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Monday, March 11, 2013
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Early results are in for DeKalb City Council to hear how new housing, towing ordinances are working out By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com
DeKALB – After getting their car impounded via the city’s administrative towing powers, there are some people who will not want to return to DeKalb. Good riddance, said Police Chief Gene Lowery. “Many of the people who have come in to pay a fee to un-impound their car have said they would not want to return to DeKalb,” Lowery
said. “And based on the conduct they were involved in, I think that’s a great message to hear.” City officials will update DeKalb aldermen at today’s meeting on what kind of effect some new ordinances have had on the police department and its ability to enforce the law. In 2012, the City Council created a new bureau to oversee DeKalb’s rental properties, enabled the police department to tow vehicles that might be connected to illegal activity, and started a resident officer program in
If you go
day, Lowery said. The majority of the cars are towed in relation to DUIs, but many have occurred because of n What: DeKalb City Council meeting felony arrests. n When: Committee of the Whole starts at Lowery said the resident officer 6 p.m. today; regular meeting at 7 p.m. program is going well, but the experin Where: DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 ence of municipalities with similar S. Fourth St. programs is that a real effect isn’t seen on the neighborhood’s juveniles until three to five years later. one of the neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the housing bureau is More than 40 days into the new still getting on its feet. In February, towing program, Lowery said the po- the city hired former DeKalb police lice tow an average of two vehicles a officer Carl Leoni as the bureau co-
ordinator. A full-time clerk is in the process of being added to the office, and three part-time inspectors will be hired later in the year. DeKalb Police Commander Jason Leverton spoke for Leoni at a Thursday news conference with city officials. Leverton said landlords are starting to register their properties with the city; they have until April 30 to do so. He said positive relationships are being built between Leoni
See DeKALB, page A6
Analysis
Silly bills distract some Ill. lawmakers By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
Photos by Kyle Bursaw – kbursaw@shawmedia.com
Matt Rowan (left) and Brianne Mays (center) assemble small pieces with other workers Thursday in the Opportunity House’s workshop in Sycamore.
Opportunity House celebrates 50 years Organization integrates people with developmental disabilities into community On the Web
By STEPHANIE HICKMAN shickman@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Spring Bellows cherishes her free time drawing and expressing herself. Bellows often visits with friends while drawing at the Opportunity House’s Developmental Training Center in Sycamore. Bellows enjoys bonding with other clients of the Opportunity House, who she said are all her friends. “I like them all the same,” she said. “I don’t believe in favorites.” Opportunity House, which helps people with developmental disabilities learn the skills they need to live and work in the community, offers programs for Bellows and many others. The organization is celebrating its 50th year. Last year, it served 283 clients with disabilities through its sheltered workshops, recreational programs, group housing, employment assistance and developmental training programs. Executive Director Bob Shipman said Opportunity House works to meet the needs of every client, no matter the disability. “You run the gamut from the very seriously impaired to the peo-
Learn more about the Opportunity House, its services and how you can help at www.ohinc.org.
Spring Bellows works on coloring Dr. Seuss characters Thursday during an individual work time in one of Opportunity House’s classrooms in Sycamore. ple who need just a little bit of help,” he said. Founded in 1963, the organization was formed mostly by parents of children with disabilities who didn’t want to put them in institutions. They decided a better idea was to transition them into community life, Shipman said. “With a little bit of help, people with impairments or developmental disabilities can live and work in the community just like anyone else,” he said.
Opportunity House held its first workshop in the old South School building in Sycamore, and in 1967, it opened its first group home. Today, the organization provides housing for four to eight clients in each of its seven houses throughout the DeKalb and Sycamore areas. It recently purchased an eighth house in Sycamore and hopes to have it fully operational in June.
A place to call home
Danielle Archer works from
Tuesday to Thursday each week as one of six staff members caring for the residents of Maplewood, one of the organization’s 24-hour assistedliving group homes. She helps them with their laundry, cooking, cleaning and meal planning. She also goes to movies, plays bingo, does arts and crafts and bowls on the Nintendo Wii with residents. “We do a lot of activities to encourage group participation and make them feel like they’re in a home,” she said. The staff strives to ensure residents feel like they are part of a family. The eight female residents of this handicap-accessible house have a private room. Ken Safford, director of the house, said they are encouraged to personalize and make it their own.
Our state lawmakers can’t come up with pension reform, but they can find the time to make it a crime to buy or sell lion meat. They have no concrete plan to pay down a $10 billion pile of unpaid bills, but they can file bills to crack down on anonymous commenters on websites. Recent piecemeal attempts to cobble together pension reform aside, state lawmakers have a history of dealing with anything but pension reform. A last-minute effort to enact pension reform collapsed in the final hours of the 2012 spring session, but lawmakers took the time in May to pass a bill allowing trained miniature horses to be used as service animals for the disabled. One could make a convincing argument, given the state’s financial crisis, that any bill not dealing with pension reform is a distraction. But some bills, from parades crossing railroad tracks to allowing the state to issue “Choose Life” license plates, are more meaningless distractions than others. The following is a bipartisan list of some of the bills before state lawmakers – six from each house, divided equally by party – that some lawmakers are focusing on while the $96 billion in unfunded pension liability increases by $17 million a day. • Lion meat – House Bill 2991, filed by Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to slaughter lions for meat, buy or sell lions for the purpose of slaughter, or sell the meat. The bill, now sponsored by Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, is awaiting action in the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee. In Lang’s defense, he also has filed a pension bill – it would make the temporary 67 percent income-tax increase permanent to pay for the pensions. • Death penalty – Senate Bill 2275, sponsored by Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Westmont, brings back the death penalty for certain circumstances. Lawmakers abolished the death penalty in the 2011 lame-duck session that gave us the 67 percent income-tax increase. The bill is awaiting a hearing in the Senate Subcommittee on Civil Rights.
See HOUSE, page A6 See LAWS, page A6
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