The Soapbox: Road work in Schaumburg, restrictions on adult entertainment in DuPage, inspiration in Antioch and more.
Hey - be careful out there!
On Springinsguth Road in Schaumburg on a recent morning, we saw a car in the north inside lane drive past a school crossing guard who was halfway into the opposite lanes of traffic. The car did not slow down, even though the guard held up the stop sign. Nothing can be that important to put lives in danger. Nothing.
Steps to restrict adult businesses
DuPage County is taking long-awaited steps to place restrictions on adult businesses that have been able to open in unincorporated areas because of loopholes in existing zoning ordinances. The county is considering expanding its definition of adult businesses and creating a licensing program. It's an important and positive step.
Nice effort, but be careful
Some of the cracks on the multiuse trail in Busse Woods in the Elk Grove Village-Arlington Heights-Schaumburg area have been sealed (if you can call it that) with tar. Well, it's good that the Cook County Forest Preserve district is tending to the trail, but if you're a cyclist, those sealed cracks can be slippery, especially when damp, so be careful.
Appreciating new roads
Roadwork is painful as it's happening, but the results can be so nice. One little effort to appreciate the newly surfaced Bode Road west of Barrington Road in the Schaumburg-Hoffman Estates area. Especially west of Route 59, the road had been a bumpy mess. Now it's smooth like buttah.
Trigger warning
Props to Steppenwolf Theatre for tackling a difficult subject in "Downstate," Bruce Norris' provocative and unsettling new drama about paroled pedophiles living in a southern Illinois group home. But be forewarned, this highly charged play isn't for sensitive audience members, and it may trigger difficult emotions in sexual abuse survivors.
Inspired by football
Here's an inspiring high school football story reported by our Patricia Babcock McGraw. Antioch senior Dylan Czerlanis, whose parents both passed away before he was 14, used football to get on the right path in life. He lost 100 pounds and dedicated himself to living a better life, one that could end up with a college football scholarship. Keep up the good work, Dylan!
Check out kindness
We typically think of libraries as places to spread knowledge and information, but the Wauconda Area Library has added something else to its collection - kindness. In conjunction with National Bullying Prevention Month, the library launched a Kindness Campaign. Chalk it up as just one more reason libraries are essential.
Remembering Bob Pleticha
Robert L. Pleticha, a longtime Elgin teacher and coach, died last week at the age of 76. A champion powerlifter, he had been inducted in the Elgin and Judson University sports halls of fame, but what he was known for - and what earned him a "Bob Pleticha Day" in Elgin in 2015 - was his concern for and work with children. A proud legacy.
Remembering Leon Lederman
Leon Lederman was the longtime director of Fermilab in Batavia and a political advocate for science education. He nicknamed the Higgs boson "the God Particle" and won a bunch of awards, including the Nobel Prize. And, Lederman, a legend who died this week in Rexburg, Idaho, at age 96, also has a place in suburban history for helping put Batavia on the map.