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The
Glenview Watch |
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Village President Nancy Firfer ended months of speculation Thursday with the news that she will not seek another term. She told the Glenview Announcements that no other president had served for more than two terms and she saw no reason to break with tradition.
Firfer said she had enjoyed her service and felt she accomplished a lot but would not be running for public office again. Instead, she pledged to help the Glenview United Party field other candidates for the spring election of three new trustees and the board's president. Observers say Firfer's party could nominate Trustee John Patton Jr., or Trustee Larry Carlson for the presidency. When he was appointed to the board, Carlson said he would not seek election. Trustee Kent Fuller, who was also considered a possible contender for board president, has recently said he plans to retire from local politics.
NEW POLITICAL PARTY STARTS CANDIDATE SEARCH
More than 40 people who support reform of village government met on two consecutive nights last week to explore issues and to think about the kinds of candidates they'd like to back at the polls this spring. Many complained that village officials – management and trustees – have devoted too much energy to The Glen while ignoring the needs of current residents. Some complained about the failure of local government to fully inform the public on the issues, while others expressed dismay over high-density residential development downtown and the failure to attract new retailers to the area.
Most of those who took part in the early brainstorming sessions had been active in the election of Glenview First trustees in April 1999. In fact, board members Rachel Cook, John Crawford and Donna Pappo were among those who attended the sessions at Johns Park.
The group agreed to choose a new name, "Good Glenview Government" or "G3" for the next election to avoid a costly and potentially divisive primary that might be required by state law. The "Glenview United" party has previously been known as the "United Glenview" party to avoid a primary vote.
G3 has yet to elect party leaders, and the group's designated spokesman, Mark Ganchiff, could not say what the next move would be, but members are informally talking with potential candidates for Village Board and looking at the leadership of local organizations. Anyone who has a suggestion should call Bob Sacoff at 486-0332.
Mike Guinane, who refused to run on the Glenview First ticket and came in last in a field of seven candidates for trustee in 1999, is believed to be interested in a place on the G3 ticket. Guinane has been silent on a range of issues since the election – making no public comment on teardowns, base redevelopment, economic incentives for downtown or location of a new fire station. He campaigned for the District 34 referenda and, as president of the Glen Oak Acres Homeowners Association, spoke against a village plan for new roads and floodwater controls in that community.
Mary Novotny, a resident of Indian Ridge, might also like to join G3. Novotny was nominated to The Glen Redevelopment Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals by Board President Nancy Firfer, but she is now trying to distance herself from Firfer. At the second G3 meeting, Novotny said she disagreed with the way Firfer renewed the expired terms of all board members and commissioners. Ironically, Novotny had penned a letter to the Glenview Announcements publicly thanking Firfer for reappointing the gang.
GLEN PROCEEDS COULD FUND NEW VILLAGE HALL
When village officials first proposed tax increment financing to redevelop the former Naval Air Station, they pledged that 20 percent of the money from land sales would be set aside for capital improvements in other parts of the village. The idea was to reward neighborhoods that might benefit less from goodies at The Glen, like Gallery Park or the golf course.
Several months ago, during one of her listening sessions, Board President Nancy Firfer said officials were now planning to use the 20 percent to pay down The Glen debt. Now, Village Manager Paul McCarthy offers another idea: use the money to build a new Village Hall.
McCarthy told the Glenview Announcements that the police department and local government both need more space, so at least one of those operations must soon leave the Waukegan Road location. A study is already underway to figure out how much space village government needs, and plans for the Mixed Use Retail Center at The Glen include a spot for McCarthy's castle. The manager has even joked that he intends to occupy the old control tower at Hangar One.
Editor's note: As consultant after consultant was hired for The Glen, village management argued they did not want to permanently increase the size of local government – that when this project was over, these new staffers would go away, leaving us with a lean local team. Why, then the need for more space at Village Hall?
NEW TAXES FOR STORM WATER MANAGEMENT?
The manager's office also reports Glenview can't afford to help all of the neighborhoods asking for government assistance with storm water management. Under a plan called "SWAMP," the village agrees to pay 25 percent of the cost for such programs.
Residents of Covert, Robincrest and Glen Ayre Estates recently inquired about the program, and at this week's board meeting, folks living in the 900 and 1000 blocks of Pleasant and Queens Lane are asking for more than 25 percent. McCarthy's office concedes there is precedent for the village to pay more. "The Glenview Road project involved installation of a new storm water sewer, and the financial participation of the village of Glenview in the construction of the detention basins at the Navy Base are examples of 100 percent public SWAMP projects," he writes to the trustees.
Unfortunately, Finance Director Dan Wiersma says, "General funding revenues cannot support continuation much less expansion of the SWAMP program." That's why the trustees will be asked to consider new taxes. Ideas floated by Wiersma include, a property tax increase, a local sales tax of one quarter per cent or creation of a new storm water utility – a governmental body like the park district or the schools which could levy a tax of its own. Hold onto your wallets!
A GIFT FOR SENIORS – IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS AND THE NEXT ELECTION
At long last the village has a proposal for housing low-income seniors at The Glen. Village President Firfer will outline plans for a 150-unit apartment building on the new 9-hole golf course. It would be managed by the same company that oversees Patton House in downtown Glenview. An architect has been hired and preliminary drawings are done. A local group called Glen Elderly Services North has even picked a name for the new building – Thomas Place – in honor of its chairman and former Village President Paul Thomas. Planners hope to charge rent of $600-$1,000 a month for units of different sizes and are still working on financing. They hope to get some money from the state and charitable contributions.
OTHER BOARD BUSINESS TO COME
Watch for the following business items at the next meeting of the Glenview Village Board on cable channel 17 starting 7:30 p.m. Tuesday:
– Appointment of the new Plan Commission Chairman.
– Explanation of proposed environmental restrictions on the office park being developed by Catellus near the prairie.
– Announcement of 18.8 acres for sports fields at The Glen.
– Concord Homes' plan for 23 single-family homes on 7.74 acres at 701 N. Milwaukee.
– A vote to release minutes from 37 private executive sessions of the Village Board.
FROM THE PETTY CASH FILE
We note the village has made a "partial payment" of $4,750 for work on its website. The vendor -- DCG Chicago. Questions: Is there no local vendor who could help with this job? Is there no one at Village Hall qualified to improve our website? Shouldn't we have a webmaster on staff?
The village spent nearly $120 on pizza from Goode and Fresh during a meeting to discuss matters involving the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. We wonder if that meeting ended with heartburn and whether the pizza was to blame.
Village attorney Jeff Randall charged $350 to deal with the fact that North Shore Realty is operating a business in the downtown district in clear violation of local ordinance. Last week, North Shore showed no signs of closing down. In fact, the firm hired someone to stencil its name on the plate glass window of their office near Waukegan and Glenview roads.
MORE SPACE FOR STUFF
Shortly before leaving office, Glenview's former Plan Commission Chief Tim Doron confessed his biggest regret – the Metro Storage facility was built with his blessing. Many area residents have apparently complained about the size and appearance of that building – a monument to America's love for "stuff." Now at last, the Plan Commission is getting around to a possible crackdown. Acting Chair Howard Silver proposed an amendment to restrict the location of self storage facilities.
A team of lawyers and real estate brokers appeared to complain on behalf of their client, a Salt Lake City company called Extra Space. The firm has a contract to buy the land at 1516 Milwaukee – the site of the shuttered Joe and Giuseppe's Chop House. The buyer claims to have spent $100,000 on the deal and site preparation. In talking with village staff, an attorney for Extra Space said the company had not heard a word about changes in zoning.
Midway through his plea, Silver shut the attorney down. The Plan Commission's only concern was whether storage facilities belonged in a B-2 district, and the business problems of Extra Space were beside the point.
The firm's director of real estate then tried another approach – telling the Commission that America's storage needs add up to 4.03 square feet per person while the Chicago area has only 1.83 feet per person – more than 50 percent below the national average. He claimed that people don't want to travel more than three miles to visit their stuff and expressed puzzlement over public hostility toward storage facilities.
Silver again tried to keep the conversation on track. "You're saying it makes sense in Glenview, but where in Glenview is what we're trying to decide. Can you address whether it belongs in the business district or the industrial district?"
"Okay," said the Extra Space man. "I do not want my mother, I do not want my daughter, I do not want my wife driving through an industrial park, in an area where there's not very much traffic or visibility to go to the self-storage facility that we have leased. . .Sixty-five percent of our customers are women."
He admitted that self storage facilities have state-of-the-art security and could not provide any statistics to show industrial areas were less safe than business districts, prompting a testy response from Commissioner Joseph DiMattina. "We're getting into an area here that borders on scare tactics, and that's something that I'm not gonna' put up with."
Extra Space argued that an average of six cars per day visit a self storage facility, making it a nice match for congested shopping areas, but the point was lost as the spokesman moved into an irrelevant and at times heated discussion of the marketing concerns of self-storage firms.
After more than an hour of debate, Silver told Extra Space, "If you want to throw yourselves on the mercy of the trustees and tell them you spent a hundred grand, you have a right to. . .We can't consider that you spent ten cents on it when it comes to the planning of this town. . .Financial hardship is not a planning issue."
Finally, in a matter of minutes, an attorney for the seller made the case that the self storage spokesman failed to make for himself: "This is not an intensive use from a traffic standpoint. The major objection to this use is aesthetics, and it's a legitimate objection, but it's a curable objection. Apparently this commission has been very lenient with property owners who have not complied with aesthetic requirements, but these facilities can."
Extra Space should now get the chance to prove that point. The Commission voted to make self-storage a "conditional use" in B-2 districts, so the company will have to get permission to build and submit architectural drawings beforehand.
A DEAL WITH DOMINICK'S
The man who wrote "Dominick's Go Home" in Christmas lights strung up on his fence facing the new Lake Avenue store has changed his message. The new sign reads "Lower the Lights." A spokesman for Dominick's met with Mike Klemke and offered to put a timer on parking lot lights, turning them down after 11 p.m. He also agreed to replace a large store sign with a smaller monument sign to prevent light pollution of Klemke's street – Swainwood Drive.
The grocery giant admitted it could not deliver on the promise of a new sign without village approval, and Klemke said he'd keep his protest up until Dominick's could guarantee the deal. This week, a store spokesman called Klemke to say it was all set. He had reportedly talked with Trustee John Patton Jr., who pledged speedy approval of the new sign.
Meanwhile, Dominick's says it's studying population trends in Glenview and may choose to keep its Waukegan Road store open indefinitely. The company spent $3 million to renovate the store this year. Its Lake Avenue store opened officially on Thursday. President Firfer could not be on hand for the ceremonial ribbon cutting, so she sent Trustee Larry Carlson, and Dominick's issued a press release: "We're proud to be involved in such a dynamic, growing community with a proud naval history," it read. "We have hired individuals from the Glenview area in order to make this a true neighborhood store. . .with a country club atmosphere."
JEWEL SAYS "WE TOO"
Not to be outdone, Jewel at Pfingsten and Willow held its grand re-opening on Thursday. After nine months of renovation, the store boasts a bigger produce section and bakery, the addition of fried chicken and sushi in its Chef's Kitchen, and the largest kosher section in the region.
Editor's note: Manager Kathleen Murphy listed several other parts of the store that were bigger than before, leaving the Watch to wonder how they were able to do that. Simple, said Ms. Murphy. They now have smaller back rooms. Is there a message here for Village Hall? Should Manager Murphy focus on the meat and potatoes of government and stop worrying so much about space?
WAGNER FARM HONORS COWS FOUNDERS
Norma Morrison and Henry Hill, co-founders of the citizens' group that fought to save Wagner Farm, got a nice surprise this week. The education committee formed to plan the future of Wagner Farm has voted to name a new bull calf "Henry," and will call the new heifer "Norma."
TALKING
TURKEY
With the approach of Thanksgiving, Harrison's Poultry on Waukegan Road is
gearing up for big business. The store, which has been owned by the
Zimmerman family since the 1940's, sells only fresh birds raised on grain
with no hormones or antibiotics. Manager J.C. Hilgendors predicts as many
as 10,000 turkeys will go out the door for this year's holiday. Glenview
Police will provide special traffic control as customers from as far away
as Indiana arrive to collect their tom or hen for Thanksgiving dinner.
Hilgendors says he's hired 10 more people to handle the extra business and
will be happy to talk with customers about techniques for cooking the
bird. His basic advice – keep it simple: Sprinkle your turkey with salt,
pepper and bits of butter. Then baste periodically until done. (Pop up
timers are standard issue with Harrison's birds.)
GOING, GOING, GONG
Metra says its new station on Lehigh Avenue at The Glen will open on
January 7, 2001. North and southbound trains will make a total of 55 stops
a day at what will officially be known as "The Glen of North
Glenview." Metra says village officials were "adamant"
about the name, and it will appear in the station's brick work. There will
be 400 daily fee parking spaces and 100 set aside for permit parking.
Editor's note: We see, with some amusement, that the acronym for The Glen
of North Glenview is "GONG." We believe the official mouthful
was a compromise between Metra, which wanted to call the station
"North Glenview," and the Firfer administration which demanded
"The Glen."
READERS WRITE
MORE ON THE MUDDY MESS:
Amy
Brossard is amazed village officials failed to tell the trustees about a
formal complaint against Glenview by the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency. "I would say that Firfer and McCarthy have a lot of
accounting to do. In any other body, their failure to notify the full
board of the IEPA's action would be gross negligence, misconduct and an
ethics violation. How peculiar for lawyer Patton to demand Crawford
apologize to McCarthy. I'm no lawyer, but I demand an investigation."
JR was also upset by the Manager's failure to inform: "You noted that
as of Friday, the trustees had still not received McCarthy's report on
IEPA's complaint. They shouldn't be surprised. I'm sure it will take him
quite some time to concoct a story explaining this little faux pas!"
The Watch replies: Manager McCarthy did finally send a small book on the
IEPA situation to the trustees, but he neglected to answer the central
question raised by Trustee Crawford – why he and other trustees were not
promptly notified of the pollution problems. McCarthy often floods the
trustees with information, perhaps hoping they'll lose sight of the
issues.
ON TRUSTEE PATTON'S DEFENSE OF DEVELOPERS
JR
writes: "This man has repeatedly shown his slant in support of
builders, and it's almost comical the way he explains the reasons for the
poor builder's pollution problems. You would swear he was reading a
statement that had been prepared for him by the developer. I just hope
honest trustees are wary of his stand and use the best defense to keep him
in line – their votes."
Amy Brossard says: "Patton gave the appearance of a conflict of
interest as he fed words to the Concord Homes spokesman, who was being
questioned by another board member. He seems in an awful hurry to close
deals to improve Glenview's sad cash flow. Three parcels sold 15 months
ago and not a dime in the bank, but for some reason he needs to close all
deals now, and he also needs a $2 million boathouse constructed. Does he
have a different agenda and goals than the rest of the Board of Trustees
and Glenview residents? If he thinks this is behavior befitting a village
presidential candidate, he figured wrong."
And Mrs. R. can't resist a little sarcasm over Patton's plea for Catellus:
"I think I will stand at the train station this week asking people to
give me a dime for Catellus. I'll decorate a can and bring a bell, present
the change to McCarthy and ask him to open a special account in the name
of the Catellus/Patton Relief Fund."
Former high school board member Art Wulf smells hypocrisy in Patton's
remarks: "I got a good laugh reading about Trustee Patton and the
delay of land sales to Catellus. He thought 15 months was too long to keep
these poor developers on hold. While I was on the Glenbrook School Board,
I spent over three years trying to get Glenview to raise its Builder's
Contribution from $40,000 an acre. It was only after the election of new
trustees and another year of debate that Glenview started charging
$500,000 – the amount Northbrook was charging all along."
"If Trustee Patton is so concerned about the delay in getting $1.8
million from developers, why doesn't he explain the $8-9 million in
Builder's Contributions that the village could have had for School
Districts 34 and 225? Patton and Firfer helped craft the special deal for
poor Concord Homes, James, et al by not charging them impact fees to
improve the schools in Glenview.
"By the way, I called the village last month, to see what the tally
was on the Builder's Contribution, and they had no idea how much had been
collected. So much for accountability. Northbrook has its schools collect
those impact fees so they know that every house has paid the correct
amount."
LEAVE THE LIBRARY WHERE IT IS says Mrs. Brossard: "I hope it
stays in the center of town, because I love it, and I love to walk to it.
It may not be as big as we would like, and the parking may be impossible,
but I would hope we can keep it downtown where all the action is! Would
Ameritech like to relocate to other vacant parcels in town? How about the
NICOR property?"
And JR says: "I agree that the library we have is just fine. Are we
still such a disposable society that we always have to think, "out
with the old, in with the new" even if it "ain't broke?"
THE TEEN SCENE: A middle-aged reader who said teens today are
spoiled and would probably cause lawsuits if a community center were
opened for them sparked this thought from JR: "This 40 year-old must
have lived a hard life. I'm tired of hearing kids have it too good, and
they should be more like us when we were growing up. These are different
times, as all times in history are, and we should be ready to address
them. Yes, most of our kids have a lot of "stuff" and
"toys", but in our time-stressed, power-driven society, a lot of
them are missing out on the important things like quality time and
attention from parents/family, and in a place like the North Shore, kids
are under tremendous pressure from school and peers."
On a $5,800 VILLAGE BANQUET AT THE NORTH SHORE COUNTRY CLUB, JR
adds: "I agree that if the club has a policy that is offensive to
taxpayers, then it should not be the place to hold public functions, but I
strongly disagree that village board and commission members should be
prohibited from joining a private club with such policies. I am sure some
members of that club joined because of the exclusive policy, but I am also
sure that most are there because they just want a nice place to eat
(without waiting in line), to entertain, to have their daughter's wedding
reception, to play golf and any of the other amenities that a private club
affords. There are Jewish country clubs that are exclusive to Jews, and
that is fine. . .That's what a private club is all about, and that is what
this country is about: the right to choose. In Communist countries, the
few that are left, there is no such thing as class privilege. We can see
how well it's worked for them!"
But Alan Butman takes offense: "I did not know that the North Shore
Country Club won't allow me to join because I am Jewish. Not that I would
want to be among its members, but I am curious how they would weed me out.
Would they ask me to prove my religious background by pulling my pants
down like my father had to do in Nazi-occupied Poland when he was 9 years
old? It very much pisses me off to think that village board members and
commissioners will be honored there – especially if I, as a taxpayer,
will be paying for it."
And Cathy Wilson says: "I find it incomprehensible that members of
the Village Board and commissions belong to a private club that excludes
certain minorities. That they attend a meeting at such a facility under
the guise of being recognized for their work to the community is an insult
to everyone."
Phil Montross writes: "I think elected
officials can belong to any organization they choose. As individuals they
should be able to belong to the NAACP, NOW, The Boy Scouts of America,
Augusta National Golf Club, or any other exclusive organization. Whether a
given exclusive membership will interfere with an individual's ability to
win election is another issue.