Journal & Topics Media Group

Speak Out!


The following Speak Out! messages appear in August 15-20, 2018 editions of the Journal & Topics Newspapers.

Build A Bridge

Touhy Avenue: Put a bridge on it (where it crosses the train tracks just west of Mount Prospect Road).

Art, Sweet Art

With apologies to Burt Bacharach, Hal David, and 1965: “What Des Plaines needs now is art, sweet art. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. Mayor, we don’t need another restaurant. There are restaurants and fast food enough to find. There are grocery stores too, enough to last till the end of time. What Des Plaines needs now is art, sweet art. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”

Extend Wall

I leave near the tollway, Wolf and Touhy area. They put a wall up, but not far enough. The tollway goes in the same direction as the houses on the east side of Wolf. The wall needs to be extended more for soundproofing on the west side of Wolf. Sometimes the noise from the cars is ridiculous and it travels all the way back to where the houses are at. I know that on that side, it is just some commercial buildings, but the sound goes all the way back to the houses and at times is very loud. It wouldn’t be too much of a expense to add a 40-foot section there to diffuse the sound more.

Looking Good

Congratulations to all those responsible from the mayor on down for the the beautiful median in downtown Des Plaines. This year’s flowers in downtown are the most beautiful yet. Thank you. Don’t forget the mural.

Kangaroo Court

A kangaroo court is described as a court that ignores recognized standards of laws of justice and often carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides. Maine Township trustees Susan Sweeney and Claire McKenzie must have illusions of grandeur when the two of them demanded a special meeting be held Monday, Aug. 6, with the only other elected official being Trustee David Carrabotta. The meeting paid for courtesy of the hardworking taxpayers of Maine Township, played out more like an invitation only event honoring Trustee Carrabotta to the hall of fame as one of the original Apostles. Lost in all of this heaping of praise was the fact that fellow Trustee Kim Jones filed a sexual harassment complaint accusing Trustee Carrabotta of allegedly touching her body in an inappropriate manner on three separate occasions. If you attended the meeting the most obvious question would be where were all of the other elected officials, did their invitation get lost in the mail? The crowd who appeared to be hand selected by the board of three, consisted of men and woman whose sole objective was to heap praise on behalf of Trustee Carrabotta. Anyone who supports the Me Too Movement should be cringing in their seats. This stinks to high heaven.

How Is This OK?

Last Monday night, Aug. 6, I watched in horror at the so called Maine Township special meeting. What an absolute farce. In what world is it okay for a board member with a vested interest of the outcome to vote on that item? Can you say conflict of interest? To quote Madeleine Albright, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help women!” Char Foss-Eggemann, Claire McKenzie and Susan Sweeney your reservations have been made.

What Will They Do?

My goodness. Glenbrook School District 225 just hired a retired police officer for $98,000 of taxpayers money. Really? What exactly is this person going to do all day (year) long? Once the building is secure in the morning, then what? There really is nothing more that can be done. GBS is a massive campus. They would have been better off to hire three armed security guards to patrol the school.

(Ed. Note: Dist. 225 hired Joel Reyes for the newly created position of district safety and security manager.)

Taxed Enough

Dist. 207 wants to put on the ballot for more money to redo all three high schools. They stated some things needed are over 50 years old and other items need to be replaced or remodeled. My question is why did they wait all these years to start upgrading or fixing? Why wasn’t anything done or fixed throughout the years? The next problem is the principal of Maine West retired two years early and we took a hit for over $92,000 plus we hired two temporary principals for $100,000 each that is sharing the position plus are we paying for a company to search? Myself and others that I’ve talked to are voting “no” for numerous reasons, that some things could have been handled as years went by, some things they are doing are not worth it for example fieldhouse for Maine West, they have gotten by all these years, the Maine West office to be remodeled as it was done three years ago but now they want to rearrange it. The Athletic Boosters donates approx. $30,000 a year for sports, so where is this money going. I agree with some, but not a referendum that will last 20 years as I feel the majority is going to be used for payroll. Dist. 207 has to learn to improve their spending. We’re being taxed enough, have the State of Illinois finance this.

Not Surprised

Is it any surprise that the Niles village attorney found that no one was double dipping with Cook County? Maybe they can explain how the current mayor was at Village Hall and at Cook County at the same time? The county FOIA’d the mayors attendance in Niles and magically a few weeks later he resigned. But in Niles, no wrongdoing was found. Thank the Lord that Niles has an open and transparent government because a simple request to the village will verify all of this.

Truth Or Lies?

I’ve lived in Maine Township all my life and I have never seen anything come close to what is currently going on at the township. Just finished reading the lengthily sexual harassment investigation report recently released by trustees Susan Sweeney, Claire McKenzie and David Carrabotta. The report clearly stated that Trustee Kim Jones did not appear to make her accusations with malice, in fact quite the opposite. She consulted with the township attorney who advised her to talk privately to Trustee Carrabotta and according to the report it was only after Jones found out that two employees, Administrator Dayna Berman and Administrative Assistant Vikki Rizzo told three Maine Township elected officials that Carrabotta’s conduct made them feel uncomfortable, that Jones filed her complaint. Doesn’t the township have a responsibility to ensure that employees are not being harassed and could it be that false claims by these two employees is what motivated Trustee Kim Jones to take action? Does all of this unpleasantness boil down to two irresponsible employees acting like the little boy who cried wolf, making claims and then recanting them? In the private world those two employees would have been terminated, you can’t tell two different stories without one of them being false. Words really do matter, think carefully before you make accusations.

Call For Cameras

Once again, a crime was committed in a strip mall shopping center (elderly woman struck by car) and the video cameras were so poor the police have really nothing to work with. With all the rules and regulations that are imposed on businesses and landlords, why don’t local city councils demand that owners of commercial property have their entire properties covered with quality video so police will at least have a chance to stop these crimes? This is not big brother. It’s just common sense. If something happens to me in a public parking lot, I want that person caught and punished.

Fix S-Curve

In response to the Speak Out in the last issue of the DP Journal, about hope for a path by the S-Curve. I think it’s absolutely insane that the Des Plaines government lets a new development of luxury apartments and rows of townhomes get built without a easy way to walk to the downtown Des Plaines area. The “new” sidewalk ends by the Pace Bus garage entrance road. Hate to tell you (some members of the city council) people actually like to walk and ride bikes in the the DP area. The S-Curve needs to be fixed. It’s just a matter of time before it collapses. So…sorry people who are going to pay a lot of $$$ for your new townhome…your kids can’t get to the library without you driving them. It’s all fine though, just go ahead, add to the traffic on Northwest Highway…just watch out for the buses and trucks though.

Cool It

Give it a rest, Kim Jones.

Not Expecting Much

I figured out why Des Plaines is building all these apartments in the downtown area. The new residents will hop on the train to go downtown or into the city to work. While in the city they will shop, eat lunch and/or dinner and then come home. They can do their grocery shopping here because we have a good amount of grocery stores but nowhere else to do their shopping. So in that case they will hop in their cars and drive over to the Fashion Outlets in Rosemont and then after shopping they’ll to the entertainment area for dinner and some entertainment and then they will come home again to Des Plaines to sleep. So we get taxes from them living here but not much else. And that is pretty much what you get from me because I shop in Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg and Palatine because there is nowhere to shop in Des Plaines except for groceries. And on top of that you are letting two established restaurants in downtown Des Plaines (Via Roma and Thai Square) leave the area because of all your construction. Has someone been sitting on their brains?

Support Is Nice

It’s unfathomable to see Republican women, some of which running for office, refuse to go on record and support the Equal Rights Amendment which guarantees equality among the sexes. Are they complacent with inequality? Marty Moylan supported the Equal Rights Amendment in Springfield and has been a staunch advocate for women against baseless opposition to the ERA. The ERA would help to bring pay equity for women who make about 60 cents on the dollar to men. Thank you Rep. Moylan for fighting for our rights when some people won’t.

Quit Complaining

Dear Anonymous complaining about the firemen shopping in downtown Des Plaines: This is a classic example of people just seeking out something to complain about. Maybe before rushing to judgment, you should consider why the firemen are shopping for groceries in their fire engine. I worked at a grocery store in my teens, often the local firehouse would do the same. If a call came in, they would immediately be able to rush out and off to their call. They also parked right up front, hope that’s OK with you. If your house was that call I’m sure you’d prefer them to be ready at any moment’s notice as well.

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