Soapbox: Getting in the game
Getting in the game
The stands are starting to fill with towns interested in hosting the minor league baseball team Crystal Lake just nixed. Huntley met with Frontier League representatives this week. Harvard-area officials have already expressed an interest. And Algonquin officials say they'd certainly consider hosting minor league baseball, too. There are another two towns not yet in the mix publicly, but wouldn't a minor league baseball stadium be a perfect fit at Spring Hill Mall? Given that once-vital retail hub appears to be steadily losing the fight to the Randall Road corridor, the site is near two tollway access points and the surrounding area is already used to traffic and lights, why not try to get in the game? If the two Kane County towns do, McHenry County economic development folks better step up to the plate in a hurry.
Donations about city, too
Elgin Academy's Head of School John Cooper called to say an item in last week's Soapbox put too much emphasis on the large cash donations for its media, science and fine arts center and told only part of the story. The pitch to prospective donors, Cooper said, was at least as much about the private school being part of Elgin's downtown revitalization and major entryway improvement plans, and being a leader in its promotion of "green" construction projects. Like Sherman Hospital and Judson College, Elgin Academy was part of a Sustainable Cities seminar this week in Elgin.
For the people
Some McHenry County College board members, part of initially unanimous board support for a public-private minor league baseball venture, considered censuring two board members who have since changed their minds and voiced their discontent in public. It seems the board forgets it is not a private corporation and each individual board member serves the public, not the board. If board members Donna Kurtz and Scott Summers have now changed their views in response to public concerns, aren't they just doing their jobs?
Hardly a good example
Given two of the greatest dangers to teenagers are underage drinking and driving too fast, let us hope the Elgin Police Department does not return Elgin High School police liaison officer Phillip Brown to his post. Brown last weekend was charged with driving under the influence, speeding, disobeying a traffic control device and fleeing police in Bartlett. An internal investigation also is under way, but in terms of his liaison work, the answer is simple. Keep him out of the high schools unless it's to speak on how easily a bad decision can mess up one's life.
Watery wedding lesson
Looking for a place to hang up an extra-lengthy wedding gown after the party? An unidentified bride unwisely chose the sprinkler head in her hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hoffman Estates. In doing so, she broke the vial that activates the sprinkler system during a fire. The water flooded six rooms, two on each of three floors before hitting the lobby. The 184-room hotel had to be evacuated even as the bride and groom disappeared. A first lesson in marriage? Pick a safer place to hang up your clothes.
You call this fair?
Because illegal immigrant Felipe Orsonio of Carpentersville stole somebody else's identity and messed up their credit only to live, work, get a mortgage and buy a car, two years' probation is a "fair" sentence, said Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Brian Mirandola. Fair to whom? And with prosecutors like that, who needs defense attorneys?