The man who has headed Glenview’s library for 13 years announced last week he will step down on June 30. John Blegen says he will be 60 years old and wants to devote more time to his family and his clarinet. He plays frequently with the Chicago Cubs Quintet and performs each Sunday night at Seul’s Tavern and Grill in Northfield. (His ensemble will appear at 2 p.m. Sunday, January 13 in the Maynard Room of Glenview’s Public Library.)

Looking back on his service, Blegen said he is pleased with planning efforts that have laid the groundwork for a new library in Glenview, and he expressed pride in a growing number of services and programs for the public. "We have a very fine collection for a community this size," he said, including books in Korean, Spanish, Russian and Polish. Blegen says Glenview is known to other libraries in the region for its consumer health and cookbook collections. It has improved services for disabled residents and provides strong technical resources.

Blegen will remain in the area and wishes his successor well. "He or she will be a very lucky person," he says. "This is a wonderful community. People really care about the library, and that makes a tremendous difference." The Executive Librarian says he’s sorry not to be staying for construction of a new library but hopes his successor will give Glenview residents "the library that they need and deserve."

Library board member Gail Anderson will chair the search committee to find a new library director.

The president of Glenview’s library board has written a letter to the president of Glenview’s park district board asking that any work at the site of the old Rugen Center on Shermer between Glenview and Central roads be delayed until the two governmental bodies can talk. The park district plans a new recreational center with facilities for baseball, soccer, basketball and in-line skating, but library officials think the Shermer Road location might work well for their new building and parking lot.

Parks’ President Doug Kaiser said his board would consider the library’s request at its next meeting, January 17, but "as of right now, all systems are go for [the new] Swenson Park. We’ve already applied for a grant, and I don’t think the neighbors would go for a library at that location. They said they didn’t want any big structures there."

Kaiser said he favored a downtown location for the new library – even if it means buying and razing Colonial Court and the Patio Shops on the south side of Glenview Road.

Library director John Blegen admits a Shermer Road location would not help downtown Glenview but argues it would be accessible for all village residents. Surrounded by homes, he notes many people could walk to a new library at that location, and the site is large enough to share. "We would not need the whole area. We could fit nicely on 4-6 acres." He added that parking and meeting rooms could be shared by library and park district patrons.

The library board has not settled on the vacant park district land as its first choice but would like to keep the option open until a real estate consultant, to be hired at its January meeting, is able to review possible locations and make recommendations. A village wide survey by the library showed residents would not approve a referendum to build the new library at The Glen.

Park Board President Doug Kaiser tells the Watch that the future of Bart the Bull will likely be discussed when commissioners meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 17 at Park Center. Wagner Farm Director Todd Price has said Bart is no longer a suitable stud for the herd. At seven years of age, he is too old and too large to safely breed with the cows, and he sired some of them. Price planned to sell Bart at a cattle auction this spring, but some residents have objected to the unofficial mascot of Wagner ending up at the supermarket.

Kaiser says Price "is the expert, and if he says it’s time for Bart to go, then it’s time for Bart to go." He adds, however, that the board might not oppose retiring the bull to an animal sanctuary. "If we could find a spot for him, we’d be glad to put him out to pasture."

Animal rights advocates continue the search for a farm or sanctuary where Bart could live out his life.

A small dog confined to its yard by an electronic fence was killed by a coyote late last month in Northbrook. Police say the coyote chased its prey around the yard in the 1400-block of Lee Road as the dog’s owner watched in horror. Eventually, the pooch was caught and carried a short distance before witnesses frightened the coyote, causing it to drop the dog. Officials said it was the second case of its kind in 2001. Earlier, a dog chased a coyote into the forest preserve and did not return.

Planners at Northbrook Village Hall recently did the numbers and discovered that since 1999, 24 acres of land have been covered with buildings, concrete and asphalt. As a result, the community may have bigger flooding problems, and officials may soon impose a fee on property owners to help fund a solution. Officials say a charge of $3 per month could generate a million dollars each year to pay for new storm sewers, drains, ditches and detention ponds.

Members of the Storm Water and Environmental Quality Commissions have also discussed efforts to reduce the amount of impervious surface – driveways, sidewalks, roads and buildings that don’t absorb water. Today, builders in Northbrook can pave or cover 50 percent of a lot, but the village could lower that number for construction or home additions.

One member of the discussion group thought the village should encourage rooftop gardens that would absorb rain while another proposed building taller buildings so development could take place without the loss of more open space. Officials will continue the debate at 6 p.m. Thursday, January 17 in Northbrook Village Hall.

Glenview goes to court January 18 to secure full compliance with local code at a house on Prairie Street. The landlord, Joseph Anderson, is Village Trustee Mary Beth Denefe’s father-in-law. Complaints by the tenant have been pending since June, and Village Building Director Phil Knudsen says some of them are related to health and life safety.

The matter first came to the attention of village officials in mid-June, and a notice of violation was sent to landlord Anderson on July 20 after inspectors found 29 possible violations of Glenview’s building and maintenance code. Anderson was directed to take action by July 30, but no citation was issued. Had he been found guilty of a single violation, Anderson could have faced fines of $50-$500 per day.

When the Watch began asking questions about the case, village inspectors went back to the Prairie street property. They found nine violations had still not been corrected, and another inspection was set for December 6. A citation was delivered to lawyer Mark Anderson on December 10. He is the son of landlord Joseph Anderson and the husband of Trustee Denefe.

Editor’s note: Should Mark Anderson continue representing his father in this case, he might be in violation of Glenview’s ethics ordinance which states: "No public official or employee or family member of a public official or employee or paid consultant of the village, shall represent any person in any action or proceeding against the interests of the village in any litigation in which the village is a party."

In October, we wrote about the North Shore Racquet Club’s quest for a sewer. Owner Jan Dussias wanted to expand the facility and needed a hook up to Glenview’s sanitary sewer to proceed, but she couldn’t connect until her neighbor on Old Willow Road, Prairie Materials, extended its sewer to her property line. In a 1995 agreement with Glenview, Prairie had promised to do that, but the firm did not follow through. Dussias tried repeatedly to get action, but the village offered no help and a lawyer for Prairie Materials told the Watch, "Whether or not we reach an agreement [with the tennis club], it’s strictly between us. If we don’t, then that’s the way it goes."

After our story appeared, Village Development Director Mary Bak wrote to Prairie Materials, ordering completion of the sewer work by June 30, 2002.

By a vote of 4-3, members of the District 34 School Board have agreed to hire a St. Louis consultant to help them figure out what Glenview residents expect from the elementary district. "We need as much input as we can possibly get," Board President Beth Primer told the Pioneer Press.

Board member Anastasia Usher thought the district had already done enough in that vein when preparing for two unsuccessful referenda, and member Kerry Cummings thought it would be better to hire a full-time communications employee.

Springman’s PTA President also opposed the idea saying she could not understand how District 34 could make budget cuts while spending money on a communications consultant. "You had people calling you constantly saying we need an after-school bus for Springman," she told the board, "so instead we’re going to spend $60,000 to see how people feel?"

Board member Robert Berg countered that parents are a minority of taxpayers in the district, and the views of people with no kids in schools must also be heard.

FIRE HOUSE NOTES

Investigators now say last week’s blaze at the Princeton Club, a pink condo complex on Willow Road west of Shermer, was started by an unattended candle. All 52 units in the building had to be evacuated for several days while village inspectors checked the elevators, smoke detectors, sprinklers and structure of the building. Most residents have now returned, but a few apartments will need extensive cleaning and repairs before they can be inhabited again.

Officials are blaming the fire that destroyed the Dragon Inn North last month on a burner that was left on. The owner of the Waukegan Road eatery says she plans to rebuild, "but that will take many months." In the mean time, she wishes patrons "health, wealth and happiness in the new year."

Edward Rudolph trained some of the nation’s top speed skaters, including Olympic medalists Anne Henning, Diane Holum and Leah Poulos. He persuaded Northbrook to build indoor and outdoor skating rinks, helped seal the deals that created Meadowhill Park and Northbrook’s first swimming pool, designed and built the bike track or velodrome there and moved hundreds of Techny and Salceda trees into area parks before those lands were developed. Rudolph, who died December 24 at the age of 92, was also a veteran of Northbrook’s Park District Board, serving from 1947 to 1975 – longer than any other member. He died at a nursing home in Deerfield just weeks after Lauretta Rudolph, his wife of 67 years, passed away. They are survived by three children, 11 grandchildren and 10 great grandkids.

Three Glenview women carried the Olympic torch as it moved through the Chicago area en route to Salt Lake City. Kiley Klint, Sherry Smith and Kelly Dunleavy were selected through an essay contest in which friends or family members wrote to say why they are inspiring people.

Klint is a junior at the Illinois Institute of Technology who is on the college swim team, enjoys bike racing and coaches others in that sport. She also supports her sister, an Olympic speed skating hopeful. Klint carried the torch for about two blocks near Chicago’s science museum in Hyde Park on Friday afternoon. "I thought I was jogging, but everyone said I was running," she says. "It must have been the adrenaline."

Kelly Dunleavy carried the flame along Green Bay Road in Glencoe Saturday morning. Her proud father captured the moment on video and put it on the family’s website: www.homepage.mac.com/mrdunleavy. A junior at Glenbrook South High School, she is on the cross country and track team, writes for the student newspaper, is on the speech team and is an active member of the math club. She has always loved the Olympics, and while she can’t miss school to be in Salt Lake City this year, she attended the summer games in Atlanta.

Sherry Smith is a hospice nurse and the mother of two grown kids – both graduates of GBS. She, too, loves the Olympics, and as a former amateur skier is particularly fond of the winter events. Sherry had seen the torch go by en route to Atlanta and found the experience very moving – but not nearly as exciting as carrying the flame herself. She ran her two-tenths of a mile Saturday morning along Sheridan Road near the Plaza del Lago in Wilmette. "It was an awesome honor," she says. "I was so proud to play one little part in such an important event – carrying that symbolic flame."

WG chides Glenview’s Redevelopment Director for claiming that Glenview needs consultant Mesirow Stein to keep an eye on consultant Harza Engineering: "We really laughed to read that Don Owen is keeping such tight control over the village purse strings, hiring high-priced consultants to prevent other high-priced consultants from diverting our funds for Cayman Islands hideaways. Get real! Could someone please tell Mr. Owen there's more than one way for the village to be ripped-off, and the method most commonly employed is public contracting. Our village officials are too inexperienced, too disinterested, too lazy or all of the above to prevent the unnecessary expenditure of millions of dollars through overblown and redundant contracts. Mr. Owen, have no fear, no one's basking under the Caribbean sun with Glenview tax dollars, but they're laughing all the way to the bank right here in the area. The irony is that whenever a trustee objects to a contract or line item that Mr. Owen presents to the board, he takes great umbrage at any suggestion that the cost or scope of the contract be reduced. Whose side is Mr. Owen on, anyway? The village taxpayers or the contractors?"

TS writes about the case of Deputy Fire Chief Michael Sawicki, found not guilty on a charge of simple assault against one of his men: "There was never any question in my mind that Sawicki would win this one. He has all the heavy weights in his corner whether he is right or wrong. He scolded Hartnett for rude behavior? Did he put him in a corner and give him a timeout also? On what level is the playing field? I only hope the next time Sawicki loses his temper someone isn't seriously hurt. I know if I would have pulled that where I work I would have been walked to the door. I respect this of my company. Is Glenview safe with these kinds of actions?"

The Watch replies: Cook County Circuit Court is a separate entity from village government and should not have been in anyone’s corner. Judge Daniel Gillespie said the prosecutor had proven his case but not beyond a reasonable doubt. Lt. Steve Hartnett, who pressed the assault charge, was represented by a young state’s attorney who seemed fairly new to the legal game while Michael Sawicki’s lawyer appeared comfortable and confident. He raised the possibility that Sawicki was joking around, and while Sawicki contradicted that argument by saying he made a fist in a habitual show of frustration, the judge apparently thought it possible that the Deputy Chief did not intend to hit anyone. The real question is how village policy and training for management may change as a result of this case. We’ll keep you posted.

A staffer at the regional emergency dispatch center in Northbrook sends this note: "First off, thanks for the fair reporting about RED Center and the new Glenview/Wheeling Dispatch Center. As an employee of RED it has been very frustrating reading the inaccurate information provided by Glenview and the Glenview Announcements. Yes, the salaries are comparable at both Glenview and RED, but what has not been reported is that Glenview broke a 'gentleman's agreement' with RED not to enter a bidding war for the staff. Glenview offered some of the employees an additional 5 percent raise to stay. No one accepted.

"Also, it has not been reported anywhere that three of the four most senior employees (with a total of 40 years experience) were not even offered jobs by Glenview. Maybe it is because we had questioned some policies and procedures that might have endangered firemen or impeded service to the public.

"Personally, I would not have stayed with Glenview had they asked because I foresee a high employee turnover rate, little in the way of employee input being sought and the belief that fire department dispatchers should not be answering wireless 911 calls. While we were still in Glenview, the RED Center was answering these calls from cell phones, and the majority were either dialed in error or calls for police. Maybe if the Glenview Village Board members hadscrutinized the data, they would have come to the same conclusions that most other towns in the area have – that police dispatchers should be answering wireless 911 calls just as they answer regular 911 calls."

And JAS is distraught about the situation: "Sometimes I wonder why I read the Glenview Watch or the Glenview Announcements because all it does is bring my blood pressure to the boiling point. [Fire Chief] Joe Robberson would like everyone to believe that our fire department dispatch is working flawlessly when, in fact, it is far from true. I believe in giving people a chance to learn and improve, but we're talking lives here. I would have to question why at least two of our seasoned and best dispatchers were never even given an offer to stay with Glenview. Tell me that makes any sense. I just hope no lives are lost due to someone's ignorance."

Moving on to park district concerns, JAS writes: "Did I read right about Bart the bull? We will get rid of him and then purchase another one? This town is about money and politics, and if you don't have the first and are not involved in the second you also have no voice."

The Watch replies: A working dairy farm needs a bull so the cows can have calves and produce milk. The farm’s director says Bart isn’t up to the job and must be replaced. As for your conclusion, we agree. If you don’t get involved in politics, you have no voice. Fortunately, you have the opportunity to get involved. Most of the trustees and park board members are listed in the phone book and are willing to discuss the issues. Meetings of both boards are open to the public, and you’re free to make statements there. You can also express your opinions by writing to local publications like The Watch, and the next local election is just over a year away. See you at the polls.

Alan Butman has this proposal for the park district: "If we are going to bring children to Wagner Farms to educate them about farming, we should mention to them the potential side effects of eating Bart: heart disease associated with high cholesterol, colon cancer and rectal cancer. We might also want to show them a video of Bart being slaughtered so they could make up their own minds whether they ever want to eat red meat again."

Bear Spy writes about holiday decorations in Glenview: "I hope residents enjoy the Christmas lights downtown because they’re paying about $100,000 a year to have them put up and taken down! The village spends between $30,000-$40,000 for holiday decorations, then pays to have the lights cut off the trees and thrown away. With 10 village employees spending about three weeks putting up and throwing away lights, the bill rises by about $30,000. Add to that the money paid to a private contractor to put up more lights and you’re at about $100,000! How do those lights look now?"

The Watch replies: The assistant director of public works, Chris Clark, says Glenview spent $37,597 for holiday decorations this year, including lights that are kept for two years and a contract with Hendricksen Tree Service to assist with installation and removal. About half of the lights are discarded each year because Clark says, "it is more cost effective to cut off and replace them." Village staffers spent just over 1,000 hours at $24.15 per hour making the downtown area look festive, bringing the grand total for holiday decorations to just under $62,000.

He also asks about village-owned vehicles: "Why does Village Manager Paul McCarthy's suburban have private Illinois plates if the village pays for it? Why don't any of the black Ford Expeditions driven by the various public works department heads have a village decal on the doors? Every other vehicle does. And why doesn't the pickup driven by the Assistant Superintendent of public works have a village decal on it? Could it be that these people drive these cars all week long with golf clubs or baby seats in the back and don't want the public raising questions? Just wondering."

Clark told The Watch, "The village has not felt that logo identification is necessary." The publicly owned cars are apparently registered to the individuals who drive them, which would explain Mr. McCarthy’s plates. Village Hall allows the use of these cars for personal reasons, but the value of the perk must be reported to the IRS as income."

KB is puzzled by the condition of roads in the Circles and Glen Oak Acres: "I don't get what the deal is with The Circles and the nice area just North of Lake and Bonnie Glen, east of Sunset. The roads back in these areas are horrible and in need of much repair, and they are always flooded. I jog, so I run into it all the time. Why do the home owners have to pay the bill for the storm sewers and road repairs in these areas of town? I live in Golf View, and we don't need to pay for any of ours."

The Watch replies: Glenview requires local developers to install storm sewers, and residents pay for them when they buy new homes here. In fairness to those who have paid that bill, the village has argued that areas not served by storm sewers must pay for their own but has offered to chip in 25% of the money as an incentive to proceed. Until recently, the village has been unwilling to repair roads in areas without storm sewers since standing water would cause the new asphalt to deteriorate more quickly. In the Circles and Glen Oak Acres, some residents say they can’t afford storm sewers or fear they would damage mature trees. Many blocks have voted not to have sewers. Village officials continue to search for ways in which this problem can be solved. Manager Paul McCarthy has proposed a new storm water utility that could impose a flat fee on all village residents to help fund flood control, and Trustee Mike Guinane has asked the village to pay for a larger share of the cost for storm sewers, but so far no consensus has been reached.

RWH inquires about land adjacent to the new Belmont Village development near the corner of Shermer and Golf: "What is to become of the remaining vacant 9.2 acres of the former Nicor site? The village has acknowledged that someone purchased the property, but who and for what purpose? A company hired to demolish the Nicor building remains tight-lipped as to who hired them and refers all inquiries to the village. The village will only say that the property has been sold, and that some developer requested a copy of the site plat, saying he ‘has a plan for a nice addition to Glenview.’ It is difficult to conceive that the village doesn’t have an inkling as to what someone intends to do with that vacant land. Residents in the area are very concerned as to how the site will be developed and how it will affect the surrounding neighborhood."

The Watch replies: While Village Hall is strangely silent, informed sources tell us the land was purchased by a religious group that may be planning to build a mosque.

YOUR TURN: Send questions and comments by e-mail to glenviewwatch@aol.com or snail mail to 3537 Maple Leaf Drive, Glenview, IL 60025. Thanks to all who sent a contribution in 2001. To those who did not, please consider a non-deductible donation to defray the expenses of duplication, mailing and website maintenance. Checks should be payable to Glenview Watch, mailed to the address above. As always, we appreciate your support and encourage your participation in Glenview Watch.  Dean Schott and Sandy Hausman, Co-Editors of The Watch.

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