Stepping up in challenging times

You have to admire the people who see a need in their community and dive in headlong to fill it while the rest of us wring our hands and weigh options.

One of those doers is Marcial Rodriguez of Fox Lake, and his efforts should prod each of us to ask if there's something we can do to help our community.

Rodriguez is leading a group of 15 business owners who have agreed to charge $1 to Lake County municipalities that need help in boarding up some vacant homes that are considered unsafe.

His concern is children or gangs attracted to the staggering number of homes left empty by foreclosure or because overwhelmed homeowners simply walked away.

The fact is the number of vacant homes continues to grow in some towns during the struggling economy.

Rodriguez, whose family owns Capital Board-up and Construction, Inc. in Fox Lake, knows it can cost as much as $1,000 to board up a vacant home, depending on the number of broken windows and other problems.

He told reporter Bob Susnjara that's not the kind of expense towns can afford to take on in difficult times. So, he made the offer to the Lake County Chiefs of Police Association last month as a stopgap measure targeting homes where the municipality is trying to find the owner who ultimately would be responsible for its upkeep.

To no one's surprise, he's talking about finding a way to make it a statewide effort.

It's not the first time Rodriguez stepped up to help local police. Seven years ago, he ponied up $5,000 to help fund the Lake County gun buyback program to get unwanted weapons off the street.

And, as with the gun buyback, police jumped at the chance to participate in the board-up program.

Police in Round Lake Park and Wauconda have already taken up Rodriguez on his $1 board-up offer.

A boarded-up window isn't attractive, but police believe a broken window is a sign of public disorder that can morph into other, more serious problems if not addressed.

We salute Rodriquez's effort, but also hope it will spur others to get involved in keeping neighborhoods safe.

While most of us don't have a business that can do low-cost board-ups for communities, there are simple but no less important ways to contribute.

We can mow the grass of a vacant home to prevent it from looking run down.

We can be mindful of which homes are vacant, watch for signs of unwanted guests and alert police when things don't look right.

And, we can realize we need more people to be like Marcial Rodriguez.