The Road We've Traveled — Barack Obama

 

ick on the following to see the movie:  The Road We've Traveled — Barack Obama

Kane County might redo electricty referendum in November - DailyHerald.com

 

Unincorporated Kane County was joined by McHenry County, Algonquin, Carpentersville and Lake in the Hills as the only locales to reject the proposal. Eleven local communities approved the plan.

The margins were even greater in DuPage County. Voters in 15 of 17 communities, including Aurora, approved the plan Tuesday. Bartlett and Villa Park voted “no.”

Click on the following for more details: Kane County might redo electricity referendum in November - DailyHerald.com

Agenda for Belvidere Township Meeting of March 27, 2012

AGENDA

BELVIDERE TOWNSHIP

MEETING OF THE TOWNSHIP BOARD

8200 Fairgrounds Road

March 27, 2012 – 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. Adopt Annual Town Meeting Agenda

b. Adopt Resolutions on Public Comment

 

VII. Legal

a.

b.

VIII.New Business

a. Belvidere Township Newsletter

b. Boone County Council on Aging

 

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.

Survey: Most small firms support health benefits for workers - KansasCity.com

By DIANE STAFFORD

The Kansas City Star

Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees won’t be required to offer employee health insurance in 2014, the target date for the employee coverage aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

But most of those who currently offer coverage as a voluntary employee benefit expect to continue, according to a survey released today by eHealthInsurance.

On the eve of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court about the constitutionality of the health care law, the survey gave insight into the mood of the nation’s smallest employers, with or without the changes.

Click on the following for the complete story:  Survey: Most small firms support health benefits for workers - KansasCity.com

Boone County to revisit purchase of squad cars

The nearly identical motion was voted down at last month’s meeting with only the amount being changed—last month it was $200,000.

2:30PM Apparently new written statements regarding the actual miles on the cars to be replaced has been submitted.  That information will be posted when I receive it (probably after tonight’s meeting.)

See the following for last month’s vote:  http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/02/sheriff-criticized-as-county-board.html or http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/02/denial-of-sheriffs-fleet-expansion.html

AGENDA:
14.1 Motion to approve purchase of (8) squad cars at a cost of $190,000.00, using Public Safety Sales Tax (not
budgeted).

The above is taken from tonight’s agenda of the Boone County Board.  Available on the internet at:  http://www.boonecountyil.org/sites/default/files/CBagenda%2003-21-12.pdf 

The meeting starts at 6:30 PM tonight.

Also note that Loves Park has decided it is cheaper to lease see:  http://www.boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/03/police-chief-loves-park-should-lease.html

8:30 The vote was not even close—Only three “no votes”.  Below is some mileage and cost figures which the Sheriff supplied to the county board.  The maintenance costs are for the entire life of the vehicle.

Click on the photocopy to enlarge:

Questions from Board Members from prior month’s meeting.

Exelon announces work to restore Byron units back to grid completed | Enformable

 

Exelon has announced that it has finished repairing and upgrading equipment at the Byron nuclear power plant which failed and interrupted power on January 30th, at the Unit 2 switchyard, tripping the reactor.  Unit 1 also experienced an incident involving equipment failures which caused a loss of power in Februrary, which was later blamed on a failed insulator.  In both cases, power was disrupted to the facility, causing operators to twice declare an “unusual event” at the plant.

Technical experts determined that the ceramic insulator failures were caused by tiny spaces created in the ceramic material during the manufacturing process, according to a news release.   An insulator is a piece of ceramic glass that prevents the wire carrying the electricity from shorting the electricity to the ground.The utility admitted that the company which manufactured the parts is no longer in business, which makes it difficult to diagnose exactly how the ceramic glass could break.

Communications Manager for the Byron Station Paul Dempsey said,  ”The insulator that failed last month in the kiln, the heating process once you are finished putting it together maybe wasn’t done to standards so we will see if this current one has similar issues.”  Exelon says Unit 1 was taken offline last week while upgrades were finished, and Unit 2 upgrades were finished over the weekend. Both units are back online at full power and generating electricity.

“It’s just important to give us a more robust system out in the switchyard,” said Paul Dempsey, communications manager for the Byron Generating Station. “It’ll ensure we’ll have continued good reliability for both of our units going into the summer months and beyond.”

The above is taken from the following:  Exelon announces work to restore Byron units back to grid completed | Enformable

Bracelet fund-raiser March 20 for families of Belvidere girls lost in Feb. 24 car accident

A bracelet fund-raiser in remembrance of Thalia Arredondo and Brenda Gutierrez, the 16-year-old best friends from Belvidere who died in a car accident Feb. 24, will be from 6 to 10 a.m. and 2 to 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 20, at three Belvidere Road Ranger locations.
Bracelets are $5 each, and 100 percent of the proceeds will be split between the families of Thalia and Brenda. Both girls were cheerleaders at Belvidere North High School, and the tragedy has had a large impact on the community.
Road Ranger’s three Belvidere locations are as follow:
• 2001 N. State St., Belvidere, (815) 957-4063;
• 1705 S. State St., Belvidere, (815) 209-9049; and
• 1052 Belvidere Road, Belvidere, (815) 566-4641.