Government: August 2008 Archives

The Hound is disillusioned that Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik is not voluptuous. On Monday, The News-Sun reported some bystander along the Gurnee Days Parade route said she was voluptuous. On Wednesday, they corrected that and said she was merely vivacious. The Hound would rather be voluptuous than vivacious and would be except for that trip to the Beach Park Animal Hospital.

Perhaps the parade-route heckler said the mayor was vivaciously voluptuous, although the newspaper did correct that. The Hound figures voluptuous means hot. In a good way, not the Paris Hilton way. Vivacious means perky. In a good way, not the Paris Hilton way.

Regardless, both "v words" could be considered sexist for which male mayor would one consider voluptuous or vivacious. Most need to have their pulses checked to see if they're still with us on most Village Board nights.

But on the other hand, there's this new official guidebook for the next women's revolution, "Red Hot Revolution", that's just out by author Arielle (no last name!) "The '70s revealed a generation determined to change the face of women and we did!" Arielle says. "It's time for us to do it again...Let's kick up our red stilettos!" Now that sounds voluptuous and vivacious.

Arielle says a member of the new revolution is one "who is living or, aspires to live, her passion, thus creating an entire body of women who are living and giving with passion." There's also the economic side: Most women over 50 have more money and power than ever before and are expected to live longer than previous generations.

Her Web site is www.redhotrevolution.com. Arielle may be on to something both voluptuous and vivacious.

For a while there, Antioch really was in the toilet and not just village finances. At least it smelled that way.

Sewage sludge spilled off a truck over the weekend along Main Street (Route 83) and surely raised a stink among village residents. More so than the last Village Board meeting.

The village moved about 16 truckloads through town on Saturday, getting rid of 80 tons of sewage sludge destined for some farmer's field. Who knew Antioch residents could produce that much effluent?

And, how would you like to be living next to that farmer's field after 80 tons of the stuff is dumped? Not The Hound, that's for certain. Remember that the next time you flush away.

One more thing. We also now know that Antioch's um, stuff, indeed, does stink.

Better late than never, The Hound always says. Antioch village trustees finally approved a new budget this week, four months into the new fiscal year. As the document was adopted, The Hound noticed fellow trustees didn't join Bob McCarty in kicking back their $6,000 per annum salaries to the village coffers to save the job of one $42,000 village employee.

Instead, two full-timers and seven part-timers will be laid off under this new budget, which is almost $1 million less than last year's budget of $11 million. Who lays off municipal workers? Isn't government a growth industry?

Maybe McCarty knew these folks needed that $6,000 more than one of the workers. In early drafts of the document, originally it was proposed cutting four full-time and 11 part-time positions.

Now this is how they do things in Antioch. The layoffs will save about $390,000, but retroactive 3 percent salary increases are in the budget, adding $63,000 to personnel costs. Isn't that like moving money around in a circle, or chasing one's tail as The Hound has done many a time?

All that tax-rich property the village annexed has sure paid off with increased revenues for the village coffers. It's worked so well, perhaps officials should move full speed ahead and get that Antioch Marketplace inside village boundaries. More money for the revenue pipeline, but sadly not quick enough for nine village employees to keep their jobs.
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