More than 2,400 ash trees have been identified in the county to date, not including the city of Belvidere and one remaining township. Deizman said for every public tree, typically, there is another one in a private area — meaning that more than 4,000 infected ash trees could be in Boone County
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I received this list of newspaper articles regarding Dr. Steven Baule [ New Superintendent of North Boone District 200] from an anonymous source. Dr. Baule currently is the Superintendent of Westmont, District 201. The list is for the Westmont, Illinois newspaper—For the individual article links, go to District 100 Watchdog: http://district100watchdog.blogspot.com/2010/04/highlights-of-newspaper-chronology-of.html
Full List of Articles
District 201 ponders closing South School
District 201 votes to shut South’s doors
District 201 incumbents win re-election
District 201 parents form advocacy group
Public allowed to speak at School Board meetings
Parent frustrated with communications
Board told by state it must respond to public's request
School Board defies attorney general regarding superintendent contract
School Board reverses closed session policy after contacted by state
Residents shown doors at District 201 meeting
Miller parents concerned about composition of fourth-grade class
Special ed parents upset about communication lapse
High school nets poor test score rankings
Park District to sponsor canceled trip
Eight residents running in District 201 School Board race
District 201 School Board needs new leadership (letter # 2)
A Better 201 slate wins all board seats
Post Election Articles
Boone County Health Department Discusses Employee Grievances
Below are the open session minutes of the March 17, 2010, Board of Health meeting at which Stephanie (Seaworth) Crawford resigned. At this meeting 90 days of severance pay was authorized by the board of health.
Among other items I question, how can this board authorize such a large amount of compensation without a role call vote. Apparently none of the members wish the public to really know how they voted or they all believed that level of severance was deserved by Ms. Crawford, who did not meet the initial qualifications for the job and served approximately 13 months.
Were not the employee grievances against Ms. Crawford and her mentor, Mr. Empereur? If these grievances were justified ,why would severance pay be award to Ms. Crawford?
Susan Karras was the employee who resigned because of the grievance and her record was expunge of the questionable disciplinary action. Why did Ms. Karras not receive severance? If someone deserves severance, I believe it is Ms. Karras.
Click on the photocopy to enlarge.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Transparency bill would put earmarks, FOIA results online
bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, (D-Chicago), March 25, would increase the public’s ability to access information about lobbyists, Congressional committees and executive agencies
federal agencies to post on the Internet their responses to public requests for information filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
Congressional committees would be required to post votes, hearing transcripts and video online. In addition Congressional earmark requests would be posted in a public database. All legislation would need to be made available to the public at least 72 hours prior to consideration by the House of Representatives. And lobbyists would need to disclose the names of legislators and officials with whom they met.
Click on the following for more details: Transparency bill would put earmarks, FOIA results online
State pension funds could be insolvent in a decade, biz leaders
That's the claim of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club [Chicago]
The funds or the state could borrow again, "but that will just make the problem worse," with the state now without a way to make up an estimated $80-billion-plus in unfunded liability in the pension funds.
Click on the following for more details: State pension funds could be insolvent in a decade, biz leaders say | Greg Hinz | Crain's Chicago Business
10 percent of Ill. gov leases are expired 5 years
the state rented office space in 116 locations where its leases had expired. That's 22 percent of its 525 leases. Ten percent have been "holdovers" for five years or more.
Procurement reform that took effect Jan. 1 prohibits any holdover lease of more than six months. Beginning July 1, the comptroller begins withholding payment for any rented space where the lease has been expired that long.
Click on the following for more details: Pantagraph.com | News from Associated Press
Stimulus bonds for sport complexes take step forward
McHenry County may have allocated all of its bonds and Boone County has not allocated a single dollar. Look at the final paragraph—the Northwest Herald believes all the unused funds will go back to the State. Boone County Board could do nothing until Growth Dimension passed judgment on the stimulus bonds—perhaps Growth Dimension can see to it that the stimulus bonds are allocated locally before the June cutoff.
allocate the last of McHenry County's economic stimulus bonding authority to two sports ventures are now on their way to the McHenry County Board.
Its Finance and Audit Committee voted Tuesday, 6-1, to recommend giving the proposed Lakewood Sportsplex $18 million of its bonding authority from the 2009 economic stimulus bill. The remaining $3.57 million will go to the proposed McHenry County K-Nines baseball stadium in Woodstock, far short of the $15 million asked for by its developer, EquityOne Sports Development.McHenry County received $27.5 million in bonding authority for private projects under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The bonds are meant to encourage lending for ready projects by giving investors a 45 percent refund of the federal taxes payable on them. The county only grants the ability to borrow and not the bonds themselves.
The state likely will collect the unused bonding authority in June from county and municipal governments, and authorize the Illinois Finance Authority, a self-financed state bonding and loan agency, to disburse it to shovel-ready projects. The state’s 102 counties and eight of its largest cities divided up $1.67 billion in stimulus bonding authority.
For the next seven days you may read the rest of the story by clicking on the following: Northwest Herald | Stimulus bonds for sport complexes take step forward
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