MOKENA
Resort proposal set to go before board
A resort complex is the next development proposal coming before the Village Board.
A plan to build a resort area at 191st Street near LaGrange Road is scheduled for discussion at the board’s work session next Monday, Community Development Director Alan Zordan said.
The developers of Hickory Creek Resort are planning to build two hotels, a water park, baseball field and a baseball academy on 25 acres between 191st Street and the Hickory Creek commuter station, Zordan said.
Pat Harper
JUSTICE
Board OKs fee to retrieve seized cars
The Village Board has approved a new vehicle impound ordinance that institutes a fee to retrieve seized cars.
It will cost $500 to retrieve a vehicle “used in the commission of a crime,” such as drunken driving or driving on a suspended license, under the ordinance approved Monday night. Previously, there was no fee in Justice.
Trustee Michael Murray, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said the impound fees are expected to raise about $200,000 per year. Had the rule been in effect last year, 399 defendants would have been subject to the fine.
Jeff Borgardt
ORLAND PARK
Schools look to add physical education
Orland School District 135 officials are working to incorporate daily physical education classes into the primary and intermediate schools within the next four years.
According to the Illinois School Code, intermediate and primary students require 30 minutes of physical education daily. Orland currently offers physical education twice weekly in its intermediate (3-5) and primary (K-3) schools, along with other organized movement as part of daily classroom activities, Supt. Dennis Soustek said.
“We still need to decide where in the course of the school day we will do this. Do we need to restructure our curriculum? Have a longer school day? Add more P.E. teachers?” Soustek said.
Physical education is provided daily at the junior high, he said.
The district is also working on its own wellness policy and opened the schools this year with a new food service program that includes healthy food choices for students, he said.
“We are moving toward wellness with our kids. With so much written lately about the state of our children’s health, we know our kids need to move,” Soustek said.
Margie Ritchie
WILL COUNTY
Forest district seeks supplier for roof
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The Will County Forest Preserve District is seeking a new supplier for part of its administration center roof, which failed three years after the $3 million building opened.
Executive Director Marcy DeMauro said the district couldn’t replace the original roofing tiles.
Currently, a rubber-coated replacement covers part of the roof on the building’s north side. The roofing section and an adjacent chimney wall were damaged in October 2006 by a windstorm. The district opened the environmentally friendly building in 2003.
DeMauro told the district operations committee last week the repair project should be completed in November. Insurance is paying $31,000 of the estimated $85,000 cost.
Dennis Sullivan
ALSIP
Village officials say no to fundraiser
The Village Board has denied a request by the Knights of Columbus to solicit donations for the annual Tootsie Roll Drive.
The state set aside Sept. 21-23 as tag days for local councils of the Knights to collect cash on street corners for its most productive annual fund-raising event, said Andrew Walther, director of media relations for the Knights of Columbus. Local councils set their own schedules for the hours they want volunteers to collect, he said.
Trustee Stanley Graczyk, who last week brought the matter before the board, recommended the village not approve the request: “Three days is pushing it,” he said. “That’s a long time for one volunteer. The way people drive, someone might get hurt.”
The Father Perez Council 1444 covers Oak Lawn, Alsip and a slice of Chicago, and assigns volunteers to the intersection of 111th Street and Cicero Avenue. In past years, that council has raised $40,000, with a large portion generated by the Tootsie Roll Drive, Walther said.
The council has approval from Oak Lawn and Chicago to post volunteers at the busy intersection, but volunteers will be told to avoid the southwest corner, which lies in Alsip.
Barbara Dargis