January 17th, 2008
Just so you know the facts:
Certain local Republican state senators and House members are sure to start bloviating about big, bad Chicago stealing all our cookies, so I wanted to point out a little known fact that they won’t tell you about:
The mass transit funding bill passed Thursday by the legislature boosts funding for downstate mass transit districts. That means $1.2 million more for Rockford Mass Transit.
Chicagoland taxpayers are funding the increase through an increase in their sales tax and a tax on real-estate transfers in Chicago.
So, Chicagoans are directly subsidizing our bus service with their taxes.
Just so you know the facts before the disinformation campaign starts.
January 17th, 2008
The Illinois Senate has followed the House in passing the $500 million mass transit bill with the governor’s amendatory veto language.
January 17th, 2008
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy has endorsed Barack Obama.
Quoted in The Politico, ” Leahy said “We need a president who can reintroduce America to the world — and actually reintroduce America to ourselves.”
Obama, Leahy said, carried the “hope” to end the war in Iraq and to bring “health care for all.”
He also compared the decision to support Obama to supporting John F. Kennedy for president.
January 17th, 2008
The House has just passed the transit bill to fund Chicagoland mass transit and provide extra money to downstate transit systems. The vote was 61-47. This was the bill that Gov. Rod Blagojevich used his amendatory veto to provide free rides to seniors.
Now we’ll see what the Senate does.
January 17th, 2008
The City of Rockford remains silent on the topic, but as it did with the cleanout of Keith Creek, Winnebago County government is stepping into the lead role in promoting installation of emergency warning sirens throughout the county, including in the city of Rockford.
County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen has issued an official “Call for proposals, instructions and specifications for outdoor warning system.”
The county will “receive sealed proposals in the Purchasing Department, Winnebago County, Administration Building, 404 Elm St. Room 2002, Rockford IL 61101 until 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 20, 2008.”
The county is “seeking proposals from qualified firms who can design and install a Countywide warning device system. ” The county is about half rural, half urban.
“Currently, outside of the firehouses, only one municipality has a siren system in place.” (They’re talking about Loves Park, which has a partial system.)
“The County is looking to purchase a Countywide outdoor warning device system with controls and seeks to do this by a phased approach.”
Christiansen told me he’s already had calls from people who want to donate the use of their towers for siren installation. He wants to save money by using as many existing towers as possible.
The county is “looking for a turnkey system and would require any bidder to be able to perform the complete installation to include testing, training, maintenance and readily available support beyond the initial startup,” the call for proposals says.
The system is expected to cost around $1.2 million, Christiansen says. He hopes to get emergency grant money from state, and possibly federal sources, perhaps Homeland Security.
Christiansen wants to combine the sirens with low-cost weather radios and a reverse 911 system to alert people of emergencies via land phones, mobile phones, faxes and e-mail.
January 17th, 2008
The article in today’s paper about tornado sirens causes me to drive home a point I’ve stressed before in columns: We need warning sirens throughout Winnebago County.
Yes, we’ve had a bad tornado here. It was in the 1920s and it tore out several factories in southeast Rockford. Belvidere installed tornado sirens after the 1967 twister that killed 24 people.
What amazes me is the resistance that comes from our “emergency” bureaucracies around here when the topic of sirens comes up.
Increasingly, I’m believing that Rockford just isn’t prepared for the modern world and doesn’t plan on doing anything about getting there.
