Gail Borden Library offers Food for Fines campaign
If you have overdue fines from the Gail Borden Public Library, you might want to wait til Nov. 1 to pay.
Or, actually, not pay.
The Elgin library's Food for Fines program runs from Nov. 1 through Nov. 14. Patrons may bring canned foods to get money subtracted from their fines.
Every food item will result in $1 of fines being cleared. Customers can bring in as much food as they want, but the program is only applicable to overdue fines, not charges for lost materials.
The cans of food will help fill shelves at the Salvation Army and the Community Crisis Center, both Elgin organizations.
Cans of food are being accepted at the main library, 270 N. Grove Ave., and at the Rakow Branch, 2751 W. Bowes Road.
With Elgin's unemployment rate at 12.2 percent for September 2009, the most recent data available from the state and nearly double the 6.9 percent of folks out of work in September 2008, I'm sure the library and pantries need all the food they can get.
For more information, call (847) 429-5977.
What's up doc? A few weeks ago, the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin was honored with a national award that will require a trip to Washington, D.C. to accept.
A South Elgin-based doctor recently returned from the capital after accepting an award from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Jennifer Schening won the academy's Humanism in Medicine award.
Several parents nominated Schening for her work with foster children as her practice, Next Generation Pediatrics, treats more than 30 percent of Kane County children in state foster care.
The Elk Grove Village-based academy says she treats the foster kids with compassion and dignity and helps the foster parents with their kids' medical needs.
Congrats to Dr. Schening.
You call it: The Citizens Utility Board, or CUB, is bringing its "Right Call Campaign" to Elgin to help consumers shave dollars off their phone bills.
The group will hold a phone-bill clinic from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the Centre of Elgin, 45 Symphony Way. Bring your bill and CUB official say they can help you save as much as $200 a year. CUB contends Illinois residents are overpaying on their bills by a cumulative total of $1.5 billion.
For more information, call (847) 669-5556 or visit citizensutilityboard.org.
Talking trash: The South Elgin Village Board recently voted to increase the monthly cost of trash collection.
Beginning in November, monthly rates charged by ARC Disposal and Recycling Company will increase 3 percent.
Overall, the increase is from $20.75 to $21.37, an increase of 62 cents. The rise will be reflected in next month's utility bills.