BLUE ISLAND
Venetian Night planned for Cal-Sag
Officials are planning for Blue Island’s first Venetian Night next summer when they hope to see an armada of lighted pleasure craft parade up and down the Cal-Sag Channel.
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The event is the most recent effort to help bring more recreational opportunities to the waterway and speed up other hoped-for improvements along the channel.
Mayor Donald Peloquin said the recent Big Ten college boat race, held earlier in the month, was a success and is likely to be back next year.
“We’re ready for next year, and we’re ready for Venetian Night,” Peloquin said at this week’s City Council meeting.
More than 50 boats from seven college teams staged two races along the channel during the Chicago Southland Regatta two weeks ago.
The event was spearheaded by officials from Fay’s Point, a new condominium and townhouse development under construction near Ashland Avenue and Broadway Street. The development, at the junction of the channel and the Little Calumet River, includes a marina, restaurant and fitness center.
Fay’s Point will be at the center of the festivities during Venetian Night.
— Carmen Greco Jr.
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MOKENA
Mayors prepare for railroad merger
Mokena will join Frankfort and New Lenox in pressing federal officials to require safety measures if the Canadian National Railroad is allowed to buy a local railroad, the mayor said this week.
The takeover by the Canadian firm of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co., which runs from Waukegan to Joliet, would mean “four or five times the amount of trains” passing through the Lincoln-Way area, Mokena Mayor Joe Werner said. The trains will be longer and faster as well, Werner said.
The EJ&E railroad crossing on Wolf Road is only about a mile south of heavily traveled U.S. Highway 30, and the crossing on 116th Avenue has no gates at all, he said.
Werner said he has met with Frankfort Mayor Jim Holland, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann and state Rep. Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox) to discuss the need to address the safety hazards, traffic tie-ups and high noise levels that will accompany an increase in train traffic.
— Pat Harper
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OAK FOREST
Parking rules set near commuter lot
Officials are fine-tuning parking and traffic rules for Oak Forest’s new commuter lot at 15900 Oak Ave., just a month away from completion.
At this week’s City Council meeting, aldermen approved no-parking and permit-parking rules and a left-turn only designation at the former Arbor Park Middle School property to help protect nearby residents and maintain traffic flow.
Residential permit parking will be allowed weekdays from 8 a.m. to midnight on parts of eight streets near the commuter lot. Parking will be prohibited or limited on other streets near the lot. There will be a left-turn only designation for traffic on southbound Oak Avenue at 160th.
Ald. Richard Simon, whose 2nd Ward includes the area, worked with Public Works Director Troy Ishler to improve traffic safety near the lot.
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The new lot is expected to be complete by the end of December, Ishler said.
— Janice Neumann