Buffalo Grove's a tricky town -- if that is its real name
On this holiday weekend when cops are on the prowl, there is no telling who might pull you over for traffic offenses in Buffalo Grove.
That burly landscaper mowing the grass? He could be an undercover traffic cop. So could that guy in the lounge chair with his feet on a cooler. The construction worker in the orange vest fiddling with equipment along the side of the road? He could be a police officer with a radar gun.
"That came out of our traffic unit. They are always looking for better ideas," says Bill Brimm, the village manager in Buffalo Grove. "There were some nice comments from the construction workers out there."
Cops getting compliments for masquerading as construction workers? Add an Indian chief and a young man from the YMCA to the mix, and Buffalo Grove's village people could be the Village People.
Once upon a time, when local charity volunteers with collection cans combed busy intersections in pursuit of donations, the cops went "canning" alongside them, according to one of Brimm's tales.
"They were walking up to cars and just checking on seat belt violations," Brimm says.
Buffalo Grove has used full-size cutouts of police officers in stores as a way to deter would-be thieves. This month, it set up life-size posters of children near schools in the hopes of slowing drivers.
It is one tricky town. And the citizenry apparently has an admiration for the deception.
"A complaint didn't get to my office," Brimm says. "It's perceived as being unique and a little innovative."
Perhaps that's because Buffalo Grove is all about trickery. For starters, the town is bereft of buffalo or a grove. Couldn't the suburb at least put a fence around a couple of trees, call it a grove and stick a bison or two in there?
"We looked at it for a few minutes and we were told by the folks at Lincoln Park Zoo that if you get buffalo who get mad, they'll go right through a fence," Brimm says.
Maybe you could dress up a couple of cops like cowboys and have them guard a buffalo in downtown Buffalo Grove?
"There isn't one," Brimm says of the downtown.
You have to have a downtown. What if you became the county seat and needed a place for the courthouse?
That's not happening, either. The town doesn't have a county it can call home.
"That gets people somewhat confused," Brimm says. Buffalo Grove lies (better make that "resides") in both Cook and Lake counties.
I walk into Lou "BuffaLou" Malnati's Pizzeria, which has a statue of a bison, in the hopes of talking with an average resident about all this. Melissa Shandling, 17, a senior at Buffalo Grove High School, should be perfect.
"I actually live in Wheeling," Shandling says somewhat sheepishly. "I know, the boundaries are messed up and everything."
Most Buffalo Grove kids don't go to the high school that bears the Buffalo Grove name. Depending on where residents of Buffalo Grove live, they can belong to any one of two high school districts, four grade schools, two libraries and two community colleges.
"We've got it down to a science, because that's the way the community evolved," Brimm says with a chuckle. "You have to believe me. I've learned if you don't laugh in this business, you're going to cry a lot. "
Despite all the confusion and trickery, I like Buffalo Grove. I married a native of that suburb. Our wedding was in the town's beautiful "old" chapel of St. Mary's Church, which, although it is attached to the "new" three-decades-old St. Mary's Church, actually was the "new" St. Mary's Church back when it was built in 1899 to replace the original "old" St. Mary's Church that was built in 1853.
Whew. Even the question of age is confusing in Buffalo Grove, which next year will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its incorporation.
At least the village claims to be just now turning 50.