If Winnetka has its way, there will never be another house fire that village officials have to blame on the lack of a smoke detector. That’s because of a program making sure every house, apartment and condominium has a working unit.
Winnetka firefighters inspected all of the homes in the North Shore town of 12,200 residents over the past three years to install smoke detectors and keep those in place working.
There are now 3,675 working smoke detectors in village apartments, condos and single-family residences. Besides installing 788 new smoke detectors where residents had none, firefighters replaced batteries in 433 units and verified installation of 2,454 working smoke detectors. In addition, 963 automatic fire-alarm systems were found in homes, according to Fire Chief Ronald Colpeart.
Some 2,200 hours and $7,500 were spent on Winnetka’s program, modeled after one in Deerfield and Bannockburn. The work ended in November.
Winnetka firefighters built a database of all the residences in their town using the water department’s billing list. The department then went door-to-door making inspections and tracking their progress on computer.
Passionate response: Just two days after 23,000 surveys were mailed earlier this year to residents asking their opinion on enrollment growth in New Trier Township High School District 203, 600 responses were received. And four days after the mailing, 2,000 responses had been returned.
Louis Gatta, president of Educational Consultants and Research Associates, which conducted the survey, called the returns “an astonishingly quick response.” In all, about 4,700 surveys were returned in time for Tuesday’s report at the district’s school board meeting.
Playtime on hold: Kenilworth village officials have imposed a 60-day moratorium on any change in the use of a garden recently donated to Kenilworth Union Church, 211 Kenilworth Ave. At the end of the moratorium, officials hope the church and neighbors will have resolved their disagreement about its use as a preschool playground.
Neighbors concerned about the preservation of Kenilworth property values, as well as local ambience, asked for the moratorium. Jack Lane, of the Kenilworth Preservationists, said the church’s proposed preschool activities in the garden could “affect property values into the millions of dollars.”
Rich Williamson, a member of the Kenilworth Union’s executive committee, said the village board’s action was not necessary because church officials would voluntarily commit to a 30-day moratorium and limit use of the garden. The board was given a petition with 300 signatures asking that plans for the garden be allowed to proceed.
Board President James R. McClamroch, however, said that in October the board had asked Kenilworth Union officials to meet with their neighbors to resolve the issues. A meeting is scheduled later this week.
Ironically, Kenilworth Union could go ahead and put playground equipment in the back yard of the church-owned residence next door to the property in question. The village board approved that plan last year.
Class notes: District 225 is a step closer to full block scheduling now that the board has approved extension of one pilot program and the addition of another.
Glenbrook North will continue teaching freshman and junior English and history classes on the block schedule, which means that they meet for 85 minutes every other day. Most other courses meet every day for 40 or 55 minutes, depending on the subject.
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