Cook County briefs
Drinking arrests settled:
Eleven of 18 people arrested last month at an underage drinking party in Buffalo Grove pleaded guilty in a court hearing March 27. The penalties varied among the defendants to include from six to 12 months supervision, 20 hours of community service, alcohol counseling and minor fines, Buffalo Grove police said Friday. Proceedings for seven defendants, including the homeowner, were continued, police added. Police were called to the 200 block of Cottonwood Road about 3:20 a.m. after a complaint of people yelling and playing loud music. Those arrested included teenagers from Buffalo Grove, Arlington Heights and Wheeling.
Pinney gets big donation:
Jack Roeser and his Family Taxpayer Network is going to help out District 214 school board candidate Leslie Pinney after all. According to campaign finance documents filed this week, Roeser donated about $8,000 to Pinney's campaign. Roeser, who had said he wasn't going to donate, said he changed his mind after Pinney called him last week. He was told the donation would pay for an election mailing. In 2005, the Family Taxpayer Network, a conservative group that opposes abortion and gay rights, donated $20,000 to Pinney's election. The other incumbents - Miriam "Mimi" Cooper Spickard, Lenore Gonzales Bragaw and James Perkins - have joined forces with challenger Mark Hineman. That group plans to raise about $6,000, said Norm Horler, treasurer of the Friends of District 214 group, which is in charge of fundraising for all four candidates. So far, it has reported one $4,000 donation from a custodial union.
Road projects planned:
About $4 million in road patching projects are scheduled to begin next month in north suburban Cook County as part of a capital plan adopted by the state, said State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat. The multiyear package authorizes $2 billion in road bonds and $1 billion in transit bonds to support projects statewide. By bonding $3 billion, Illinois will get close to $7 billion from federal government, she said. Besides the patching projects, resurfacing projects to start this spring include $800,000 for Golf Road in Des Plaines, $1.2 million for Rand Road in Des Plaines, $1.8 million for River Road in Des Plaines, $2.65 million for Grace Avenue in Des Plaines, $1.2 million for Main Street in Des Plaines and $600,000 for Marquardt Drive in Wheeling and Prospect Heights, Garrett said in a news release.
His write-ins count:
Eric Obenberger, 39, an accountant who was thrown off the April 7 ballot due to irregularities, has been told by the Cook County Clerk's office that write-in votes for him as 5th Ward alderman in Des Plaines will be counted. Obenberger wasn't on the list of approved write-in candidates that the office put out earlier this week, but he had gotten a receipt that he had filed the necessary paperwork. It turned out the paperwork hadn't been forwarded to the right office, but all is OK now, he said Friday.