Fox Valley soap box
A long road
Once an art teacher in his small Mexican village, Juan Hernandez immigrated to the U.S. 17 years ago. He took two jobs, yet always had a return to teaching in the back of his mind. Two years ago, he got a full-time janitorial job at Elgin Community College. And this month, after six years of part-time school attendance, he will graduate from ECC. In fact, he'll be a commencement speaker. Giving a speech, no doubt, that explains no matter how long or arduous is the road, the persistent can still walk it successfully. His road now points toward DeKalb, where he hopes to take evening classes at Northern Illinois University toward a bachelor's degree and a future in elementary education.
Doubly helpful
Kudos to Elgin Community College for finding a way to make both teenagers and their parents happy. The school is offering a two-part class -- taught by an 18-year-old, no less -- that offers kids instruction on setting up or upgrading their MySpace pages from "basic to amazing." That's one for the kids. It also teaches them the HTML coding that will help protect them from online creeps. And that ought to make parents happy.
Cleaning it up
Living in unincorporated areas of Kane County no longer provides a license to neglect one's property. In response to complaints from more regulated municipal neighbors of such unsightly properties, particularly in the Aurora area, the county passed new regulations this week. It set a $500 fine for a variety of offenses, including excessive weeds, junk or trash on lawns, open burning of landscape waste and garbage, animal fighting and other nuisances, effective May 1. About time.
Clean slate, full plate
Got an overdue library book or a fine to pay? 'Tis the weekend to clean the slate at Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin even as you fill someone else's plate. Through Sunday, anyone who brings a nonperishable food item to the library will have $1 excised from their fines. The food will be given to the Salvation Army and Community Crisis Center in Elgin and the South Elgin Food Pantry. Of course, one needn't be in arrears at the library to make a food donation. Despite the forgiveness program ending tomorrow, the library will collect food donations until Dec. 29.
Chance to speak up
OK, so maybe residents missed their early chances to tell Community Unit District 300 which of three middle/high school boundary maps they preferred. Or if they liked none of them. But there's still time. There's another public feedback session from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Hampshire Middle School gym, and another from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Jacobs High School media center. To do a little homework before attending, study the maps at www.d300.org or stop by a district middle or high school. And then find your voice, before the decision is final.
Weird elective experiences
If 14th District U.S. House voters don't think it's weird enough that they'll be voting twice for the same office on Feb. 5, once to choose a party nominee to fill Dennis Hastert's seat temporarily and once to fill it permanently, they'll no doubt find it even weirder to have an election on a Saturday. The governor picked March 8 for the special general election in which party nominees for temporary fill-in will face off. Because it's the only race on the ballot, the governor thought a rare Saturday vote might help turnout. We shall see.