Carpentersville teen takes skateboard title

If you watched the finals of the AST Dew Tour skate park contest in Orlando last weekend, then you already know that Carpentersville teenager, Chaz Ortiz, beat all other competitors and moved past pal Ryan Sheckler to take out the overall title.

Chaz's progression up the ranks to the best in the world is nothing short of meteoric, especially since the guy is just 14 years old. Last year he skated on the final leg of the Dew Tour as an amateur having won the Free Flow Tour. Last year he finished sixth. This year, his is the champ. Make that the youngest champion in the tour's history.

Before Sunday, Ryan Sheckler had dominated the Dew Tour Cup, winning the final prize the last three years straight. But this year, Chaz ruled the street course in Orlando from the get-go and never let up, grabbing victory after a jam session with the top six skaters, which surprisingly did not include Sheckler. Sheckler was down in tenth place.

Heading into the final leg of the five-city tour, Chaz was just eight points behind Sheckler and only a few points in front of Paul Rodriguez in the race for the cup.

Got batteries? The village of Carpentersville is taking steps to ensure landfills are free of household batteries, which are potentially hazardous to the environment because they can expose acid and lead into the air, soil and water.

With households using an increasing number of batteries - including watch, hearing aid, and car batteries - the village is establishing a new collection system with its waste disposal service through ARC.

Residents who wish to dispose of the dead batteries in the remote control or the button battery that needs replacing in their Casio watch can now collect their batteries and place them in a plastic bag marked as "batteries." Once the batteries are bagged up, call ARC at (847) 981-0091 at least 24 hours before your regularly scheduled pick up to let the ARC representative know you have batteries to be collected.

Once you have made contact with ARC, place the bagged batteries next to your refuse tote.

If the bag is not collected with the rest of your trash, call the assistant village manager at (847) 426-3439, ext. 213 to report the problem. The assistant village manager will then work with ARC to make sure the error is not repeated.

For more information on the battery collection program, call the assistant village manager or go to www.carpentersville.il.us and follow the links to household battery pickup.

At the end of November, ARC will stop its yard waste collection for the season. Sunday, Nov. 30 is the final day for yard waste collection this season. That means, if your collection day is on a Monday, your final yard waste collection will take place on Monday, Nov. 24. The rest of the week follows the same pattern.

A schedule of the final yard waste pickup dates is available on the village's home page, www.carpentersville.il.us.