Community: January 2009 Archives

On Wednesday, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board denied Edward Hospital's plan to build a hospital in Plainfield.

When the proposal was first made, Edward CEO Pam Davis was told that her project would be approved if she agreed to use certain contractors. She refused, and the rest is history. The project was denied, denied again, and now denied a third time.

During the hearing Wednesday, an Edward official accused the board of bias, which the board vehemently refuted.

Do you think the planning board has made this personal, or is it just the wrong project at the wrong time?

Going against the recommendation of city staff, the Naperville City Council on Tuesday unanimously decided to allocate $7,500 to continue the court fight against the purchase of the EJ&E Railway by Canadian National.

City staff had recommended against continuing the fight because CN had agreed to pay for 67 percent of mitigation costs at the Ogden Avenue crossing in Aurora, which was the main concern of the city.

However, council members argued that it was important to support the other municipalities in this fight, since Naperville might need their support on its own issues in the future.

Councilman Jim Boyajian referred to the fight to stop the sale as "a wasted effort," yet he still voted for the proposal. Is it still worth fighting, or should the city cut its losses and accept defeat as many other communities have done?

In an attempt to help close the $11 million budget deficit, the city of Naperville laid off 20 employees and eliminated 23 vacant positions Thursday. The city would not reveal specifically what positions were eliminated, but did say that the police and fire department were included in the cuts.

The city said the cuts would comprise 5 percent of its workforce and would save $3 million for the year.

What do you think of these cuts?