INSIDE Daily Illini Editorial Board endorses Lucas Frye for student trustee but with some reservations. PAGE 4A
MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
Ekey, Bertrand to play final home game at Illinois
Special University designation receives limited attention on campus
Illini host conferenceleading Wolverines
SPORTS, 1B
LIFE & CULTURE, 5A
THE DAILY ILLINI
TUESDAY March 4, 2014
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
36˚ | 18˚ Vol. 143 Issue 87
|
FREE
Gov. candidates make their case Snow removal comes with a hefty price tag BY ELEANOR BLACK STAFF WRITER
Three of the four Republican gubernatorial candidates — Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard and Dan Rutherford — met Monday night at the i-Hotel in Champaign to debate issues and discuss their vision of the state’s future. Organizers said they repeatedly invited Bruce Rauner, the other Republican candidate, to join the debate, but he declined.
BY MIRANDA HOLLOWAY ASSISTANT DAYTIME EDITOR
BILL BRADY Illinois senator
KIRK DILLARD Illinois senator
DAN RUTHERFORD Illinois treasurer
State senator representing the 44th district. This is his third campaign for Illinois governor. He won the Republican primary in 2010, where he beat Dillard by 193 votes.
State senator representing the 24th district. He served as Gov. Jim Edgar’s chief of staff from 1990-1993. This is his second campaign for Illinois governor.
Currently serving as the Illinois treasurer, previously served as state senator representing the 53rd district. This is his first campaign for Illinois governor.
Brady said he is the only candidate in the race who has promised to deliver on tax cuts. He plans to balance the budget as governor and does not support cutting or raising the minimum wage. As governor, he will focus on bringing good-paying job opportunities to Illinois, he said. In terms of economic development, Brady said he and running mate Maria Rodriguez come from small business backgrounds and will focus on supporting the creation of such businesses. Brady said Illinois needs a governor who will prioritize education funding and commented that pension reform was important because pensions “were going to eat up over 26 percent of our state revenues.” He also called for simplifying the current funding formula by getting rid of grants, for example, so that “the dollars follow the student,” as well as eliminating the State Board of Education’s power. In terms of agriculture, Brady discussed tax cuts and a 30-year plan to revitalize the transportation system, as well as research and development and energy resources, such as fracking, to help keep Illinois products manufactured and sold within the state. He also commented that he has a 100 percent voting record when it come to the second amendment and said that the bill that legislators worked on is fair, thanks to the training and background checks required.
Dillard said he would announce his plan to make Illinois a “destination economy” for job creators on Tuesday, adding that the state is overtaxed and over-regulated. He said under his leadership, there would be a panel to “overhaul, top-to-bottom, our state’s archaic and over-regulated tax system and regulatory system.” Jil Tracy, a state representative for the 93rd district and his running mate, will receive testimonies from families, farmers and businesses across the state to find out what regulations stifle their economic development. Dillard said he wants to leave the minimum wage where it currently is and instead focus on well-paying jobs because “no one should be living on a minimum wage or raising a family on minimum wage.” Education is a priority for Dillard, who said that he is the only candidate with a written plan for education, the “Best in Class” program. His candidacy has been endorsed by state education associations such as the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. He highlighted agriculture as the most important and largest employer in Illinois, and focused on the family farm, funding agriculture programs and agricultural research. Regarding concealed carry laws, Dillard said he sponsored it “before it was cool to do so,” but the state should give the law time to see how it is implemented and wait to make any changes.
As governor, Rutherford said he would use his power to appoint directors of state agencies and make sure that those agencies help create and retain jobs in the state. He also said the lieutenant governor’s office under Steve Kim, an attorney and his running mate, will become the governor’s office for job creation and retention. Rutherford said he would be the “chief marketing officer” to promote the state of Illinois to both big and small businesses. In regards to minimum wage, Rutherford said he does not support lowering or raising it in Illinois at this time. “The minimum wage increase is a mandate from your government telling a small business, regardless of what price you charge for your product and service, your government is mandating you to increase your costs,” he said. As governor, he said minimum wage is not the target, but well-paying jobs are. He said a minimum wage increase, combined with other initiatives, could be a discussion in the future but it depends on a variety of factors. In regards to education, Rutherford said pre-kindergarten is a major priority for him. He also called investment in higher education a good business decision. As governor, Rutherford said he will look at the agriculture market on both a domestic and oversea scale, and various agriculture programs. Like Dillard, he wanted to watch the progress of the state’s concealed carry law and have a discussion about its implementation in the future.
Police prepare for Unofficial BY CHRIS PULLAM CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Strict punishment awaits students who participate in reckless celebration of Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day. L ocal law enforcement agencies, along with University representatives, held a joint press conference on Monday to discuss strategies for mitigating the risk associated with the event. Neither the University nor the cities of Champaign or Urbana encourage the celebration of Unofficial. Rather, these groups have actively worked to manage and discourage the event. “It’s an event that promotes underage drinking and binge drinking,” said Lt. Jim Clark,
of the Champaign Police Department, during the news conference. “Every year, this event accounts for several injuries, and we’ve had fatalities during this event. Many more people have been transported to the hospital for alcohol incapacitation.” The organizations represented at the conference included the University’s Office of Student Affairs and Division of Public Safety, Community Elements Campus Community Alcohol Task Force Coalition, I l l i nois L iquor C ont rol Commission, the Champaign and Urbana police departments, Champaign County Sheriff’s
This winter season, the Urbana- Champaign area has seen about 40 inches of snow, which is more than 15 inches than the area average, according to the Illinois State Water Survey. The added snowfall is more than just a pain in the neck — it is also expensive. Through January, University Facilities and Services spent $306,535 on snow removal, up from $83,710 through January last year, according to an email from campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler. This total stems from labor costs and overtime as well as rising material prices and equipment maintenance. For the University and the cities of Urbana and Champaign, determining the budget for snow removal is based on averages of past years. Ch a mpa ig n a nd the University look at past levels of snowfall, and Urbana looks at how much money has been needed in past years. Kris Koester, Champaign Public Works public information officer, said the city of Champaign estimates that it costs around $19,000 to clear each inch of snow. “We do realize that there will be less than that, and there will be years where we have more, so we just have to be able to plan,” Koester said. “It’s best for us to be able to plan for something that we get on average so we have the appropriate amount of coverage.” The amount of accumulation is not the only aspect of winter weather that counts toward the costs of snow removal. This year the cost of salt has risen due to added national demand. “For example, as of right now, we’ve spent more than $80,000 on rock salt this year, and recently you’ve had prices increase due to supply shortages across the country,” said Steve Breitwieser, Facilities and Services media communication specialist. Although the cost of salt has risen with demand, it is not the most costly part of the
price tag as staffing and labor payment costs the most. “The biggest cost we have — granted salt costs quite a bit — but the biggest expense is just the overtime of staff,” said John Collins, Urbana Public Works operations director. Employing staff in multiple departments who are on call at all hours of the night when weather is inclement is necessary to ensure safe travel. “We have more than 250 people involved in snow removal operations and (Facilities and Services) working long hours though this winter to make sure that campus stays open,” Breitwieser said. “When you think of the snow removal process it takes all these different units working together as a team to really make it happen.” Workers have faced an added difficulty this year in dealing with low temperatures, which reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of road salt and calcium chloride salt melt. “We spend an awful lot of time looking at the weather conditions before, during and after an event,” Collins said. By monitoring the weather, city officials are able to decide the best way to address the weather, which ultimately reduces costs. City governments also pretreat roads with a brine solution as another cost cutting measure. About one and a half tons of salt can make 1,000 gallons of brine, and Breitwieser estimates that it takes about 3,000 gallons of brine to pretreat the roads before a winter storm. He added that the brine makes the removal process more efficient by reducing the number of passes plows need to make to fully remove the snow. This can assist in the process, but warmer weather is the cheapest way to remove snow. “I think everyone is hoping for some warmer temperatures to help with the removal process,” Breitwieser said.
Miranda can be reached at mwhollo2@dailyillini.com.
NATHANIEL LASH THE DAILY ILLINI
Police officers interview a suspect on the 1100 block of South Second SEE UNOFFICIAL | 3A Street in Champaign.
Statistics from Unofficial 2013
Q Officers raided five parties and arrested 21 hosts for violation of the social host laws. The largest party was in the 00 block of E. Chalmers Street, where officers arrested six participants and cited 62 individuals for being a minor in possession of alcohol.
Q An intoxicated male was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of Green and Second streets. He sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene. Q The Illinois Liquor Control Commission cited KAM’S, Joe’s Brewery, White Horse Inn, Red Lion and The Clybourne for Happy Hour and violations of Champaign’s
emergency order restricting bar service. Total calls for service on campus from 5 a.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday were consistent with the same time frame in 2012. Calls increased by 84 percent from the previous Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Q
FOLAKE OSIBODU THE DAILY ILLINI
SOURCE: UNOFFICIAL ST. PATRICK’S DAY 2013 — POST EVENT SUMMARY
Cars drive carefully through the snow on Fourth Street as a snow storm blows through Illinois.
Champaign police receive grant to help pay for enforcement BY ANGELICA LAVITO STAFF WRITER
The Champaign Police Department will have help paying for law enforcement on Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day, thanks to a grant. The city made an agreement with Community Elements Inc. that will provide the Champaign Police Department with funds to pay for extra police officers on Unofficial, which will take place Friday. Community Elements acquired a grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services and
worked with them to develop a strategy to use the money. The Champaign Police Department then created an agreement with Community Elements to determine how the money would be spent. “Unfortunately, a lot of the strategies they have focus more on elementary-aged and middleschool-aged (education), so we were kind of limited on choosing what we could,” said Traci Hayward, Community Elements coordinator I of Community Prevention. “We ended up going more
DAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS
INSIDE
Police
2A
|
law enforcement because there wasn’t really anything else to choose from.” The department does not always budget for Unofficial, Sgt. Joe Ketchem said, and uses money from different parts of the budget to pay for extra law enforcement. The agreement will provide the Champaign Police Department with more than $5,900, specifically with Unofficial. Forecasts indicate a high of 43 degrees Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Ketchem said weather dictates
the turnout for Unofficial. “If we have weather on Friday that’s supposed to be (around) 50 degrees from what I understand, it’s usually a madhouse,” Ketchem said. “There will be parties all over the place, there will be intoxicated people at bars, people trying to get into the bars that aren’t supposed to.” Ketchem said the most common problems on Unofficial are medical transports, possession of alcohol on public property, underage drinking and domestic battery. “Basically, just be responsible,”
2A
|
Opinions
4A
|
Letters
4A
|
Crossword
5A
|
Comics
5A
|
Life
brothers and sisters, and if you see troublemakers, don’t stand for it.” The agreement between the Champaign Police Department and Community Elements also provides funds for 38 compliance checks, hiring covert units and training two new Training for Intervention Procedures trainers. Ketchem said his hope is to train 300 workers from liquor establishments through the class.
Angelica can be reached at lavito2@dailyillini.com.
@THEDAILYILLINI
THEDAILYILLINI
@THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS Horoscopes
Ketchem said. “If you’re going to have a party it’s one thing. But we get involved when parties get out of control and when there’s people who are 18 and 19 drinking.” Ketchem will be patrolling on Unofficial, and Champaign Mayor Don Gerard, who is also the liquor commissioner, said he will be visiting the bars on his lunch break and after work “to see how things are going.” “Take pride in our city. Take pride in our community. If you’re of the legal age, be responsible,” Gerard said. “Look out for your
&
Culture
6A
|
Sports
1B
|
THEDAILYILLINI Classifieds
3B
|
Sudoku
3B