Saturday Soapbox

Share the costs, benefits:

We applaud Naperville's desire to do what it can to keep the DuPage Children's Museum in town. We know the facility is a point of pride for the city. But why should Naperville residents alone shoulder the responsibility and cost? Children from all over DuPage visit the private educational museum. If Naperville comes up with a plan to buy the land, we hope residents get a significant break on admission or membership. Better yet, maybe a number of communities could pitch in, securing reduced admission for residents in return.

Look before you ...:

Before you fill out the job application, know what you're applying for. That's our advice for Tracy Hoover, a Roselle village clerk candidate who says she doesn't want to win now that she knows it's a part-time position. Hoover withdrew too late to take her name off the ballot, but she says she won't serve if she wins.

A toast to the candidates:

We're up to our eyeballs in candidate endorsement interviews right now for offices all over our suburbs. The vast majority are people who have done their homework and care about their towns and schools and other districts. We thank them all for putting themselves out there and making the commitment to trying to improve our communities.

Saving green:

Any parent of a grade-schooler knows how hard it is to keep up with the announcements, newsletters, reminders and order forms that come home every day. That's why we applaud the money-saving idea in Grayslake Elementary District 46, where they want the board newsletters and PTO communication to go paperless in an effort to save $10,000. Not only will this save money, it will reduce hours of copying and permit parent volunteers to, instead, use that time to directly impact children.We know of other districts that already do this and applaud them too.

Worth saving:

We hate to see the demise of Elgin's 36-year-old annual flea market that raises money for school children. We urge organizers to think of ways to overcome the challenges of a lack of volunteers and the loss of space. Maybe Elgin High School's PTO can work with parent groups at other schools to recruit more volunteers and patrons. This might raise enough money to cover the district's estimated $1,000 cost of the event. In these times, flea market bargains might be just what people are looking for.

Unselfish gesture:

How 'bout a word of thanks for the 50 or so Naperville employees who voluntarily agreed to take up to a week of unpaid vacation this year to help make a dent in a budget deficit that could grow to $11 million. Many American workers have felt the sting of pay cuts or mandated time off without pay, but who has agreed to take the hit? Their unselfish actions spared one employee from being laid off - a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but certainly not insignificant to that employee.

Sunny day, everything's A-OK:

Ahh, a few days above 50, a few rays of sunshine and a couple of spring training games on TV. We even heard birds Friday morning! We know. We know. It's Chicago. We're not there yet. But those signs of spring sure boost the spirit, don't they?