Five years ago, "North America's most advanced business park," as it was called, was dedicated in West Chicago with the intention of bringing high-tech companies and thousands of jobs to DuPage County. Today, the campus consists of only two buildings, one not even occupied. In charge is former Napervile City Council member Jack Tenison, who critics claim is rarely at work and does not do enough to earn his $151,000 annual salary.
Now, the board that oversees the DuPage National Technology Park, where only one company has moved in during the past 10 years, has asked county officials that it be dissolved. This stems in a disagreement about the direction of the technology park.DuPage County has already sunk $34 million for roads and other improvements into what Sun-Times reporter Dave McKinney called a 'wasteland' in West Chicago.
Now the future of the tech park is on the county radar with various interests at odds over how to proceed with the project. What direction do you think should be taken?
To get the full stories click here
and here 
If you think this does not go on everywhere in Illinois, then you need a cold bucket of water thrown on ya. The entire scheme of government service (in Illinois), is to get X years service in, then double and triple dip retirement by working essentially appointed "non-jobs". All this is being done at taxpayer expense, and it makes local and state government insolvent. Only a few pwople serve their community in the traditional way - for less money, but the admiration of the community and the feeling of giving back to society. And what do we get for the Senatorial election coming up, a choice between a sleazy banker who loaned money to mobsters, or a pathalogical liar with a resume that does not need it. Go Illinois, you reckless, ignorant people who support scum bag politicians because you don't care enough to read a paper or search the internet about candidates. How these 2 people even got this far is shocking. However, it is par for the course in ILL.
I've been away for a while do to work picking up and now that I return it appears that the Potluck is a shadow of its former self. The Sun needs to commit to this (updates, topics, etc) or dump the idea all together. There's been less than 150 posts in the last month...really pretty sad.
T.B.
John Q. Public on July 8, 2010 12:21 PM
If the Naperville Sun is interested in generating more posts on this site, they should probably add more more topics
____________
JQP, Agree 100%. The lack of topics is one issue, but the frequency of updates needs to improve as well. It seems as if postings are updated just once a day which makes it hard to carry on much of a conversation with anyone.
If the Naperville Sun is interested in generating more posts on this site, they should probably add more more topics. The number of topics per month has gone pretty dramatically over what it was a couple of years ago.
Gee, wonder who Anon at 7:07 am is
It seems that this blog site has taken a nose dive ever since the Citizen Investigative Journalist was thrown off. Controversy made this site. Eliminate controversy, you destroy debate resulting in the devastation of a blog site. Too bad the new moderator was handed a sinking ship....good luck to him or her whomever they may be!
Not that long until Bob Schillersrom is no longer an elected official. GOOD BYE BACK ROOM BOB!! Your dated politics need to go. You claim to have done so much but you are a phony!
How could something this wrong ever be allowed to happen in the first place with no apparent oversight or control... other than by one obvious person?
Better yet, what is being done to clip the wings of power to make darn sure that something like this never takes place again.
It is easy to point the finger of blame at one person though this is far from the first abuse of power by this individual... just look at the whole Water Commission mess that unfolded AFTER he started looting the treasury.
However, if the rest of the County Board doesn't do something to end this nonsense then they can all share equally in the blame when and if the next Chairman decides he can do whatever he darn well pleases.
And why did it take 5 years to put all of the pieces together on this? In just 5 short years that means Tenison was able to pull out at least a cool $1,000,000 in salary, expenses, benefits, etc.
Anyone who thinks only Cook County has corruption is blindly trusting their local elected officials. Locally we have now seen how some elected officials will take advantage of that trust for the sake of their own crave for power and influence.
I doubt the final chapter has been written on this saga... mostly because it is always about the money and no one has figured out or explained that connection fully just yet.
Somehow I have the feeling that the day is approaching when we will start seeing elected officials all throughout DuPage County starting to go to jail for the stuff they have been getting away with scott free... up to now that is.
It's obviously a "wasteland". I suppose the economy had alot to do with its failure, but it is a flop. The ridiculous part is the compensation people recieve from the government for "do nothing" jobs. We really need to control the graft for the politicos.
Why does anyone think that technology companies would locate or relocate to West Chicago?
Where do the tech workers live that would work in West Chicago?
Did anyone ask our local tech companies if they would be willing to relocate to West Chicago and why they would or would not?
Where is the "consultant's report" that was used to justify this expenditure and who wrote it and what were their instructions?
Who were the contractors, sub contractors and employees that benefited from the "infrastructure" that was placed in the corn field and who got the money? The former council member is not the only one that made money off of this venture. The tax payers got screwed at best.
Politicians have no idea where to locate a company or how to run one. Most are lawyers who only know how to redistribute someone else's money while taking a big bite.