TAX HIKE SEEMS LIKELY

Hoping to find new funds for road repairs, village trustees are contemplating a 9 percent hike in Glenview’s share of the property tax bill.  Budget Director Dan Wiersma said the increase – less than one percent of the overall tax bill – would generate about $770,000 per year.  Additional cash – about $11 million from land sale revenues at The Glen – will also be applied to street and sewer work in other parts of the village between 2007 and 2010.

Glenview will get about 31 percent of its revenue for road and sewer work from sales taxes and 17 percent from property tax.  Wiersma said it’s risky to depend too heavily on sales tax, since an economic downturn could cause people to spend less, producing a drop in revenue. On the other hand, property taxes are a predictable source of revenue.  

Three residents objected.  Al McAndrew suggested the village stop rebating sales taxes to Abt – a prosperous electronics store lured to Glenview in part by a revenue sharing agreement.  He also urged the board to consider hiring an in-house lawyer rather than keeping a Chicago law firm on retainer.

John Brennan noted that Glenview’s population has risen by nearly 2,600 people since 2000, yet he claimed the cost of running the village had gone up nearly $18 million.  “How is that possible?” Brennan asked.  “We’ve been saying that The Glen hasn’t cost us anything. . .We’re spending $6,902 per new resident every year.  Can anybody make sense of that?” 

Steven Fiorentino said taxes had been rising since he moved to the village 17 years ago.  “Raising a family in Glenview has become very expensive, even for a professional person like myself,” he began, “and not everyone in Glenview is a professional.  I am a member of St. Catherine Laboure parish, and I see a lot of hardworking people there and a lot of senior citizens.  They can’t afford these taxes that Glenview keeps raising.  Any CEO will tell you the first thing you do is look at cost reduction – see where there might be some waste, but it seems that most elected officials look at the easy way, which is to raise taxes.

“The prior village board, made up of members from two parties, debated the issue and found ways not to raise taxes since 1999,” he continued. “This board consists of members of the same party, and I hope that doesn’t deter you from debating the issue.”

Trustee Jim Patterson assured Fiorentino that all of the trustees take their responsibility to the voters “very serious.  They took it so serious that over the last five years you haven’t seen a tax increase when we probably should have.” 

Patterson told McAndrew that Glenview could not legally break its agreement with Abt, adding that the tax revenue Abt produces for the village far exceeds what’s being returned to the store.  He rejected the idea of hiring a lawyer to deal with all of Glenview’s legal problems, noting that a single person could not bring sufficient expertise.

Trustee Paul Detlefs said inflation and higher insurance costs at Village Hall had produced the need for more money, and Trustee Pat Cuisinier concluded,“If you want a first class community, you have to pay for it.  It’s as simple as that.  I’m satisfied that the people who worked on this budget have done the best they can to keep the costs down, and we looked at it line by line.  We spent three or four sessions here going through every line of the budget.”

The board then voted unanimously for the tax hike.  A second vote will come after another public hearing at the trustees’ next meeting on December 6.

A NEW WATCHDOG FIGHTS CITY HALL

Swainwood resident John Brennan, not satisfied with the outcome of the hearing, vowed to return in December and has launched a one-man crusade to change the way local government spends money – writing his own web log or “blog.”  In a letter to the Watch, Brennan said:

“Village taxpayers have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tax increases. The rate at which village expenses have grown beyond inflation and population growth since 2000 is going to be a real problem for years to come. The school districts are gearing up for tax increases, taxpayers will pay for a new library, and it is a safe bet that the village board will support taxpayer funding of the downtown development. Then there is the elephant in the corner of the room which everyone would like to ignore -- The Glen. There are serious issues when it comes to the impact that this development has for village taxpayers that need to be addressed.

“Challenging anything to do with The Glen with the current village board is treated as an insult to them and the staff.  The level of ‘spin’ used to continually justify the massive overspending for The Glen is eerie. There is no action being taken to fix, let alone admit, the mistakes that have been made. It is heresy in the political establishment to say that The Glen might be a cause of fiscal issues.

“Evidence of this can be seen in the recent newsletters from Districts 255 and 34 in which they are building their case for  tax increase referenda. They each list various causes for their budget ‘crisis.’ Neither mentions The Glen TIF. This is not a small issue for the schools when it comes to funding. Failure to mention the TIF distorts their argument by its omission. Next time you hear a village trustee touting the virtues of The Glen, ask them how the school tax increase is related to it.  After you ask the question, sit down and hold on tight, before the spin starts.

“There is not enough space in the letters to the Watch to cover all of the topics that informed taxpayers should be asking their elected officials about. I have posted the research I have done on a web log at www.saveglenview.blogspot.com please feel free to visit.

“I am convinced that Glenview needs an organized group of citizen taxpayers dedicated to fiscal responsibility. I have always thought that such a group would arise from the Watch's readership. Hopefully this will happen. If it does, I will be one of the first to sign up and volunteer time to the cause. I plan on being at the next village board meeting in December to challenge the status quo. Hopefully more than two other taxpayers will show up this time.”

TRUSTEES PONDER SPEED HUMPS

A telephone survey of residents has shown traffic to be a top concern, and the village board moved to address some traffic-related issues Thursday.  About 40 people turned out to hear the discussion that was not cablecast, and some spoke on the subject of using speed humps to slow or discourage cut-through traffic.

Village administrator Al Stonitsch listed a number of details the trustees would have to decide in formulating a policy for the installation of speed humps: 

-- Which streets should be eligible, and what percentage of residents would have to petition for installation of the traffic calming devices?

-- Who should pay for installation and maintenance?

-- What would happen if residents decided, after installation, that speed humps were too noisy or inconvenient?

Board members agreed that local streets with significant amounts of cut-through traffic should be considered, and those with the biggest problems should be dealt with first, but they disagreed on what percentage of residents should be required to sign a petition and who should pay.

Trustee Detlefs thought a fairly small number of residents should be allowed to request consideration of the need – perhaps 10 percent, but Trustee Cuisinier favored a requirement that at least two-thirds of property owners be required to petition for a village review.  Trustees Patterson and Debby Karton went even further, suggesting 75 percent should sign.

Cuisinier thought residents should bear the full cost of installation, but President Cummings was uneasy with the idea, because some neighbors might not even want speed humps.  “How do you collect from the person who said no?” she wondered, adding that for some small streets, the cost would be too great to bear.  Detlefs agreed, saying the village should be responsible for installation and maintenance costs.  “It’s our responsibility to keep streets safe,” he concluded.

The trustees also clashed over what to do if neighbors changed their minds, and Manager Todd Hileman warned that in the last community he managed (Avondale, Arizona), “We were taking them out as fast as we were putting them in.” 

Resident Ron Pomerantz was the first to testify during a public comment period.  A resident of Wilmette Road near Harms, he complained that drivers routinely speed, and said the lack of sidewalks adds to his discomfort when walking with his 4-year-old child and two dogs.  “It’s a little nerve-wracking.  I’m not chasing people with a baseball bat or anything, but I do sometimes park my car in such a way that people are forced to slow down,” he told the trustees.

Pomerantz resented those board members who thought more than 51 percent of the neighbors should support speed humps before they could be installed.  “There was no super majority to build the castle on Lake Avenue,” he said – referring to Glenview’s new police station.  “If I get 75 percent of my neighbors to say they want to get rid of it, are you going to take it down? Does it take 75 percent of residents to elect a trustee?”

Carl Meier, who lives on Harrison Street, asked the board to consider areas close to schools first.  He noted particular problems around Hoffman School.  “There’s moms. There’s dads.  It’s nuts,” he said.  Meier also worried that the installation of speed humps on neighboring streets such as Dewes might cause even more cut-through traffic on Harrison.

Miller Street resident Deborah Byrd said cars routinely speed through her neighborhood between Landwehr and Pfingsten, bypassing traffic jams on Willow and Lake.  In one block with an especially large number of kids, Byrd said the neighbors had purchased and set-up large plastic signs reading, “Slow! Children.  Cars go by so fast the wind blows those signs over,” Byrd complained.

Resident David Silver suggested the trustees try using temporary speed bumps that could be installed and studied before more permanent fixtures were put in place, and the board agreed that one or two demonstration projects should be tried before a policy on traffic calming devices is put in place. The board agreed to discuss such projects in January.

EXPERTS RELUCTANT TO CHANGE RULES FOR LEHIGH & CHESTNUT

The trustees also tangled with a village traffic consultant over complaints about the intersection of Chestnut and Lehigh.  Because the east side of that intersection involves railroad tracks, the Illinois Commerce Commission would have to be consulted on any changes, and expert Tom Adomshick of Benes and Associates said the state was determined to bar right turns on red by northbound Lehigh traffic.  The problem, he recalled, is that some cars had made that turn, only to be trapped when the railroad crossing gate came down.

He was willing to consider allowing a left turn signal for northbound traffic wanting to turn west, but southbound traffic could not have a similar signal because those cars would be heading for the tracks and could block the intersection if the train gates came down.

Adomshick said people don’t always look at signals, but – instead – take their cues from what other drivers are doing.  If a northbound driver were to turn left on a green arrow, a southbound driver might do the same, regardless of what the traffic signal allowed.  With Glenview’s Senior Center in the neighborhood and so many medical offices nearby, Adomshick said many older drivers pass through the intersection, making it especially important to have consistent traffic signals.

Trustee Patterson asked if a “flashing yellow arrow” could be installed.

Adomshick said there was no such thing.

Karton was especially unhappy.  A resident of The Glen, she said she always drives north on Lehigh to get to her house and is often stuck at the light for prolonged periods of time.  Adomshick conceded that cars hoping to turn left can wait three or more minutes.

Karton wondered if some kind of sign could be posted, telling the southbound drivers that their signal was different from the one facing northbound traffic. Adomshick said he’d never seen a sign for that kind of situation and, again, made the case for consistency.

“What happened to driver responsibility?” asked an agitated Patterson.

Detlefs agreed, and Cummings said she thought the village should allow northbound traffic to turn left onto Chestnut, even when southbound traffic was prevented from doing so by a train.  Cummings compared the intersection to Lehigh and Glenview roads, noting that a special sign warned southbound traffic against left turns.  She suggested installing a similar “No turn.  The train is coming, you idiot,” sign at Chestnut and Lehigh.

Adomshack said he would discuss the possibility with state officials. 

SEX SHOPS MAY LOCATE IN INDUSTRIAL PARTS OF GLENVIEW

To discourage adult bookstores from locating here, to protect families and to avoid the possibility of a lawsuit for refusing to allow such a facility anywhere in Glenview, the trustees have voted to allow sexually-oriented businesses in industrial areas. 

In addition to the restricted zoning, no one under 18 would be allowed in such stores.  Employees would have to undergo a criminal background check and “be appropriately clothed.”  Signs could not be visible from public sidewalks or streets, and no sexual material could be displayed in the store’s windows. Finally, adult bookstores would have to be at least 500 feet from parks, schools, libraries and residential areas, and they could not be within 1,000 feet of each other.

Noting those restrictions, Trustee Cuisinier thought it would be “very unlikely that anyone would want to set up shop here.” 

Village attorney Jeff Randall said communities cannot, by law, ban such businesses, but the courts do allow zoning restrictions.  Unless such a law were passed, Randall said existing shops could “morph” into sexually-oriented businesses in busy commercial areas, and the village would have no law on the books to close them down.  He said local video stores could continue to offer some adult material as long as it did not exceed 10 percent of all merchandise.  

SUMMIT SPELLS OUT OPTIONS FOR REVERSE COMMUTE

State Senator Susan Garrett hosted a meeting with local businesses and transportation authorities, including Metra, RTA, and Pace, to discuss realistic ways to ease the pain of commuting. Many employers thought express trains between Chicago and Lake County could be made more efficient by eliminating little-used stops. They also proposed more northbound trains in the morning and southbound trains in the evening,  improved punctuality of morning Metra trains, better scheduling of Pace bus routes to coincide with train schedules and a single fare system on Pace and Metra. A second meeting will be held on Thursday, December 15 to determine the most effective, least expensive changes for commuters.  For details, call 847-433-2002.

SCHOOL NEWS AND BLUES

-- Glenbrook South High School sent four students to a Saturday detention after they were caught using forged parking passes.  The kids said they were trying to avoid paying the $225 annual fee or were ineligible to park at the school.  Only 650 spaces are available to seniors and to juniors who win a lottery.

-- School District 34 says it’s just a year or two away from having to cut staff and programs in ways that will hurt students, but the public doesn’t seem to know that.  A recent survey of 600 registered voters found only 37 percent willing to approve a tax hike that would cost the owner of a $500,000 home at least $906 per year.  Sixty-three percent of those questioned believe there are things the district could cut without having an impact on students or staff.

MAPLE GRAD KILLED IN WAUKEGAN ROAD CRASH

Fourteen-year-old Tommy Whang was killed, and his 18-year-old brother Denny is hospitalized after their car veered into the path of a southbound vehicle on Waukegan Road just north of Willow late Thursday afternoon.  The driver of the second car, a 43-year-old man, was also critically injured.  All three victims were from Northbrook.  Police say they do not think alcohol or drugs were involved.  The boys were students at Northridge Prep, a private Catholic school in Niles, but Tommy had attended Maple Junior High.  A wake is set for 7 p.m. Monday, November 21 at the Colonial Funeral Home on Golf Road.

PARK DISTRICT NEWS AND NOTES

-- Wagner Farm says attendance was up in 2005 for the fourth consecutive year with nearly 3,200 people taking part in five special events: an open house, dairy breakfast, threshing day, barn dance and corn harvest.  Next year, the park district says it will add two more events to the list.

-- The Schram Memorial Museum reports a growing number of couples choosing to marry there.  Reservations for 2005-2006 were up 28 percent from last year, and the district plans a 4.5 percent fee increase for weddings.  The current charge is $440 per hour.  Next year, it’ll be $460 per hour.

-- Former park commissioner Chris Warren and Cookies in Bloom owner Dawn Barrett have been appointed to the panel that helps plan Fourth of July activities.

-- The park district will soon begin a laser jet cartridge recycling program.  Residents will be able to bring used color ink cartridges to park facilities rather than throwing them out. 

-- Grove Director Steve Swanson was to meet Monday with state officials to discuss possible construction of sound barriers along I-294 to protect the historic Kennicott family homes and nature preserve.

-- The Glenview Stars hockey club will host a team of disabled players at the Glenview rink on December 3.  In deference to their guests, the Glenview kids will play on special sleds, then donate the sleds to their visitors for use in future games.

NEWS FROM THE NEIGHBORS

-- While Glenview contemplates a 9 percent hike in the village property tax, Wilmette expects to raise its levy by 6 percent.  Officials there thought they’d have to charge more but were pleasantly surprised by higher local sales tax revenue, more money from fees and water sales and a windfall from Springfield.

-- Morton Grove is thinking of restructuring its charges to cut trash collection fees.  The village board may raise property taxes by as much as 20 percent and double the local gasoline tax.  Trustees had hoped to make cuts in spending but said they couldn’t find any place to cut without impacting basic services.

-- The Muslim community in Morton Grove has finally broken ground for a mosque and school after three years of debate and legal wrangling.

-- Northbrook is poised to use tax increment financing for a new hotel, shops, a spa, banquet hall, parking garage and 72 condos at the corner of Dundee and Skokie Blvd.  Schools, which will not get tax revenue until the TIF ends, have asked the village to limit the life span of the deal.

-- IDOT says it would like to close Shermer Road at Dundee to improve the flow of traffic along that major arterial street, and some neighbors like the idea, but Northbrook officials are resisting – saying the change would make it more difficult for people to reach downtown Northbrook.

CHARITY BEINGS AT HOME

-- The Glenview Council Navy League hosts Toys for Tots – a gala dinner and fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, December 3 in the Chaparral Ballroom of the Lincolnshire Marriott.  For details, call John Crawford at 847-291-6941. 

-- Have an old coat you’d like to donate?  Northbrook’s Rotary Club is collecting them along with used clothes and small home appliances at various locations around town.  Bring your unwanted goods by Monday, November 21 to any of these locations: The Northfield Township office at 3801 Lake Avenue, across from Glenbrook South High School;  Best Travel at 1155 Church Street; The Leisure Center at 3323 Walters; the Northbrook Park Center at 1720 Pfingsten; the Northbrook Public Library; Sunset Foods or the North Suburban Y. For home or business collection, call Ken at 847-272-2553.

-- The Rotary Club of Glenview-Sunrise hosts its seventh annual holiday concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 18 in the Watson Auditorium of Glenbrook South High School. Doors will open at 2 p.m. for a silent auction, community sing-along and a special appearance by Santa. Tickets are $10 or $30 per family of up to two adults and three kids. Pay at the door or send a check to The Rotary Club of Glenview-Sunrise, P.O. 382, Glenview, IL 60025. For more information, call 847-509-0060.

SAVE THE DATE

-- The downtown plan committee will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 22 in the board room of Village Hall. Discussion will focus on building height and financial tradeoffs. A new zoning policy called Form Based Zoning will be considered for the area. Public comment is invited and will be heard as the first order of business after residents were denied a chance to speak at the group’s last meeting. The discussion will be cable- cast.

-- Groot makes its last yard waste pick up for the year Friday, December 2.  If you use a 90-gallon rental bin,  either hang onto it or ask Groot to take it away.  The company will bill for the new yard waste pick up season in April.  Call 800-244-1977 for details.

-- The Improv Commandos will appear at the Glenview Public Library at 7 p.m. Wednesday, November 30. The improvisational comedy troupe will rely on audience members for their skit inspirations in a way popularized by the TV show, “Whose Line is it Anyway?”  Register at the information desk or call 847-729-7500 ext. 112 to sign up. Check out their website at http://www.improvcommandos.com/ 

-- The Glenview Public Library’s 75th Anniversary Celebration begins at 6 p.m.  Friday, December 2, with an open house and a concert at 7:30 p.m. featuring “Moonglow,” a trio of women who sing 1930’s songs. The event is open to the public, but registration is requested at the information desk or by calling 847-729-7500 ext. 112. The library will close from 4-6 p.m. on that day to set up for the evening festivities.

-- New Medicare Prescription Drug Information will be presented at 10 a.m. Tuesday, December 6. Jean Cleland, director of community services at the North Shore Senior Center, will talk about the new program. Please register at the library’s information desk.

-- Free job counseling and financial planning advice are available through the library.  Call the information desk to make an appointment in December.  The number: 847-729-7500 ext. 112.

READERS WRITE

George P. Nassos is “in total agreement with Village President Kerry Cummings regarding renovating the current library rather than building a new larger one.  With the rapidly advancing technology for gathering information, students and adults are relying more on accessing information from personal computers, laptops, PDAs and cell phones.  In fact, the trustees should consider making the whole village wireless, so everyone could access information from their laptops, anywhere and anytime. We should also avoid the penny wise/pound foolish approach taken by police station planners when they decided not to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED certification.  State-of-the-art energy saving technology and designs usually pay for themselves in a fairly short period of time.  Glenview should be a cutting edge community, but we are far from it.  The information on the village's infrastructure (roads, pipes, sewers, electrical, gas, etc.) should all be converted from drawings to electronic format by using GIS (Geospatial Information Systems) technology.  It then becomes rapidly accessible for emergencies and easily kept current.”

Mary Butler prefers to build new: “I have worked for many years at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.  It is the best in the North Suburban Library District, and it is big, bright and beautiful.  I'm sitting here at the service desk with my coat on trying to type with very cold fingers.  Many add-ons later, the heating and cooling system have remained problematic.  Every room has varying temperatures from hot to cold.  We used to have space heaters at the desk but the fire department has said they're against fire code.   I am a resident of Glenview and would love to see a new library.  Additions are adequate but certainly come with their own set of problems. I think everyone here would have liked a new library.”

But BP fears higher taxes to build a large new library: “Library Trustee Jack Neymark seems to think we have bottomless pockets -- that we will accept another tax increase of only $125/ year. That figure was based on a property tax bill of $5,000, but there are fewer and fewer houses in Glenview that pay only $5000 in taxes a year.  My taxes are double that, and they are soon to be added to with special assessments for sewer and water in my neighborhood.  One hundred, twenty-five dollars is an inaccurate amount.  It's more like $250.  Stop trying to fool us.”

John Ranz, who has called for keeping a tight rein on library spending, is dismayed by the amount of money already paid to consultants: “They have spent over $300,000 on studies and consultants thus far.  How many parking spaces would that buy?  The library board wasted thousands designing a building behind closed doors to be built on Glen land they did not own.  How responsible is that?  They can pack meetings with uninformed old folks and moms wanting a fun place to play with their toddlers ‘til 2010, and that won't change the fact that we don't need a 90,000-square-foot library with over 300 seats when nobody has ever found more than 50 sitting in a chair at one time except on OLPH field trip days. As technology takes over many of the traditional functions of a library, these folks keep dreaming up new missions to keep their jobs.  It's a national problem, not unlike keeping bad teachers on the payroll just because they managed to stay around long enough to get tenure. They keep asking for more meeting places when we already have mostly empty meeting rooms at Park Center and nine schools with empty rooms galore.  The heat, air and lights are on.  Hold your meetings at the schools.”

S.K. is sick of hearing complaints about The Glen: “It’s getting old and tiresome to continue reading crank complaints about The Glen’s existence.  I am certain that jealousy is the main cause of this complaining, although there is no reason for it. The Glen is a beautiful part of Glenview and should be enjoyed, utilized and appreciated by all residents.  The existence of The Glen is directly responsible for the long overdue redevelopment of the old downtown. We are 40-year residents of Glenview and have seen the stodgy downtown area languish and self destruct. There is no reason whatsoever that The Glen and downtown cannot coexist.  One day perhaps, when the renovation of downtown is complete, there can possibly be a local transportation system to take people to and from each place, to shop and enjoy what each has to offer. In the meantime, stop the ridiculous complaining and enjoy Gallery Park, the lake, sports complex, restaurants and retail stores, theater, bike paths and everything The Glen offers.  Maybe we’ll even have the July Fourth fireworks over the lake, instead of trampling over an overcrowded section of golf course. The Glen belongs to all Glenview’s residents.” 

Tom James takes exception to the testimony of a neighbor who’s not worried about noise from cars at a proposed house of worship: “The gentleman mentioned that the gas company used to have trucks running in and out of its facility on Shermer for years without the traffic or noise being a problem. This is true, but the traffic was way lighter back then on Golf and Shermer.  There was also a back entrance/exit that the trucks used often, and more importantly the gas company had another access entrance/exit  onto Shermer that is now a part of Belmont Village. It’s unfair to compare then and now.  It’s also unfortunate that Shermer is being redone  now at great expense when new road improvements will be needed, at additional expense, if the Ismaili House of Worship is built.”

HLH can’t understand “the flap over Representative Mark Kirk's statement that he sees no problem with giving greater scrutiny to those people from terrorist countries seeking to enter the United States. If you have people from a certain country or society, let's call them green people to avoid identifying any particular group, who have not only vowed to bring harm to this country but also have actually demonstrated their intent to do so, isn't it reasonable to scrutinize more closely all green people seeking to enter this country? That's what homeland security is all about. Certainly, we can accept the premise that not all green people want to do us harm, and some want to come here for legitimate purposes, but how do you tell without closer examination? Unfortunately, to protect our country all green people have to carry the burden of the transgressions of a few. The fact that some purple people might like to do us harm but are not being singled out does not mean that we should give green people a pass.”

And UC writes: “I take serious issue with your editorial about Rep. Kirk's comments.  You wrote that singling out visitors from a few terrorist countries ‘gives militant white men in Oklahoma City little scrutiny, and you can be sure there are terrorist groups in Mexico and China.  At the same time it could mean millions of peaceful professionals, businessmen, artists and scholars who want to visit this country or study here would be humiliated at our borders.’ 

“Let me ask you this: How many militant white men or terrorist groups from Mexico or China hijacked four U.S. commercial planes and used them as weapons? Zero.  How many Mexican or Chinese terrorist groups declared holy war on America, the great Satan? The answer again is zero. Is Osama bin Laden from China, Mexico, Paraguay, Scotland, or whatever other country you can name? No. They are Arab.

You can always use the example of Oklahoma City to show that it's ‘just not fair to profile Arab men.’ But it's not white males who are doing most of the terrorist attacks in the world! How many white males are beheading Jewish journalists, blowing up crowded Israeli markets, killing Christians in Thailand, and waging Jihad against all Westerners?

The answer to that question is Arab males, and now females.  I don't recall seeing any white men from Oklahoma, Mexicans, or Chinese at the Jordan hotel.  I'm a Democrat, liberal, and voted for Kirk, and will definitely vote for him again.  He's a good friend to Israel.  What exactly is wrong with knowing who your enemy is? Would you rather just embrace with hugs and kisses every Arab who comes over here, do not investigate anyone because well, that's just mean? The bottom line is that these people hate us, hate our way of life, and want to kill us.  We should turn the other cheek? I don't think so.

It is a shame that there are some Arabs that are not terrorists who want to visit and study in this country, without any ulterior motive. I do recall that there were 19 Arab men who came to this country in the 1990s to study and visit.  Remember what they did on September 11, 2001? The relatives of over 3000 murdered Americans sure did. God forbid we should humiliate somebody, at the expense of protecting our borders.”

 The Watch replies:  Condoning discrimination is a slippery slope that leads not only to distrust of young men from certain countries but to special treatment for anyone who appears to be Arab or Middle Eastern, Muslim or dark-skinned.  That kind of thinking put Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.  As a practical matter, it's also unwise to brand certain people as "dangerous" while giving others a pas.  If we decide, for example, not to focus attention on people coming from Mexico, it becomes easier for terrorists to reach the U.S. through that country.  The truth is that we need to be vigilant on all fronts, and there are ways to assure national security without issuing a blanket call for discrimination against one particular – which was what Kirk did. 

 HD has news for owners of digital cameras: “I think it's a great service to tell others about small independent businesses in Glenview.  We had our camera repaired at one -- A Metro Repair at 615 Milwaukee Ave.  This is a solo operation where the proprietor simply fixes cameras. My digital Canon was fixed in a day and a half for a reasonable price.  The chain camera stores told me they would have to send it out and it would take weeks.”

Kevin Killion comments on the way the federal government reimburses school districts for military children who attend public schools: “So, the North Chicago school district will receive $6,100 in federal ‘impact aid’ for every child of a military family if 1,150 such students attend, and  they get squat if only 1,149 kids attend.  This arbitrary cut-off is crazy and grossly unfair!  It's also grossly unfair that the families of those in service should be forced to attend a certain school merely because of where the military has stationed them.The obvious solution is to make impact aid centered on the child, not on bureaucracy.  Let the $6,100 follow the child to whatever school the family chooses.  That way, North Chicago would get $6,100,000 if 1,000 military kids attend, or $610,000 if 100 kids attend.  And if parents want to apply the $6,100 to another district or school that suits the child better, they can do so.  Now that would be fair all around.”

YOUR TURN:  Write to glenviewwatch@aol.com or 3537 Maple Leaf Drive, Glenview, IL 60026. If you haven’t already done so, please consider making a contribution to support The Watch. Non-deductible checks should be payable to Glenview Watch. Thanks for your support and for reading. Dean Schott and Sandy Hausman, Co-Editors.

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