2/12/08 Council

[OakParkSpartan]

Well, the best offer I've heard from any alderman in 2+ years...Ald. Lovero offered his sausage to any Police, Fire or Public Works employee at Oktoberfest 2008.  Thanks Bobby, but happily, I don't work for any of those departments. 

Council approved the Superblock agreement.
Argued with the mayor about charging the BDC for police coverage at the depot events (city funds BDC, BDC pays city...what is the point??).
Argued more about the budget.
Deferred discussion of the retail overlay to COW.
Approved purchase of street sweeper.
Approved purchase of either two or four snow plows (the actual plow, not the entire truck).
Passed a bungalow double-wide.
Approved a rope ladder instead of a second entrance for a house.

BTW, for those that don't know...The DCOB sells italian sausage sammich's at Oktoberfest...I know that's what you guys were thinking...

[scoon]

Brian left out the best part of the meeting...  The part that makes me happy I'm in Berwyn.  The new FD Chief, Asst. Chief, and new DC were sworn in. To much applause I might say....

Ok. So we all know I'm biased...

If there was any doubt about the rencent promotions in the FD, you only had to be in council chambers this evening...

I'm figuring 4/6 of the FD was there...  in dress uniform...  to see O'Halloran, Simek, and Swade get sworn in.  Long timers can't remember the last time they've seen that many FF there.  Even the guys on duty were there (with radios in hand in case they had a call) cause their (black shift) DC was getting promoted.  [And if you'd like to make an issue about that...  they would have gotten to the truck/engine in the same amount of time than if they'd been in the house.]  The FD was there in full force to show their support of Mayor O'Connor's appointments.

There was positive energy in the council chambers.

It was nice to see.


p.s. - I have it on good authority that our Mayor considered looking at outside candidates, but he felt that the FD was a "family" and the next Chief should come from inside.

[EC]

It was not an issue of a rope ladder out the window as a second exit but that the house was a legal nonconforming two unit in a single family zone and that they wanted to put up a deck and a separate entrance for the upstairs apartment. That is a zoning board thing as you can't make any changes to a legal nonconforming without going to zoning first, that's how the ordinance reads. The alderman who usually has his head "in the sand" was making an issue of that unit only having one exit. There was no work going on in that apt. so a second exit did not have to be added, that is stated in the local building code. The rope ladder thing had absolutley nothing to do with the zoning issue, it was just thrown in by the alderman who didn't know any better nor really wanted to. It's like saying " you can go ahead and build your garage but you have to paint the handrail on your stairs first." If it wasn't for the fact that it was an apartment there, everything would be alright. When you build an entire second floor addition with bedrooms, you are not expected to don't have to put in two exits there. You have windows in each bedroom which is recognized as your emergency exits. Segwick condos on Stanley all have only one exit, granted it is sprinkled, but you can be traped five stories up in time of a fire, waiting for the fire depatment with a ladder because you can't get out due to only one exit. Just wanted to clarify.

[OakParkSpartan]

Thanks EC.

All that which you stated was discussed a meeting or two ago, which I'd forgotten about.

[Berwyn Patsy]

Mustang, just out of curiosity, have you attended Cicero Town Hall meetings?  What are they like?

[Bonster]

The part that makes me happy I'm in Berwyn.  The new FD Chief, Asst. Chief, and new DC were sworn in. To much applause I might say....

That makes you happy you're in Berwyn, or just relieved they made the right choice?  
Such decisions shouldn't be ones that make a citizen feel uneasy about their city.  
This being Berwyn, and supposing these are the proper hires, I'm just happy Berwyn didn't drop the ball.

[Bonster]

Approved purchase of either two or four snow plows (the actual plow, not the entire truck).

Great.  PW requested more - they got it.  Now the whiners can shut up.  If there's still a problem, the blame will be squarely upon PW for not requesting more.........such as more workers as confused had suggested.

Ald. Lovero offered his sausage to any Police, Fire or Public Works employee at Oktoberfest 2008.  Thanks Bobby

LOL, nice.
Without an agenda, he's got to make friends and get people to trust him blindly. 

[Bonster]

It was not an issue of a rope ladder out the window as a second exit but that the house was a legal nonconforming two unit in a single family zone and that they wanted to put up a deck and a separate entrance for the upstairs apartment. That is a zoning board thing as you can't make any changes to a legal nonconforming without going to zoning first, that's how the ordinance reads. The alderman who usually has his head "in the sand" was making an issue of that unit only having one exit. There was no work going on in that apt. so a second exit did not have to be added, that is stated in the local building code. The rope ladder thing had absolutley nothing to do with the zoning issue, it was just thrown in by the alderman who didn't know any better nor really wanted to. It's like saying " you can go ahead and build your garage but you have to paint the handrail on your stairs first." If it wasn't for the fact that it was an apartment there, everything would be alright. When you build an entire second floor addition with bedrooms, you are not expected to don't have to put in two exits there. You have windows in each bedroom which is recognized as your emergency exits. Segwick condos on Stanley all have only one exit, granted it is sprinkled, but you can be traped five stories up in time of a fire, waiting for the fire depatment with a ladder because you can't get out due to only one exit. Just wanted to clarify.

I don't care.  An apartment (separate residence) vs. a 2nd story bedroom with regards to exits? 

It should required and different, more stringent rules applied in the spirit of keeping "single family zones" as just that.

Too bad.  Boo Hoo!

[scoon]

The part that makes me happy I'm in Berwyn.  The new FD Chief, Asst. Chief, and new DC were sworn in. To much applause I might say....

That makes you happy you're in Berwyn, or just relieved they made the right choice?  
Such decisions shouldn't be ones that make a citizen feel uneasy about their city.  
This being Berwyn, and supposing these are the proper hires, I'm just happy Berwyn didn't drop the ball.

The overall atmosphere was what made me happy.  For a few brief moments, everyone put aside the bull shit and were united.

That and no one complained about snow in the open forum.

[dukesdad]

Council approved the Superblock agreement.

Does this mean something is actually going to start building on that corner?

[scoon]

Council approved the Superblock agreement.

Does this mean something is actually going to start building on that corner?

Piles of bird shit have been building for years.

[OakParkSpartan]

Council approved the Superblock agreement.

Does this mean something is actually going to start building on that corner?

I'd expect they'd be starting on the bank soon (just my guess, nothing official).  Too cold to start digging for the new condos.

Cheers,
Brian

[delbowz]

At the last MAC meeting the mayor said the agreement w/ the developer was that they had to start making progress on the bank before they could ask for other permits or something along those lines.

[Bonster]

i'm saying 100 to 1 AGAINST that they actually break ground this year.

M

You are probably right, but hopefully wrong.  What the hell.  I'll take that bet.  Let's make it my $1 to your $100.

Mark Titzer

java - k6s2zvfw just called me.  He wants his dollar.  (and like Svengoolie - No personal checks!). 

[java]

i'm saying 100 to 1 AGAINST that they actually break ground this year.

M

You are probably right, but hopefully wrong.  What the hell.  I'll take that bet.  Let's make it my $1 to your $100.

Mark Titzer

java - k6s2zvfw just called me.  He wants his dollar.  (and like Svengoolie - No personal checks!). 

Tell him to send me his email address and I'll Paypal him a crisp Washington.

[mustang54]

Mustang, just out of curiosity, have you attended Cicero Town Hall meetings?  What are they like?

Havent been to one in a long time. They sound completely different than the Berwyn meetings i read about here. Cicero meetings i have been too are very organized and very professional. They also seem to have tackled issues in private and by the time they get to the public meeting they know where they are going. I think the proof lies in the incredable amount of redevelopment going on here. About a quarter of a billion dollars. You don't get this much done with your leaders constantly bickering back and forth.

[frank white]

Brian left out the best part of the meeting...  The part that makes me happy I'm in Berwyn.  The new FD Chief, Asst. Chief, and new DC were sworn in. To much applause I might say....

Ok. So we all know I'm biased...

If there was any doubt about the rencent promotions in the FD, you only had to be in council chambers this evening...

I'm figuring 4/6 of the FD was there...  in dress uniform...  to see O'Halloran, Simek, and Swade get sworn in.  Long timers can't remember the last time they've seen that many FF there.  Even the guys on duty were there (with radios in hand in case they had a call) cause their (black shift) DC was getting promoted.  [And if you'd like to make an issue about that...  they would have gotten to the truck/engine in the same amount of time than if they'd been in the house.]  The FD was there in full force to show their support of Mayor O'Connor's appointments.

There was positive energy in the council chambers.

It was nice to see.


p.s. - I have it on good authority that our Mayor considered looking at outside candidates, but he felt that the FD was a "family" and the next Chief should come from inside.

Wow anymore biased and that would have been written by one of the FD and not just a Fire Fan.

[OakParkSpartan]

Also, apparently the budget was also passed.  I missed that.

[Ted]

  Here is the story about the budget in the Life newspaper.  Who were the NO votes?  This is the first time that I can remember the budget getting passed before March.


  City approves $81M 2008 budget

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Staff reports
Berwyn Life
Wed Feb 13, 2008, 05:16 PM CST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Berwyn, IL -
The City Council approved an $81 million budget for this year at a council meeting this week.

The budget projects that the city will take in about $74 million in revenue.

The city is estimating it will take in about $3.6 million more into its general fund this year than last because of a 5 percent property tax increase. It also expects to see a $1.4 million decrease in revenue from real estate transfer taxes.

A significant change was seen in the police department's budget, which increased by $1.2 million to provide for higher salaries due to raises, mid-year hires in 2007 and this year's planned hire of two replacement police officers to fill the positions vacated by promotions.

"It's a nice clean budget that moves the city forward," said Budget Committee Chairman and 3rd Ward Alderman Mark Weiner.

Some aldermen said they were not prepared to vote on the budget at Tuesday's meeting.

The vote was split 4-4, with Mayor Michael O'Connor breaking the tie in favor of the budget.

[Terri]

Why were some Alderman not prepared to vote on the budget?