Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton this week thanked “a divine presence” for allowing her to remain at the helm of City Council for another four years.
Morton was the only person who filed election papers by the Dec. 18 deadline, leaving her unopposed for her third term in office.
“I’m grateful for a divine presence that keeps me here,” Morton said Wednesday. “And I assume the residents of Evanston like what I’m doing.”
Morton, a former principal of Haven Middle School, became the city’s first black mayor when elected in 1993.
The filing period for aldermen runs from Jan. 19-23. The election is April 3.
Truck traffic banned: Winnetka residents may sleep more soundly thanks to a nighttime ban on travel by large delivery trucks that was adopted Tuesday by the Winnetka Village Council.
But daytime noise promises to escalate, at least along Tower Road.
This year the village will install a water line, underground electrical service, new storm sewers, a sidewalk, and curbs and gutters along Tower Road between Forest Way Drive and Green Bay Road. Workers will finish the project by repaving the road.
Meanwhile, trucks weighing 2 1/2 tons or more are banned from traveling all village roads between midnight and 5 a.m. Exempted from the ban are trucks doing village business, emergency vehicles, snow removal equipment and deliveries to the post office and Grand Foods.
Fire chief departs: Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen this week commended departing Fire Chief James Eaves for his years of service to the community.
Eaves, honored at Tuesday’s SkokieVillage Board meeting, is leaving after more than nine years as chief to head the Hoffman Estates Fire Department. No decision has been made on who will serve as interim fire chief after Eaves leaves his post Jan. 12.
“We will be doing a national search for his permanent replacement, as is the case with all department heads, and ads will go out in the professional journals very shortly,” Village Manager Albert Rigoni said.
Snow woes: Some North Shore officials are hearing from residents who complain the municipal snow plows are burying their mailboxes and stacking piles so high that drivers can’t see around them in traffic.
“Everybody’s mailbox is buried,” says Northbrook Village Manager John Novinson, who has fielded a few of the calls. “When you have the worst December in history, they’re all looking for places to put snow.”
Plow drivers, too, have some pet peeves. They complain customers who pay for seasonal service expect them to camp outside their door, ready for action. They are irked with customers who complain the plow job is not postcard perfect.
But one plow operator’s top peeve is contracting with homeowners who leave their cars parked on the driveway, then expect the snowplow to return and finish the job later for free.
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“They think I can lift up the car, sweep and put the car back down,” said Tom Bonner, owner of a Northbrook plow service. “It’s like come on people, get a clue.”
This just in: Northwestern University announced this week it has passed the $1 billion milestone in a 2 1/2-year fundraising effort. The money will go toward construction projects and endowments at the Evanston and Chicago campuses.
That’s got to irk a few Evanston officials, who complain the university does not contribute its fair share toward community services.
But Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) responded: “This has nothing to do with money, with their not being able to help out. This has to do with a very rigid policy they have, that they are tax-exempt. What I want to get through to them is that it is no longer appropriate for these times.”
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