Committee of the Whole/City Council
Meetings of June 27, 2005

First, I thank BerwynPatsy for summarizing the meetings. I am using her edition and editing a shade. She has made it much easier for me. And, being a resident, she has put in what she feels is important.

There was plenty said by plenty of people during the Open Forum. Nice to see people are concerned. I will not state what was said, though. Unfortunately, we do have less than desirable people in our community. I refuse to give them any publicity.

The meetings were long. The COW meeting which was first was behind closed doors for about 3/4 of that hour. Please note that when we go into a closed door session, it is to discuss litigation, land acquisition or personnel. Not meant for the public. Sorry. The only important subject shared with the public was regarding the CDBG monies.(community development block grants) The monies are up for approval. I am not to sure how to explain this, so if anyone else cares to jump in, please do.I have a few comments though in general. The CDBG monies are given to Cities to basically help the less fortunate. There are strict guidelines that must be followed. Oftentimes, charities seek money. Certain municipal entities seek money. All for a good cause. Feel free to write you legislators in DC because there are rumblings Bush wants to drastically cut these funds.

The City Council meeting went on for almost 2 hours. Lots said. Good byes and best wishes said to all employees retiring(Alba Lovero-City Collector, Tom Martirano-Public Works Director and Louis Stillo-City Sealer). Announcments of new employees, such as Deby Suchy, who will be replacing Alba Lovero.
The Mayors Advisory Commitee people were named. There are more to be named. There should probably be about 10 to sixteen per Ward. These will be people to sort of be a thinktank for the City.
Announcement of 4 police promotions, which I was the only one to vote against the promotions. Although I wanted some to be promoted, I wanted others not to be.
ireworks display should be great. There were a total of $4,000.00 given by private entities/people to make sure we have good Fireworks.
Contract signed with Awsome Pest Control on Grove Ave. to get rid of rats in the City(I mean the animal kind).
I was appointed to the West Central Municpal Transit Board. I can now get input for silence of the whistles.
I put a communication on the floor to deal with our parking problems. Amazingly enough, three Aldermen voted against this. I only understand why one of the Aldermen voted against having a new parking plan.
Motion was made by 1st ward alderman Nona Chapman to secure 9 parking slots for the city who would then lease them to the business owners in th depot district. These slots are on the east side of Kenilworth south of Windsor to the alley. This was passed by city council.
The spindle at Cermak Plaza will be power washed occasionaly. The owner has hired a company. More importantly, from my perspective since I am all for beautification, the company that owns Cermak Plaza has hired a muralist to do a mural on the south side, behind Walgreens.
The Mayor announced that Thursday was the last day to buy vehicle stickers.

Also, besides the Bungalow Walk next year, there was a proposal put forth by the BDC to have a Cartopia, which are vehicles made into art; a spin-off of what I wanted, cars on parade(cows on parade in Chicago).

Berwyn is looking better every day.

The next Committe of the Whole will be July 5th at 6:30. The big issue here will be the parking garage. I am all for the best, biggest, etc. Will be expensive, but we have to look toward the future.

Hang in there, we will get there.

If I ever have mispellings on this blog, too bad. My computer prevents me from using the spell checker on this blog site.
- posted by Mark @ 12:10 PM