Boone County Watchdog

Sunday, September 11, 2011

“Belvidere May have too many schools in five years”

To read the entire article go to: http://www.rrstar.com/insight/alexgary/x219198780/In-Sundays-paper-Suburbs-absorb-exodus-from-Rockford

Neighboring ZIP codes absorb Rockford exodus

The latest release of 2010 census data proves what anyone driving around the Rock River Valley already knows — the population is moving.
The U.S. Census Bureau released population changes from 2000 to 2010 broken down by ZIP code. In Winnebago County, just two major ZIP codes lost population. Downtown Rockford east of the river, 61104, fell by nearly 6 percent. And 61101, which is Rockford’s northwest side, declined by 8.1 percent. And of those Rockford ZIP codes that did see population growth, not one saw even 10 percent growth.
For much of the decade, the moving vans were heading to such places as Poplar Grove and Belvidere, where populations grew by 35.8 and 17.3 percent, respectively, and Winnebago, up 20.4 percent.
…..
Both the Belvidere and North Boone school districts in Boone County felt the crunch of new families flocking to their areas. Belvidere built a new middle school and a second high school. North Boone expanded an elementary school, built a new high school and put on an addition to the old high school.
Michael Houselog was superintendent of North Boone for much of the decade and now is the superintendent of Belvidere. In the 2000-01 school year, Belvidere had 6,352 students and North Boone 1,283. By 2007, Belvidere’s student population surged to 8,728 and North Boone’s to 1,686.
But in the wake of the Great Recession, the growth rate has slowed. In 2010, Belvidere was up to 9,001 and North Boone to 1,746.
And Houselog said that unless the economy revives and people begin returning to Boone County, Belvidere is going to have too many schools within five years.
“This year, our three smallest grades are kindergarten, first and second grade,” Houselog said. “This will put it in into context. In 2005, we had more than 700 kids in kindergarten. This year we have 485.”
Still, Houselog is confident that Boone County will become a destination of choice again.
“The things that made this a desirable place haven’t changed. We have lower tax rates than what you’ll find in the Chicago area. Having (Interstate 90) coming through our county allows easy access to Rockford, Madison, Chicago,” he said. “When the economy turns, we think it’ll turn here first. The question is when.”
While the once hot growth areas wait for another boom, Krause said the aging areas of Rockford are waiting on something else — reinvestment.
“In Chicago, there are a number of aging neighborhoods that have done well because developers took industrial buildings and turned them into condos,” Krause said. “Part of the reason they took that risk is because prices in Chicago’s suburbs had increased so much that it made sense to reinvest in the older neighborhoods. That could happen here, but so many developers were hurt by the recession that few are ready to take that risk in Rockford.”
Krause said there have been some residential redevelopment success stories in Rockford, such as the Brown building downtown and the Garrison Lofts & Town Homes, but much more is needed to persuade retailers to come back as well.
Assistant Business Editor Alex Gary may be reached at agary@rrstar.com or at 815-987-1339 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 815-987-1339 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Chrysler supplier in Belvidere laying off 118

The following is taken from: http://blogs.e-rockford.com/alexgary/2011/09/08/chrysler-supplier-in-belvidere-laying-off-118/

Chrysler supplier in Belvidere laying off 118

Posted on September 8, 2011 at 12:59 pm by Alex Gary

Android Industries filed paperwork with the state indicating it will permanently lay off 118 workers at its plant in Belvidere.

The Michigan-based company supplies engine/transmission modules and instrument panels for Chrysler LLC’s Belvidere plant.

The Register Star has calls into Android and United Auto Workers Local 1268, which represents most of the affected workers, to talk further about the move.

According to the state’s monthly Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) report, the company will begin letting workers go on Nov. 1 and be finished with the lay offs by Nov. 22.

Android came to Belvidere in 2005 when Chrysler launched the Dodge Caliber. The company received a small amount of state assistance — $102,500 — to help the company create 205 jobs. According to state reports, Android at one point had as many as 270 workers in Belvidere.

Chrysler’s Belvidere workers now assemble the Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot. Several national automotive media outlets have quoted various Chrysler officials, including CEO Sergio Marchionne, that the company plans to replace the Caliber with a small sedan based on the architecture of the Alfa Romeo Guilietta. Chrysler now is majority owned and run by Italy’s Fiat SpA.

The Caliber replacement is expected to go into production in the final three months of this year, which would coincide with the closing of Android.

A new car line may bring several changes to the local Chrysler supplier lineup, especially considering the Caliber-Compass-Patriot line was designed when Chrysler was owned by German automaker Daimler AG.

The first round of changes was publicized in May when International Automotive Components, or IAC for short, confirmed it was moving into a 172,000-square-foot building near the Chrysler plant and hiring 200 people to work beginning next January.

2 Comments

Bill says:

September 9, 2011 at 6:53 am

Im sorry – are they laying off or closing??
Alex Gary says:

September 9, 2011 at 9:44 am

The report doesn’t specify and the company didn’t call back. I believe it is closing.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Belvidere Township Meeting will again have the Eagle’s Club acquisition on the Agenda

UPDATED 10-10-2011

Town Hall Style Meeting at the Community Building on Tuesday, October 18, 2011—6:00PM.—regarding purchase of the Eagle Building.

Following Letter to Editor is from the October 7, 2011 Boone County Journal.

Front of building.

Eagle’s Parking lot. Rear of Eagle’s building is at far left.

Neighboring businesses use the parking lot.

The meeting is at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, September 13. This meeting may have approval of the Town Hall meeting minutes. If you attended that meeting you could raise questions if the minutes do not coincide with actions which occurred.

See Minutes of 7-30-2011 Meeting below the Agenda, page 2—Closed Session-- indicates that the authority to purchase the Eagle’s Club was granted to Mr. Murphy by the board on July 30.

AGENDA

BELVIDERE TOWNSHIP

MEETING OF THE TOWNSHIP BOARD

8200 Fairgrounds Road

September 13, 2011 – 5:00 P.M.

I. Call to Order / Roll Call

II. Pledge of Allegiance

III. Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes

IV. Transfers

V. Reports

a. Supervisor’s Report

b. Highway Commissioner’s Report

c. Assessor’s Report

d. Clerk’s Report

e. Trustee’s Report

VI. Unfinished Business

a. Acquisition of the Eagles Club

VII. Legal

VIII.New Business

a. Shaw Rd. Truck Traffic

b. Harvest Fest

c. Door Locks

IX. Treasurer’s Report and Approval of Bills

X. Public Input

XI. Closed Session

XII. Adjournment

* Please note in order to take final action on an item it must be specified on the posted agenda 48 hours in advance of the meeting.

Previously approved minutes, click on the photocopy to enlarge.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

9-30-2011 Updated Index of Concerned Catholics of Boone County

Click on the item to be connected:

▼ September (57)

▼ August (49)

► July (50)

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

RUSH LIMBAUGH is trying to cash in on Tea Parties

Palm Beach resident Rush Limbaugh obviously has a lot to say about the tea party, but now he's in the tea business.

He's launched the Two if by Tea brand, which sells a dozen 16-ounce bottles for $23.76. So far, the tea is just available online, not in stores. It comes in original, diet original, raspberry and diet raspberry

Click on the following for more details: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2011/06/rush-limbaugh-launches-two-if-by-tea.html

Monday, September 5, 2011

Rockford Register Star’s View: Downtown location best for new Belvidere church

Based upon the sparse coverage which Rockford Register Star has given to this issue, I find it incredible that the editors now publish “their” opinion. I find it annoying that no real issue such as height, size and parking are mentioned. Is smart growth building a “cathedral style” colossus in a residential neighbor casting shadows upon its neighbors? Look at the words highlighted in green. Does the Register Star even know where the new church will be located?

It is interesting that perhaps for the first time, the Bishop through his Director of Communication speaks of his intention. I have highlighted that in yellow.

Mary Kaspar is the wife of Michael Kaspar, the paid bookkeeper of St. James Parish.

The following is taken from: http://www.rrstar.com/insight/x1413010381/Our-View-Downtown-location-best-for-new-Belvidere-church

When does a church issue become a community issue? We think Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton answered the question for us.
Brereton last week wrote a position paper on whether St. James Catholic Church should stay in downtown Belvidere and expand or build a new church on the edge of town on Squaw Prairie Road. He says the church staying downtown is a matter of smart growth and would be the best thing for the community. We agree.
While we’re uneasy about telling a church what to do, staying downtown appears to be the best thing for parishioners, too. In Belvidere, as in many urban communities, the growth is on the outskirts of town.
But downtown is where the need is. Churches, more than any other organization, should be about responding to need.
People in Belvidere are conflicted about St. James. One thing everyone agrees on, though, is the parish has outgrown its current building, which holds only 300 to 350 people.
Six services have to be held on Sundays to accommodate the crowds. The Spanish-speaking Masses are particularly popular; at those services, you can often find parishioners standing outside.
To even use the bathroom, parishioners have to leave the church and walk outside to another part of the building. Obviously, the situation is far from ideal for senior citizens as well as families with small children.
The Rockford Diocese, to which St. James belongs, has proposed a new church a few blocks away across from St. James School. It would accommodate about 850 people. St. James is the only Catholic church in Boone County.
Building the new church downtown at the proposed site requires the City Council to sign off on a zoning change from residential to institutional. The council will vote Tuesday, but the decision shouldn’t be difficult from a civic perspective.
The mayor has offered a strong argument for the rezoning through his position paper. He thinks the principles of smart growth make a downtown location the best choice for St. James. Smart growth goals include preserving open space and farmland, encouraging development where it already exists, and creating places people can walk to and not have to drive.
The 22-acre site at the western edge of town was donated by a parish family in 1998. The diocese “does not now have the intention to relocate the focus of the parish to the other property,” according to Penny Wiegert, the diocese’s director of communications.
“That would create more problems for the parish than it would solve.”
The church has much to celebrate. While other churches watch their congregations dwindle, St. James has a vibrant, committed, growing parish.
The fact so many people care about its fate is good news, not bad.
Much of the growth at St. James is in its Spanish-speaking and Hispanic parishioners. Many of these parishioners don’t have cars. They say it would be tough, if not impossible, to get to the Squaw Prairie site for regular worship.
Transportation is a consideration any community must take into account, but especially a church. Churches should be more committed than most organizations to providing for people of meager means.
As St. James parishioner Mary Kaspar wrote in the Register Star Aug. 19, “The bottom line is that we need a church where we can all worship God together.”
Building downtown is best for the bottom line.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

The new “lower” height design of St. James church

Neither the parish nor its architect has posted the changes proposed to Belvidere City Council. Thus only parishioners who attended the August 15 city council meeting or have been given a special showing are aware of the new design.

Here are the changes proposed—basically the building is now seven feet lower* and now closer to the parish center.

* Seventy feet was described previously as the height; these photocopies speak of 72 feet as the original plans and 63 feet as the new height. Note both plans have a cross on the roof which is still higher than these heights.

OLD

NEW

However now look what happens when the trees are erased (after all the trees around the convent will have to be cut down.) And your view is only of the structures near the new church. The new church is twice the height of the gym at the parish center and because of distance from the school proper is nearly twice its height.

To see more, click on the following: http://boonecountycatholics.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-lower-height-design-of-st-james.html