Saturday Soapbox: Leaf-burning decision anti-climactic

After years of study, plenty of discussion and a full community survey, North Barrington's long-delayed decision this week on leaf-burning was a bit anti-climactic. Trustees balked at a full ban and simply decided to further limit the times when leaf-burning is allowed. Officials hailed the move as a good compromise, which is fair enough in a community that was just about evenly split on the issue. But with fewer and fewer Barrington-area towns still allowing leaf-burning -- and as the region, like it or not, becomes more densely populated and more research is done on potential health effects of leaf-burning -- it seems unlikely this will settle the issue for good. Ban proponent Bruce Kramper rightly noted that the village ought to be looking at alternatives. And that's a good idea, no matter how tempting it is to want to put this issue to rest once and for all -- or, perhaps we should say, for fall.

You could say you knew him when

Welcome home a native son tonight at Durty Nellie's in Palatine when 2000 Palatine High School alum Andrew Ripp takes the stage at 10 p.m. He returns from his new home in Los Angeles, where he is working on hitting it big in the music industry. He's well on his way, with his first, as yet untitled album coming out in early 2008, and a writer's credit on Ryan Cabrera's hit single, "Shine On."

Barrington stadium done right

Barrington High School sold its stadium project to voters on the premise that it'd be an asset to the whole community -- and that funding for more desirable but less crucial add-ons like artificial turf would have to come from private donors, not taxes. This was the right approach, and the community response bears that out, with donations already topping $700,000. Now that's a private-public partnership to get behind.

Autistic children value friendship

If you know anyone who has a friend or family member with autism or any of its related conditions, make sure they know about the Northwest Suburban Chapter 114 of the Autism Society of America. The group supports not only children, but adults with autism as well. It hosts monthly meetings and through www.autismillinois.org is selling its second wall calendar to raise funds, but also awareness. The theme of the calendar is friendship. Even those without someone with autism in their life will learn a lot about what friendship means by checking out the calendar.

Dark days of winter

Outside of maybe Atlanta, can there be a city suffering a deeper winter sports malaise than Chicago? The Bulls and the Bears, both expected to at least contend for the playoffs and possibly for titles, have simply tanked. Can there be anything more embarrassing than watching those two teams play before a national TV audience? Then the White Sox faithful watched as the Tigers loaded up for next year. And those youthful Blackhawks gave us a tease before slipping back to mediocrity. They actually have the most up-side, dismal as that thought may be. Grim, grim, grim. Go Illini, on both the gridiron and the hardwood.

Let it snow already

For all the attention we pay these days to the weather, especially in winter, is falling snow really worth getting all that worked up over? Sure, it's a nuisance to navigate a trip on our roads during a snowstorm, but all this hand-wringing? Over 1 to 4 inches of snow? After all, by the next day, the roads -- and life -- are pretty much back to normal … as we hold our breaths for news of the next big storm? So take a deep breath and enjoy the winter wonderland.