Saturday Soapbox: End of an era at CLC
The Richard Fonte era at College of Lake County is over, and not a moment too soon. Fonte was hired as the college president in December 2006, but lasted only six months in that high-profile job. His tenure was marked by problems with faculty and questions about his leadership. He resigned last June, but the college board compounded the problem by allowing Fonte to take a special assistant's position reporting to board President William Griffin. Fonte worked from home and kept his $195,000 salary. His last day on the job was March 1, and some board members say they didn't get their money's worth from five reports he produced in 10 months analyzing state and national issues affecting CLC, and researching federal grants available to the school. Maybe it was a bad fit, maybe Fonte got off on the wrong foot with the faculty. Whatever the reason, CLC needs to do due diligence in hiring the next college president to make sure they find someone who can help solve problems, not create them.
Village hall a beautiful start:Œ
Volo officials have reason to celebrate this week as they prepare to move into their new village hall, a 15,000-square-foot building at Route 60 and Fish Lake Road. When the $2.4 million facility -- paid for entirely by developers -- opens on Tuesday, it'll be more than just a beautiful building. It represents the realization of a master plan created five years ago, when the village was still mostly undeveloped, to ensure that as more people and businesses came, the growth would take shape in a way that benefited the community. True, the village hall is only the first piece in a much larger puzzle. But it's done early and under budget. In our book, that's a very good start.
Good job, sheriff
Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran became the county's top-ranked police officer the minute he was sworn into office in 2006. Legally, it didn't matter that Curran was an attorney by trade and had not previously served as a police officer. But it mattered to Curran. And so, about 13 weeks ago, he entered the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy in DuPage County to be trained the same as any rookie officer, any raw recruit. Curran graduated from the often-grueling program last week. We hear he wasn't at the top of his class -- at 44, he was training with officers half his age -- but we give him an "A" for his commitment to his job, the deputies he oversees and the community.
Sweet and bitter of parenthood
Two disparate events this week in the Wheeling-Buffalo Grove area captured the yin and yang of parenthood. Kudos to the family of Jennifer Koh, the amazing 13-year-old violinist from Buffalo Grove who added to her list of accomplishments by taking one of the top three spots in the 2008 Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions for Strings. She was the youngest of the top three. And our condolences to the family of Osama Hadi, 25, of Wheeling, feared drowned off the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies after he and a friend had gone swimming. His family can take equal pride in his accomplishments -- he was about to graduate from medical school, nine years after immigrating from Pakistan and attending community colleges because he couldn't afford to stay at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Hockey fans had reason to cheer
The Chicago Blackhawks came close, but did not make the NHL playoffs. But they did win back the respect of fans with gritty play that hasn't been seen on the rink in years. That counts for a lot.