Archive for January, 2008
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.
January 16th, 2008
I columnized in the
paper on Tuesday about the city of Rockford’s proposed zoning ordinance to prohibit subdivisions that all have garage-first houses. The city claims it wants diversity in subdivision construction, but the more I think about it, I worry about what looks like a thinly disguised attempt at gentrification.
If we write an ordinance that makes houses significantly more expensive to build, developers won’t build them in Rockford, but in friendlier communities next door . Worse, we would surely see an increase in “leapfrog” developments a hop, skip and jump beyond Rockford’s 1.5 mile area of control around its boundaries.
A proliferation of the Davis Junction model — huge subdivisions in cornfields that are miles fom shops, jobs and schools — would be a disaster.
Yes, i’d like middle class people to consider moving into Rockford’s older neighborhoods. But making it more difficult to build at the edge of town won’t do that, despite what some urban policy wonks might think. All the zoning controls established by Portland, Oregon, have done is to encourage sprawl outside the city.
The same thing could happen in good old Forest City.
Middle class folks will come to Rockford when we have a first class school district and middle class jobs that allow people to buy homes on Harlem Boulevard.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the City Council: Tell me exactly what’s broken?
January 16th, 2008
Hey, have you heard the rumor that Barack Obama is a Christian? It’s true.
January 16th, 2008
Winnebago County State’s Attorney Phil Nicolosi is crying foul over Chuck Prorok’s campaign ad. The two men face off Feb. 5 in the GOP primary.
Prorok’s ad has scenes that show him in a courtroom. Nicolosi’s campaign says that’s a violation of the state election code, which forbids public funds to be spent to advance candidates.
Prorok’s campaign said that several judges have also shot campaign commercials in courtrooms. He doesn’t seem inclined pull his ad.
I’m not clear about what public funds are used when a candidate tapes a commercial in a courtroom that is unoccupied. I’m asking the Election Board for an opinion.
Come to think of it, I’ve also seen commercials where lawyers have taped commercials in courtrooms. I don’t mind ‘em doing it, but the county ought to make money by charging them for the privilege.
January 15th, 2008
The Speaker of the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, is a member of the “party of the people,” the Democrats. And the people are going upscale, apparently. Pelosi has revamped the House cafe menu, says this story from The Politico.
Da Speaker, according to the story, has replaced processed cheese with brie, and there’s to be no more Jell-O. The workingman’s fare will give way to the sensibilities of the wine ‘n’ cheese Democrats, who will certainly enjoy “raspberry kiwi tarts and mini-lemon blueberry trifles. Meatloaf has moved over for mahi mahi and buns have been shunted aside in favor of baguettes,” Politico sez.
This is the House whose public approval rating is lower than President W’s. And that’s really low.
What? You say 50 million have no health care? We’ll deal with that later. Have another raspberry kiwi tart, Nancy?
January 15th, 2008
I stopped in to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s information meeting at Faith Center this afternoon to hear and see about the planned $15 million rebuild of the interchange at US 20 and South Main.
The bridge, more than 45 years old, is not in the best shape and needs to be replaced. Also, I learned that trucks carrying too-tall loads on South Main have actually hit the bridge!
The plan is to raise the level of US 20 by 2 and 1/2 feet and get rid of the cloverleaf style interchange, replacing it with long offramps that terminate in signaled intersections at South Main.
The new offramps are designed to accomodate a six lane highway, which engineers say will eventually be required on US 20 in coming decades.
The design also features room for a bicycle trail, engineers told me.
The rebuild is in the state of Illinois’ multi-year plan, and is currently in the engineering stage. However, construction depends on the state legislature and governor agreeing on a capital spending plan, and we haven’t had one of those since 1999.
January 15th, 2008
Did you see the picture of protesters against the proposed asphalt plant in Rockford Blacktop’s Mulford/Harrison quarry? The neighbors were holding up signs at the Rockford City Council meeting.
Despite an impressive lobbying effort, the protesters could muster but 5 aldermen to oppose the plant. The committee report that green-lights the plant was OK’d 8-5 Monday night. The final vote on the actual ordinance is next week; the totals probably won’t change. Or if Ald. Linda McNeely, D-13, is present next week, she’ll most likely vote against the asphalt plant, making it 8-6. Close, but no cigar. (Come to think of it, with the new smoking ban, you couldn’t smoke the cigar.)
The irony here is that the quarry is in the city, while most of the protesters live just outside. If they were city residents, more aldermen would pay attention to them.
But I don’t imagine they’d be interested in annexing.
January 15th, 2008
The big Republican race for Winnebago County state’s attorney got a second TV commercial today — at least that’s the first time I’ve seen it. Chuck Prorok, former chief deputy state’s attorney to former S.A. Paul Logli, has an impressive TV’er that shows him looking very official — at one point, he lifts a crime-scene tape and walks into the scene of SOMETHING IMPORTANT, I’m sure.
The ad says that Prorok is running because experience and independence count.
Prorok is running against appointed S.A. Phil Nicolosi, who’s ad has been running for awhile.
January 15th, 2008
Readers, if you really want to be informed about what the U.S. government is up to, you have to read foreign newspapers to get some parts that seem to be ignored by our national media.
Take this item in The Guardian, which I read every day. The well-written London paper reports and comments extensively on U.S. affairs that somehow escape the radar of Stateside reporters.
The spooky story says the FBI wants access to British databases to help it set up an international databases of iris, palm , and fingerprints, supposedly to help catch criminals worldwide..
That, of course, could easily be expanded to keep track of anyone. Knowing that Bush still is president, and that another Clinton could soon be president, I’m more than a little bit worried about this database. Whaddya think?
Next Posts
Previous Posts
