Community Service work crew, from left, Martell Nash, Miguel Fandejes, Philip McLorn and Roosevelt Barnes, all from Chicago, dig out a fire hydrant Thursday on Wolf Road in Des Plaines as part of the Cook County Sheriffs Work Alternative Program.
Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
Firefighters in the Northwest Suburbs got some much needed help from an unlikely source Thursday when Cook County Sheriff’s police brought out people working off community service time to help dig out snowbound fire hydrants.
Escorted by sheriff’s deputies, the workers made stops in communities including Arlington Heights and Des Plaines as part of the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program.
The program is made up of nonviolent, low-level offenders sentenced to community service work as an alternative to incarceration. The workers already had been responsible for clearing snow from sidewalks and parking areas at county courthouses.
When they aren’t shoveling snow, program participants complete light labor based on requests from area schools, towns and nonprofit groups.
Community service crew member Vytautas Abaris of Chicago, right, digs out a buried fire hydrant Thursday on Fernandez Avenue and Elm Street in Arlington Heights as part of the Cook County Sheriffs Work Alternative Program.
Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
Cook County Sheriffs Deputy John Bazianos, right, dispatches Miguel Fandejes, left, and his crew to an area on Big Bend Drive in Des Plaines to uncover snow covered fire hydrant Thursday as part of the Cook County Sheriffs Work Alternative Program.
Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
Community Service work crew members work Thursday to uncover a buried fire hydrant on Wolf Road in Des Plaines as part of the Cook County Sheriffs Work Alternative Program.
Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com
A community service crew works on uncovering one of many fire hydrants buried in snow Thursday inside Luther Village in Arlington Heights. The crew is part of the Cook County Sheriffs Work Alternative Program.
Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com