CHICAGO RIDGE
Board votes 3-2 for new treasurer
After learning the leading candidate for the job of village treasurer had to be passed over because of a potential conflict of interest, the Village Board recently voted 3-2 to appoint Deb Pyznarski.
Trustees Dan Baden and Juanita Babcock withheld their support for Pyznarski, who has experience administering budgets and managing property, because they had learned of the potential conflict only minutes before the vote, they said.
“I don’t have a problem with Deb, just the way it was done,” Baden said.
The earlier candidate is an employee of Founders Bank in Worth, the village’s main bank for business, Village Clerk Chuck Tokar said. The village attorney advised against selecting that candidate because of the potential conflict, Tokar said.
Instead of waiting until all the trustees were satisfied with the choice, Trustee Michael Davies put the matter to a vote at a recent meeting. Davies, who was elected in the last municipal election, said community members were pressuring him to help appoint a new treasurer because his wife had been acting as treasurer during his term in elected office.
Barbara Dargis
LANSING
County chastised on tax proposal
The proposed Cook County tax increase, which would boost local sales taxes to about 11 percent, could devastate the local economy, Lansing officials said.
“Any increase in sales tax would have a devastating effect on communities such as Lansing, which border the state of Indiana where the sales tax rate is 6 percent,” Village Atty. Dale Anderson wrote in an e-mail and fax to the County Board.
“It is no exaggeration to suggest that any increase would sound the death knell of many local businesses,” Anderson wrote.
That downturn would end up hurting the county’s economy, Anderson wrote.
After trustees unanimously passed a resolution opposing the county tax increase, Anderson said Lansing already has few gas stations left because drivers go to Indiana for lower gas taxes.
James D. Wolf Jr.
OAK FOREST
Fire Department donates building
The Fire Department has pitched in to help out another department that lost its fire station in July to suspected arson.
More Top Picks Best Electric Meat Slicers For Home
The suburb donated pieces of an unused building to Pope County Fire Protection District for a fire station. The rural district at the southern tip of Illinois has four stations miles apart from each other and needed to replace the one it lost near Dixon Springs.
Oak Forest donated a partially constructed building that was never finished. In addition, the suburb and about 20 other Chicago-area fire departments donated 300 pieces of equipment, including a truck, hoses, generators, helmets and protective gear. The Illinois Department of Transportation took the building’s parts and other donated items to Pope County last week.
“They had nothing to work with,” said Oak Forest Fire Chief Lindsay Laycoax. “You know the old saying, ‘Some people’s garbage is another person’s treasure.'”
Janice Neumann
OAK LAWN
School official resigns board post
An Oak Lawn Community High School District 229 board member has stepped down because of family, community and work obligations.
After praising Daniel Risley for his service, the school board unanimously approved his resignation at a recent meeting.
“He’s going to be missed, both figuratively and literally. … He has some big shoes to fill,” Board President Stephen Trotto said, referring to Risley’s hard work as well as his 6-foot-plus height.
Risley, who did not attend the meeting, said by phone he was resigning to spend more time with his wife and four children. He also chairs the Oak Lawn Traffic Commission and travels in his job as president of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, a national organization.
“I just wanted to make a difference in the community,” Risley said.
The school board plans to hold a special meeting Thursday to discuss and possibly vote on a candidate to replace Risley, whose term is up in April 2009.
Janice Neumann
MOKENA
Search under way for new police site
Mokena trustees this week authorized their attorney and administrator to start shopping around for a 3.5-acre site to house new headquarters for the Police Department and Emergency Services & Disaster Agency.
The village determined this year that the department will need more room than it has at its Front Street headquarters, Village Administrator John Downs said.
“It’s served us well over the years,” he said.
Pat Harper