Soapbox: A bad precedent here
Arguing that creating a new town is a lot of work seems a bit bizarre when the person making the argument is Patsy Smith, the woman who led incorporation efforts and then volunteered to be the temporary first president. She called it "worse than a full-time job." Well, what exactly did she expect -- that creating something out of nothing would be easy? And it sure didn't take long for Campton Hills officials to learn the apparent first rule of public service these days -- take care of public servants first. Just months after pay scales for officials were set, the total was raised by 17 percent. Most of the appointees are volunteering and aren't taking any money, but it's still a poor precedent to establish.
… but a wise decision there
On the other hand, Campton Hills officials didn't cling to their very bad idea to take over the Wasco Sanitary District by packing the referendum ballot if necessary. The sanitary district filed suit, claiming the new village couldn't take over its operations because the district wasn't wholly in the village. Seeing the legal writing on the wall, Campton Hills has backed away, though it's never been clear why they thought sanitary district management was a good idea in the first place.
At best, a delay
The news that Forest City Commercial Group is wavering on its plans for a major development in Sugar Grove is not a big surprise. The housing slump has hit home in Sugar Grove and other suburbs, and those ambitious population projections thrown around not long ago for towns like these are going to be pushed back some years, at least. Let's hope the state Department of Transportation works quickly to determine what kind of help it can give the village and developer, which will likely make or break the project.
Meanwhile, during the same week …
… the Sugar Grove Library District forged ahead with its plans to construct a new library. The district was tied at one time to the Forest City project, but wisely decided to go to a new plan. Good for them, and for district residents.
A big break
Randall Visor should feel lucky. The Batavia man, who is responsible for four deaths 10 years ago in a drunken driving accident and for driving without a license in 2006, caught a break. Why? His family, his victims' families and, by extension, his job. By giving him a chance to leave jail to work and support his family -- and pay debts he owes to the victims' families -- he avoided a tougher sentence for the 2006 incident. With apparently no room for error, let's hope Visor chooses to be responsible.
Money everywhere, little else
This week contained a litany of reports about money raised by candidates. Hillary raised $28 million in the third quarter, while Barack raised about $20 million in the same period. U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean has nearly a million to toss about and U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has a million and a half. Three candidates in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert have raised nearly a half-million each. Too bad none of the positions they seek is "fundraiser." Even more too bad is that such big bucks applied to various problems instead of TV ads might be a whole lot more constructive use of them.
Preaching hygiene
Another week, another weird health threat to worry parents. Fortunately, the Naperville North High School students who contracted potentially fatal MRSA infections have recovered just fine. And now suburban parents know that good hygiene is just one more sermon they need to give their teens.