Cook County briefs
Railroad platform work begins:
Metra and Union Pacific Railroad crews will pour concrete for the remaining sections of the center railroad platform in downtown Des Plaines starting Thursday. For the work to be done, roughly 10 parking spaces in the city lot south of the tracks, west of Pearson Street, will be barricaded from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, May 14, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday, May 18. Parking spaces between the Des Plaines Library and Lee Street also will need to be barricaded during the concrete paving work for truck use.
Dist. 207 hires administrators:
Maine Township High School District 207 has hired two assistant superintendents. Mary Kalou is the new assistant superintendent for business, succeeding Pamela Schau, who is retiring. Barb Dill-Varga is the new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, succeeding Ken Wallace, who is the new District 207 superintendent. All hires take effect July 1. Kalou has been an administrator with Lake Zurich Unit District 95 since 2007; she was District 207's director of accounting from 1993-1998; and previously was an administrator in Arlington Heights Elementary District 25. Since 2003, Dill-Varga has been assistant superintendent for educational services at Glenbrook High School District 225; previously she was an administrator at Glenbrook South and Glenbard West high schools.
Memorial tourney starts today:
Play gets underway today in the sixth annual Casey Pohl Memorial Tournament. Thirty-two suburban travel teams will compete in 11- and 12-year-old age brackets at fields throughout Palatine. The tournament, sponsored by Palatine Youth Baseball and Softball, is in memory of Casey Pohl, a 2001 Fremd High School graduate and varsity baseball player who died of cancer in 2003. Some proceeds will go toward a scholarship in Pohl's name. The recipients - senior baseball players from both Fremd and Palatine high schools - will be introduced at an awards ceremony Sunday at Hamilton Field. For more information on the league, go to pyb.com.
Nanotech info session:
Harper College, the only community college in Illinois to offer an associate degree in Nanoscience Technology, hosts an open house at 6 p.m. Monday, May 18, in Room X250, on the second floor of the college's Avanté Center. The session will introduce nanoscience and related careers, showcase Harper's state-of-the-art laboratory and allow visitors to experiment with the kind of high-resolution microscope used in the profession. Harper launched its Nanoscience Technology degree last fall. Since then, the program has expanded, and Harper has partnered with the College of Lake County to offer the degree to Lake County residents for in-district tuition. (847) 925-6940 or visit harpercollege.edu.
Seat belt violators targeted:
The Arlington Heights Police Department's Memorial Day Weekend "Click It or Ticket" campaign will run May 15-May 31. Police will be stationed around the village looking for drivers and passengers not properly buckled up. The department has been awarded a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation to augment current traffic safety law enforcement efforts over a one-year period. The campaigns coincide with holidays where there is a documented increase of crashes and injuries. For details call Sgt. Whowell, (847) 368-5419.