomplish anything. Talk about needing a recall election … we need a new Board or perhaps we need to simply dissolve the Village government.
It’s been awhile since I did something of a lazy Friday posting, so I thought today it might be appropriate.
State of the Blog
First off, there’s been a lot of buzz generated surrounding this blog since it was started about 32 days ago. Thanks to everyone for their support, and for the encouraging emails and comments. Definitely keep them coming! And, you can be sure that this blog will continue to work at providing you with solid information, investigation and opinion about what is going on in the Village to help make the Board accountable to what they say they need to do and what the residents need and ask of them.
Get the word out about this blog! Tell your friends and neighbors about this blog. If you see some information here that you want to pass out to others, feel free to print it off, make copies and distribute it. Heck, take it to a Board meeting and read it during the public comments portion, and call the Board to accountability. All that is asked is three things:
- Distribute postings and/or comments in their entirety and distinguish any comments you add from those of Carpentersville Action Network; and,
- Reference http://cvillecan.blogspot.com and Carpentersville Action Network at the top of the copy; and,
- Send an email or leave a comment (which can be anonymous, if you like) that you intend to distribute it. Any other information you feel is pertinent is quite welcome.
Every other fair and legal use should not be a problem.
Is this “Reality TV”?
When you go to a Village Board meeting, like the one this past week, do you ever get the feeling that you are just off-camera watching a live version of the reality show “Survivor”? (Does anyone actually even watch that show anymore?) You can see the “alliances” formed and plotting. Even look at the approach that is taken to things being done in the Village …
Little more than a month ago, Trustee Sigwalt was quoted as saying:
“I’ve got four more years on the board and so does Paul, so [the Immigration Relief Act is] not going to fade away. If we have to wait, we have to wait.“
When we look at the way things are being handled on the Board, we can definitely see that there are some who prefer to wait and do nothing, and others who are trying to move this Board forward. Despite not wanting to talk about the Immigration ordinance itself, Sigwalt and company appear to be single-minded in making all things about immigration. Which, of course, does nothing positive for the Village.
I know that I’d like to see nothing better than to have President Sarto re-elected about 1 1/2 years from now (and there are a number of examples provided on this blog of work he has been doing for the good of the Village), particularly because Trustees Sigwalt and Humpfer seem content to do nothing positive for the Village until Sarto is out. What a shock it would be to them if things were turned around, and their heads went on the chopping-block and they were held accountable for their inaction (as well as Judy’s disrespectful displays at Board meetings — I can hear her say “Oh my God!” at this very moment!).
Board Bits
Finally, the Board did a few things at this week’s meeting that might be of interest, but on which I haven’t commented:
- The Audit and Finance Commission is staffed. Finally. Trustee Humpfer chose Trustees Ritter and Hinz to serve; joining residents Sherry Dobson, Nate Spain and Michael Sievertson. President Sarto completes the 7-member panel.
- The vote was 5-2 in favor of requiring appointees to commissions and panels to be U.S. citizens, and registered voters. Of course, this excludes resident (legal) aliens who cannot register to vote until they become U.S. citizens. While this could be a good thing, it seems to be another example of trying to exclude all but U.S. citizens from any involvement in Village business. Merely another wedge ordinance.
- The Board approved a measure to create a “improvement committee” to “educate” residents about code violations, rather than penalize them for such violations. This seems like a step in the right direction toward improving the look of the Village, but again seemed to initially take a tone of being a wedge issue in the community.
- Notice was received from Washington, D.C. this week that 287(g) ICE training would be available to Carpentersville law enforcement officers, addressing a request made by the Village in January. The Village must wait until after October 1st to find out whether they will receive federal funding for the training, but the Village intends to move forward with the plan, even if the added costs must be paid with local taxpayer dollars.
- And, just wanted to reiterate the move 5 members of the Board made Tuesday night to allow public comments even on items not pertinent to Village business.
Finally, just a note to say that meeting minutes from the June 5, 2007 board meeting have been posted to the Village website. Take a look and keep up with what’s going on in these meetings.
That’s about all for now.
Just some random thoughts today …Carpentersville WebWatch
For those of you keeping track … today is Day 3 that the Carpentersville Village Website has been unavailable. (Update: Checked in around 4:15pm today and saw the site was back online. Unfortunately, even after 3 days, it still has the same, unappealing design.)
Nothin’ Doin’
From the looks of things, you can expect little to be done in the Village by Trustees Sigwalt and Humpfer, along with Teeter and Hinz, for the next two years. I’m sure that’s their plan. They don’t want anything too significant to be done during that time; they don’t want anything to possibly be attributed to Sarto. Their use of the immigration ordinance as a ploy to get elected is becoming quite evident. What ever happened to their argument that the Board needs to do what’s right for Carpentersville? Seems like they are just interested in doing what’s right for themselves. In fact, all we’ve heard is what’s happening in other communities; they have offered no specifics about Carpentersville itself.
{sniff, sniff} You smell that? It’s called conjecture.
The Great American Festival
With all the division and animosity caused in the community by the Board, especially over the English-only non-binding resolution and the illegal immigration ordinance, the Village certainly could use a festival to try to bring the community back together. And, just such a fest will be happening this weekend — the Great American Fest will be taking place on the East side, behind Meadowdale Mall. Get out there and enjoy yourselves, and show support for your community and your fellow residents.
Technical Stuff
Thought I’d highlight some points of interest on the blog …
The first is the sidebar. At the top you’ll find a link to “Get updates via newsfeed”. If you use the Firefox browser (which I highly recommend, and which you can download via the link in the sidebar), you can subscribe via Firefox’s “Live Links”, which will create a bookmark/favorite that will update with links to the latest posts. Or, you can use a number of other news aggregators and feed readers of your choosing. Google Reader is actually fairly nice and straight forward. You can sign up with any email account.
The next thing to point out is the Carpentersville News section. It is a Google feed of 5 recent news items mentioning Carpentersville.
And finally, the Blog archive contains a list of posts categorized by month. Good for scanning back at past posts. Enjoy!
Carpentersville Action Network 
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