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BALL’S IN EMIL JONES’ COURT Last week we lamented Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s budget-axing
ways, particularly his misguided (that’s just our opinion) decision
to cut a $55 million chunk from substance-abuse treatment programs when
that sum was tied to federal matching funds [see Dusty Rhodes, “First
domino to fall,” July 17]. The Illinois House of Representatives
apparently felt the same way and last week voted to restore $43 million of
those funds. The vote was overwhelming — the highest passing
percentage for any issue not requiring a supermajority — but
ultimately will remain in effect until November unless the Senate
reconvenes within the next few days to endorse the House decision. About 1,600 drug and alcohol treatment clients and
advocates marched on the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago Tuesday to
implore Senate President Emil Jones to do just that. “What are we supposed to do between now and
November if those cuts aren’t restored?” asks Karel Ares, executive director
of Prevention First. “We can’t just float a loan. We
can’t just ask our people to work without pay and tell them
we’ll pay them in November.”
SPEAKING OF BUDGET CUTS . . . A whole new smorgasbord of celebrations and
activities is in the works as the 200th anniversary of Honest Abe’s birth approaches,
the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission announced last week. Everyone’s involved — from a simultaneous
statewide reading of the Gettysburg Address and ringing of church bells on
Feb. 12 to a reenactment of Lincoln’s 1861 Farewell Address for the
area’s fifth-graders on Feb. 11 and numerous Springfield-area
performances by the Lincoln Trio of the Music Institute of Chicago. Other 2008 events are still to come, including the
Lincoln-Douglas Debates this summer and fall and the Tour de Lincoln
360-mile bicycle tour through Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois in August
[see Amanda Robert, “On Lincoln’s trail,” Feb. 7]. Kay Smith, the Lincoln
Bicentennial coordinator, says the commission won’t be affected much
by the governor’s proposed budget cuts. Most of its plans for
Abe’s birthday, she says, have already been funded through the 2008
fiscal year budget. “We’re still going ahead with
plans,” Smith says. “We have a lot of things that have already
been in the works that we’ll be able to proceed with.”
EBONY & RV Barbara and Alvin Keith didn’t
know that there were others of their kind. Then several years ago, during a
sorority convention in Dallas, a woman told the Arlington Heights couple
about the National African-American RV’ers Association. “I didn’t know it existed. Everywhere we
go, we usually only see white people in RVs,” Barbara says. Established formally in 1993, NAARVA boasts close to
2,700 members — mostly married couples and retirees — in 44
states and Canada. This week NAARVA is holding its 16th National Camp Rally
at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta, opened in 2006. “I just can’t tell you the pride I felt
the first time I went to a national convention and saw all black
people,” Barbara says. Avid RVers for 13 years, the Keiths, who also belong
to a Las Vegas NAARVA group, founded the Illinois chapter, nicknamed the
Ebony Dream Makers, in 2002. NAARVA also awards $1,000 scholarships to
members’ children, and the Ebony Dream Makers make charitable
contributions during the holidays. The Dream Makers meet once a month at campgrounds
around the state. Several times a year, the Illinois group’s
“wagon mistress” plans longer trips to national historic sites
such as Mount Rushmore, colonial Williamsburg, Va., and Central High School
in Little Rock, Ark. That’s a lot of time spent in a rig with a
spouse. However, the constant contact doesn’t strain their
relationships as much as one might believe, Barbara says. “I have a theory that RV couples get along a
little better because they live in such proximity to each other,” she
says. “They’ve mastered togetherness.”
STICK A FORK IN HIM — HE’S DONE For Brian Fitzgerald, project manager at City Water, Light & Power, it was
all a matter of timing. Fitzgerald called it quits Friday after Mayor Tim Davlin canceled a
special City Council meeting that would’ve decided for the second
time whether the project manager deserved a substantial raise (the measure
failed at the July 15 meeting) because he didn’t have enough
approving aldermen on board. The mayor and aldermen knew that his
much-discussed private-sector job offer included a deadline, Fitzgerald
says, so their decision left him no choice. “There was no reason to keep the issue open any
further,” Fitzgerald says. Fitzgerald will now head to Michigan, he says, to be
closer to his hometown and his family. He’s committed to helping CWLP
find a replacement — a task that, he says, won’t be easy,
thanks to a shortage of engineers in the utility industry. Jim Donelan, the mayor’s
executive assistant, confirms that the city has also called on engineering
firms to assist in the search. Asked about the status of the ordinance as it
pertains to raises for the other four CWLP managers, Donelan says that the
city’s main focus is hiring a new project manager and keeping Dallman
4 on time and on budget.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2008.
