The Belvidere Daily Republican Featured News

Boone County has need, but emergency shelters are absent

Oct. 31, 2013

By Bob Balgemann

BOONE COUNTY - Danice Loveridge says she receives telephone calls all the time from people in need of a place to escape a variety of problems.

But there aren't any emergency shelters in this county of 54,000 and space is limited in its much larger neighbor, Winnebago County.

"All we have is hotels and that's a maximum of one week," the chair of the Boone County Homeless Project task force said at its Oct. 25 meeting. "There is no money available from the city (of Belvidere) or the county. Yet there truly is a need, especially now that it's getting colder. It's difficult to be staying in cars."

Remedies, a local organization, has two apartments but she said they usually are full. And they're not considered to be shelters. Remedies has an office in Boone County but it's for counseling, she said.

Loveridge said Belvidere House is not suitable for women. Beyond that, she said the county health department "has issues with them."

Belvidere's new mayor, Mike Chamberlain, was at the meeting and he said the state of Illinois "shut them down last year and made them delouse the place."

"We don't have the demographics in Boone County to apply for funding," he added.

The bottom line, Loveridge said, is "we have an issue here. How we've been dealing with it is we have been moving it to Winnebago, DeKalb and McHenry counties. I don't know what to do about it. It's hard to get state and federal dollars based on our counts."

She said Boone County's point in time counts of the homeless, conducted twice a year, are combined with the counts in Winnebago County. Funds for local use also are combined with Winnebago's and she said, "We have been trying to determine how much of that money is ours. But we have not been able to get those numbers."

Currently, federal funding is focusing on transitional housing and permanent housing. "We have some units of that in Boone County and it's helping, but it's slow. The piece that we're missing is how to help these folks who need emergency shelter."

Boone County United Way representative Teri Carter said no local churches are able to take on that kind of a project.

Also Oct. 25, Loveridge said the task force has a new survey for the homeless relating to jobs. Two basic questions are whether they are working and, if not, why aren't they working?

"There is a direct link between jobs and being housed," she said. The goal is to connect the homeless with available jobs.

 

News in Brief

Oct. 31, 2013

By Bob Balgemann

Capron Rescue seeks formal agreements in service area

POPLAR GROVE - Capron Rescue Squad has been serving northern Boone County since 1957. Now, it is seeking intergovernmental agreements with the villages of Capron, Caledonia, Poplar Grove and Timberlane, along with the county and unincorporated Candlewick Lake, to make that coverage formal.

Poplar Grove is the first village to receive the request.

The resolution states in part that Poplar Grove "recognizes the desirability of providing ambulance services to its community in a manner that provides the most timely, efficient and cost effective service delivery for all their respective citizens ..."

It also states that Poplar Grove agrees to "use the services of Capron Rescue Squad before seeking the assistance from other ambulance service."

North Boone Fire District 3 is studying the possibility of including ambulance service for the area now served by Capron Rescue.

Owen Costanza, president of the rescue district board of trustees, said the other villages and Candlewick will be contacted and asked to put the resolution on an upcoming meeting agenda.

Capron Rescue also has changed its name, to North Boone EMS, to better reflect its coverage area of 144 square miles.

Township decides issue

BELVIDERE - The Belvidere Township Board of Trustees has decided not to pay the fee for renewal of the certified appraiser's license for Anita Taylor, a former deputy assessor for the township.

Assessor Diann Helnore made the request for payment of the $530 fee before Taylor resigned, effective Oct. 15.

While Helnore subsequently withdrew the request, the township board voted 5-0 Oct. 22 to formally deny payment of the fee.

Helnore initially asked if the township had paid the renewal fee for her predecessor, longtime assessor Bob Falkenstein. With the request being withdrawn and now formally rejected, that question has not been answered.

Beloit Road bicycle path

BELVIDERE - Completion of a bicycle path linking Prairie Field park off Fairgrounds Road with Belvidere North High School will be partially done before winter weather returns.

Belvidere Township Supervisor Pat Murphy said Oct. 22 that the remaining portion of the walkway would be roughed in and rolled during the current construction season. Then, in the spring, an asphalt surface would be applied.

"We will be inspecting to be sure the pitch is correct and that it's ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant," he said.

Trustee Richard Nelson asked who would be responsible for the liability?

"It's on (District 100) school board property," Murphy replied. "They're primary on the insurance."

Officials said earlier they hoped to finish the walkway this year. But Murphy said, "The opportunity to get blacktop has been tough."

Shaw Road weight limit

BELVIDERE - Enforcement of the weight limit along Shaw Road, south of the U.S. 20 Bypass, continues to be talked about at Belvidere Township board meetings.

It also was discussed at the Oct. 10 city-county coordinating committee meeting. Co-chairman Dan Snow asked county administrator Ken Terrinoni about the matter, because enforcement involves both the city of Belvidere and Boone County. Terrinoni said it wasn't aware of it but would check into the situation.

Terrinoni said Oct. 25 that he talked with county engineer Rich Lundin, who explained the township had posted a new weight limit for that stretch of Shaw Road, which made it a township matter.

"It will always be a concern," township Supervisor Pat Murphy said at the board's Oct. 22 meeting. "We're not receiving as many calls (about truck traffic) as before, but there were quite a few," he said.

Shaw Road had been regularly included on the township board's agenda, but wasn't there Oct. 22.

 

City-initiated Hometown Market wraps up second season

Oct. 31, 2013

By Bob Balgemann

BELVIDERE - The Hometown Market, an initiative of the city of Belvidere, has concluded its second year off State Street, next to the Boone County History Museum.

And how did everything go, what with this season being on a new day and at a new time? Pretty well, according to Mayor Mike Chamberlain and associate planner Gina DelRose, who coordinated it.

As far as Chamberlain is concerned, the market will be back again during the summer of 2014. He said a debriefing would be held soon, to discuss what went well and what changes, if any, need to be made.

The market featured everything from produce to pastries to purses. There was a massage therapist, sales of Avon products and live musicians.

Children were not forgotten. Cricket the Clown was there to entertain, along with a friend who painted little faces.

In all, a lot of variety and for the most part cooperative weather. Attendance ranged from a high of 150 to a low of 10, but that was on a rainy day.

There were eight new vendors this year as the market changed from Thursday afternoon to Saturdays from 1-5 p.m.

Hours may change again in 2014, possibly opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 3 p.m. "The number of shoppers dies off after 3 p.m.," DelRose said.

Evening hours are another option, though she said there would have to be food and some kind of live entertainment.

Produce vendor Joan Fidder was there in 2012 and said she did pretty well this year. Closing day on Oct. 12 was a bit slow and her offerings were limited, down from the usual five ironing boards full of different goods.

Has large garden

She said she likes to be around people and she loves gardening. She has a 20-by-70-foot garden in back of the Boone County Conservation District complex off Appleton Road. She also has two small gardens at home.

"I mainly do craft shows," she said. "There's a big one coming up in Pecatonica." But it's possible that she will return to the circuit in New Jersey because "that's where the money is. I do that by mail; you don't need a permit because it's considered wholesale."

Some of the businesses at the market were in an incubator status, trying to build clientele through awareness with an ultimate goal of moving into a storefront somewhere in or near the downtown.

One business succeeded in doing that last year but none took that step in 2013.

Cricket the Clown was successful in landing some birthday parties but her summer was cut short when she had to leave to care for a relative, who became ill.

There also was a craft table for kids to put their creativity to work, while their parents shopped. When she was unable to line up enough live entertainers, DelRose used a radio to provide background music.

She said Mayor Chamberlain and the city council ultimately would decide if the market returns for a third year. "They gave me a budget for advertising," she said. "On days when we advertised there were more shoppers. There is a Facebook page, too. They'll (vendors) use it to advertise what they're going to have that day."

A survey will be sent to vendors to get their thoughts on the market's strengths and weaknesses.

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