Sugar Grove wins state praise for youth driving initiative

Sugar Grove officials were tired of losing Kaneland High School students to car crashes.

Police Chief Brad Sauer, a Kaneland alumnus, wanted to do something to improve the odds for the young drivers in the large district. Its size, 140 square miles stretching about 25 miles from Montgomery on the southeast to Cortland on the northwest, leads to a large number of students driving to its sole high school, and much of it on crested, rural, two-lane, high-speed roads.

And so the village organized a driving safety effort that has netted it the 2009 Governor's Hometown Award, in the category of youth services.

The city teamed up with Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, which is the primary driver safety training agency in the area, and the Kaneland school district to offer the "Alive at 25" National Safety Council program. It began in the fall of 2007.

Waubonsee conducts the program at cost, about $25 per student. The bill has been paid for with money the village received from selling vehicles seized in drug trafficking cases (suggested by Village President Sean Michels), the Kane County DUI Task Force, and the Kane County Sheriff's Department. The DUI Task Force gets its money from a $100 fee everybody charged with DUI in Kane County has to pay.

More than 300 Kaneland students have gone through the program voluntarily. Kane County courts require teens who get tickets to take the class, Sauer said.

The Kaneland students may just be doing it to save money, as they get a $50 discount on their parking permit at the school near Maple Park. Sauer said he would like to see it become mandatory to take the class to get a driving permit.

"I think over time it will reduce deaths," Sauer said. He said the program focuses a lot on the consequences of distracted driving - texting, loud music, rowdy passengers, talking on the phone. "And that's what the problem is" with young drivers, he said.

As for the award, "I'm very happy for the program to get that kind of attention," he said, hoping it will lead to donations or other funding to keep it going. The Kane County Sheriff's Office is picking up the tab for this school year, but money has not been lined up for the next.

The village will receive the award Oct. 29. It is also eligible to receive the overall Governor's Cup award.