September 5th, 2010 06:39pm
Chuck Sweeny
On March 30, I wrote about one of Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign visits to Rockford. In his stump speech, Quinn announced the route for the Amtrak train that will go from Dubuque to Chicago.
“We’re going to have passenger rail from Chicago through Belvidere, through Rockford and on to Dubuque. The route was picked, I believe last week, by the Illinois Department of Transportation, and we will go forward with that,” Quinn said.
I confirmed Quinn’s choice of routes May 14 with George Weber, IDOT’s Bureau of Railroads chief, at a Beloit, Wis., meeting of the Tri-State Alliance, a transportation advocacy group.
Weber told me that construction, to be paid for with $60 million from the state’s capital plan, would take place in 2011. The line would open in late 2011 or early 2012.
Well, as the Gershwin song says, “It ain’t necessarily so.” I confirmed Friday that IDOT is doing a new study as a follow-up to its 2007 study, which favored the Canadian National route through Genoa as quicker and cheaper than the Union Pacific line through Belvidere.
“Before we can make a formal announcement, the study needs to be finalized,” Josh Kauffman, communications manager at IDOT, said Friday. He was responding by e-mail to a very detailed phone message I left on Weber’s office phone in Chicago.
What’s going on here? Well, I know that in the months since Quinn announced the Belvidere route, DeKalb County advocates of the Genoa route have worked hard to get the state to reconsider. They met Wednesday at Kishwaukee Community College; about 70 folks showed up including Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Rochelle, Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton and Rep. Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley.
I asked them about the meeting.
“We’re right back to where we were before,” Burzynski said. “I’m not exactly sure where we’ll go from here.”
Brereton was frustrated, too. He chairs the Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning and says RMAP has new data that boosts the Belvidere route as superior to others that have been studied by the state.
“It’s hard to believe we’re even having this discussion,” Brereton said, adding that he believes the new IDOT study “will either reaffirm the governor’s position about the northern route or contradict it and take it south. I’ve been led to believe the study won‘t be done until December, so we‘re losing valuable time.”
Pritchard, who is more favorable to Genoa, said the controversy stems from a lack of consensus in northern Illinois. Belvidere-route advocates have defined consensus as everyone who supported that route, he said. DeKalb County people were left out of the loop, so they continued to lobby for their route through Genoa.
“Everybody’s fear is that IDOT could use our lack of consensus as an excuse not to fund the service,” Pritchard said.
Pritchard offered to serve as a conciliator, saying: “It’s the same as with the Palestinians and the Israelis. You have to look for commonality and build on it.”
Rockford’s city administrator, Jim Ryan, was nonplussed when I informed him about the high jinks in the Land O’Corn.
“It would be mind-boggling to me that the route would not go through the economic development area with the 10th-highest unemployment rate in the U.S. We are confident the route picked by the governor … will stay where it’s at,” he said.
I have asked the governor’s press office for comment.
September 4th, 2010 12:24am
Chuck Sweeny
Item: City Hall installs eight “medallions” in the pavement on the newly re-opened Main Street non-mall.
They say “Metro Center.” They should say “Metro Centre.”
But wait. The people at City Hall, especially the guys who dreamed up the idea of putting “medallions,” (whatever those are) in the pavement, ought to have also been aware, as RAVE Chairman Mike Dunn said, that the goal is for the Metro Centre not to be the Metro Centre.
Yes, anyone who worked in the high echelons of city government should have known that it was pointless to put “medallions” in the pavement saying Metro Center, or Metro Centre, or Logan Square, or Bibbity Bobbity Boo.
Reason: They are trying hard to sell naming rights to the red barn. So, however one spells “Metro Centre,” the “medallions” will be obsolete anyway when the place becomes the “Mrs. Fisher’s Chippadrome” or the “Bobby’s On Broadway Pawnarena.”
And I’m not even ready to tell you what I think about the 32 page ordinance to regulate sidewalk cafes … out of existence.
September 3rd, 2010 08:12pm
Chuck Sweeny
This could be a successful Rockford-oriented board game: “Why is Dennis Thompson coming back?”
Rockford’s school superintendent from 2004 to 2007 took a super’s job in Collier County, Fla, but has not been retained. His tenure there ends July 31.
Surprise! Thompson and his wife Jane are coming back to Rockford, where they still own a home.
Thompson isn’t saying what he’s coming back here to do, although he says he’s not looking to push out the current superintendent, LaVonne Sheffield or apply for another District 205 job.
So, why would he leave the mild non-winters of Naples and return to the land of ice and snow?
He’s not saying.
So, what do you think Dennis is going to do in the Forest City?
September 3rd, 2010 07:25pm
Chuck Sweeny
Larry J. Sabato, renowned political analyst and director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, is as nonpartisan as they come. You’re as likely to see him on liberal MSNBC, where he held forth on Friday, as on conservative FOX, where he was on Thursday.
Sabato’s predictions are well-known for their accuracy. So it’s interesting to see what he’s saying now:
Republicans will pick up 47 seats in the House, enough for a majority; they’ll pick up 8 to 9 Senate seats, not quite enough for a majority, which would take 10. And, the Republicans will gain 8 governorships.
And, he said on MSNBC Friday that he expects Republicans to gain as many as 600 state legislative seats.
I like what Sabato has to say about dealing with facts, not ideological predilections, when making analytical prognostications:
“For decades I’ve advised students to let the facts speak for themselves, while avoiding the indulgence of shouting at the facts. In other words, we should take in all the available, reliable information; process it; and let the emerging mosaic tell its story—whether the picture pleases or not. The human (and partisan) tendency to twist facts into pretzels in order to produce a desired result must be avoided at all costs.” — Prof. Larry J. Sabato- -
September 3rd, 2010 04:31pm
Chuck Sweeny
Community leaders had a big pow-wow at City Hall at 2 p.m. Friday to come up with a unified strategy to land the biggest economic development tool to come this way in decades.
I’m talking Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the top school of aviation technology in the world. Headquartered in Daytona, Fla., the school wants to establish a third, permanent campus (there’s also one in Prescott, Ariz., ) and the school’s leaders have selected Rockford as one of the finalists. The campus would feature 1,000 students, about half of them living here.
According to Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen, the meeting included government, business and education sector leaders from around the area.
“We’re all in agreement that this so important to the economic future of northern Illinois that we have to have to speak with one voice in helping to bring Embry-Riddle to Rockford,” Christiansen told me.
A three-person delegation will travel to Embry-Riddle headquarters next week to get more familiar with Embry-Riddle and their needs, he said.
He also said that both U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, an U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo-R-Egan, are being informed of the Embry-Riddle plans, and Christiansen said he hopes they can help get a research grant or provide additional help.
“Perhaps the most important thing here is that the 80 to 90 aerospace companies that do business in Rockford understand how crucial this is to them,” said Christiansen, who advocates inviting Chicago-based Boeing to the table to help make Rockford’s case.
“After all, this campus would serve the greater Chicago area, so who better to be on board than Boeing,” Christiansen said.
The chairman also advocated a public campaign to convince Embry-Riddle to come here.
“We intend to find out exactly what Embry-Riddle wants to do, and tailor our support to helping them acheive the goas they set,” Christiansen said.
Rockford City Administrator Jim Ryan said Embry-Riddle presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, “and we’re going to put all our resources into making it work.
At the meeting, “We discussed who was going to do what to put a proposal together. There will be some people going to Daytona to learn more about their campus and what their needs are,” Ryan said.
And Ryan confirmed that state and federal officials are being sought out to help with the funding.
“It’s going to be absoultely critical that both Senator Durbin and Congressman Manzullo be on board, and so we are asking for their support and assistance.”
Ryan also said he talked Friday to Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Warren Warren Ribley.
“We had a conversation how important this is to put together a competitive proposal to gether for Illinois. He said the state would be supportive,” Ryan said.
The Embry-Riddle campus is crucial to Rockford’s future as a high technology center, Ryan said, “and how better to show our ability to attract diversified educational opportunities than to have 1,000 people pursuing aviation technology related degrees on a campus in Rockford.”
“When you have something like that, it just brings more economic development opportunities. We all have to be pulling in same direction.”
Mayor Larry Morrissey was not at the meeting, which raised some eyebrows. But Ryan said his boss was at a long-planned family function and that “he is fully supportive” of the Embry-Riddle quest.
September 2nd, 2010 01:44pm
Chuck Sweeny
My Democratic friends insist the Nov 2 election will not feature a Republican landslide. They say people are angry at all incumbents. My Republican friends say Democrats are just whistling in the dark on the way to electoral Armageddon.
Marla Wilson, the Democratic candidate for state Senate in the 34th District, is pitching the anti-incumbent line. She told me that when she goes door-to-door, people ask first if she’s an incumbent, and she says no, she’s running against the veteran incumbent Dave Syverson, a Republican first elected in 1992, they ask for a sign to put in their yard.
How many times this actually happens on the front porches of Rockford, Wilson did not say. But George Gaulrapp, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 16th Congressional District, is saying the same thing. In real life, Gaulrapp is in his second term as the nonpartisan mayor of Freeport.
“People want new people in office,” Gaulrapp told me Tuesday night at Winnebago County Board member Doug Aurand’s “Dougapalooza” packed fundraiser at Forest Hills Lodge.
I have no doubt people are fed up with the people who run things, both in Springfield and in Washington, D.C. I know I certainly am. But the trend I see is more of a conservative brand of fed-up than a liberal version, because Democrats run state government as well as the one in Washington. Why would liberals be fed up with their own people?
That said, Republicans are not gaining popularity, either; Republicans do not have a coherent agenda. There is, however, a powerful anti-Democratic Party surge, and I’m not sure Wilson and Gaulrapp can rely on anti-incumbency.
Gaulrapp says his opponent, U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, has not done enough to bring jobs to northern Illinois in his 18 years on Capitol Hill. Manzullo touts his “Mr. Manufacturing” label and says he’s been hard at work convincing the government that manufacturing is important.
But Manzullo is vulnerable, because Republicans, who controlled Congress until 2007 and held the presidency under George W. Bush until 2009, did nothing to retain manufacturing jobs. In fact they did just the opposite. The party’s key funders in corporate America outsourced manufacturing jobs like crazy to China, Mexico and other cheap labor countries.
Manzullo was among President Bill Clinton’s key Republican supporters of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which passed during his first year in Congress. During the 2000s, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs were lost in the top 100 U.S. markets, according to the Precision Machined Products Association.
But I don’t know what Gaulrapp could do to change that. He’d have to support the Democratic Party’s tax, health care and environmental policies that business owners say would devastate industry in the Rock River Valley.
Back on the state level, Wilson starts out her campaign with a district that leans Democratic. Nevertheless, Syverson has shown the ability to tack just far enough left to snag a percentage of the union vote, in particular the building trades endorsement for his support of infrastructure spending legislation.
Wilson has to hope that Senate Democrats, who despise Syverson with a passion, will pump big dollars into her campaign. But the Democrats in Chicago who run the party need to defend five or more vulnerable seats they already have, and if in a month they don’t think Wilson can defeat Dave, they’ll pull up their tent and take their money with them, leaving Wilson high and dry.
August 31st, 2010 05:30pm
Chuck Sweeny
Daily Kos, the uber liberal blogger, warns that November is shaping up to be a Democratic Demolition Derby. Read Kos’s lament here.
And who does Kos blame? Why, it’s President Obama’s fault says Mr. Kos, who has a much longer name I’m not going to bother with spelling because he goes by Kos. Here’s what he says:
“No, this mess is the administration’s making, with a healthy assist from Harry Reid’s Senate. The shame is that Nancy Pelosi’s House, which did its job, will bear the brunt of the voter backlash. But the White House won’t be spared … It’s a slow motion car wreck in the works, and the best the White House and its allies can do is complain that we didn’t clap loudly enough.”
August 31st, 2010 04:36pm
Chuck Sweeny
Those of you who thought that Amtrak train would soon be rolling through Boone County on its way to Elgin and Chicago on the Union Pacific line just might want to keep your heads up and your powder dry.
Work on the UP line is supposed to begin late this year and continue through 2011 for a late 2011 or early 2012 start-up of operations. It’s being funded with $60 million from the Illinois capital plan.
At least that’s what we’ve been led to believe by Gov. Pat Quinn, who said this spring in Rockford that the train planned to run between Chicago and Dubuque, Ia., would travel between Rockford and Elgin via the northern route through Boone and McHenry counties.
The folks in Genoa and DeKalb believe this is not a done deal, though. A coalition of DeKalb County groups is meeting Wednesday night at Kishwaukee Community College in Malta to discuss ways to get the train routed through DeKalb County, a route studied and preferred by Amtrak in 2008.
The meeting announcement says the Amtrak route is “still unresolved.”
Although state Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Rochelle, is listed as a meeting attender, the senator told me Tuesday afternoon that he is coming as a courtesy because he was invited. Burzynski supports the northern route through Boone County.Here’s the meeting announcement:
There will be a DeKalb County Amtrak Forum regarding the still unresolved Amtrak route through DeKalb County with your state legislators. Senator Brad Burzynski and Representative Bob Pritchard will participate in the forum with moderator John Lewis, PhD Associate Vice President of Administration and University Outreach of Northern Illinois University. The agenda of the evening will be understanding the status of the potential route through DeKalb County from a legislative point of view with a Q&A session following. The forum is open to all residents and community leadership throughout DeKalb County.
Kishwaukee College - Jenkins Auditorium A-224
11193 Malta Road, Malta, IL
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
6:00pm Refreshments
6:30pm-8:30pm Forum
August 31st, 2010 11:56am
Chuck Sweeny
Marla Wilson, the Democratic candidate for state Senate in the 34th District, is having a fundraiser Thursday, Sept. 2, starting at 5:30 pm. at Cliffbreakers Riverside Resort, 700 W. Riversie Blvd.
Wilson’s featured guest is Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. Tickets are $100. Buy them at the door or call Wilson’s campaign at 815-528-6837.
Wilson faces state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, in the Nov. 2 election. Syverson was first elected to the job in 1992.
Wilson says she’s been out knocking on doors, which is critical in a local campaign. I asked her what’s on people’s minds.
“People are mostly interested in whether I’m an incumbent or not. They want every one who’s in office to be out,” Wilson said.
“People will say, who are you running against, I say Dave Syverson, and they say,’I'll vote for you and you can put a sign in my yard,’” Wilson said.
People are worried about education, the state’s financial crisis and unemployment.
“A lot of people are just hanging on,” Wilson said.
August 31st, 2010 09:57am
Chuck Sweeny
In my continuing parade of Winnebago County Forest Preserve Commission candidates, I present today Jasper, “Jay” Ferraro, 58, who lives in Roscoe.
Ferraro is best known as a municipal employee union leader, he’s a staff rep for Council 31 of the American Council of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Ferraro is a Boylan graduate who worked for Rockford’s water department for ten years before going to work for the union.
“With my work history I will able to face the challenges and issues of the forest preserve to find a solution to them. Reaching out to the community making sure that people are more aware of what the Winnebago County Forest Preserve has to offer to all ages,” Ferraro syas.
Ferraro is the union co-chair of the United Way Campaign Cabinet, chairman of the Rockford Labor Day Parade. He also works to fight autism.
Ferrero says he’s tried to teach the youngsters of his family “to enjoy nature through camping, hiking, fishing, and observing the different plants, and animals in their natural habitats. We have also enjoyed golf at the county’s golf courses.”
Ferraro says the forest preserves of Winnebago County “are currently under used and some changes could be made to bring out for citizens of this county and others to come to our county. I would like to see more showers put in some more of our camping areas, and one of our golf courses enlarging their banquet area to accommodate large golf outings.
“I believe these changes would bring in more revenue to the Winnebago County Preserve. I also would like to see all the rivers environmentally safe for the habitats and the users of the rivers. The education programs that are in place should be used by more school districts in the area so our future is educated in protecting our natural areas. I will continue to assure that the natural public lands are areas of safe enjoyable recreation and education,” Ferraro says.
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