Batavia Park District does an outstanding job

Batavia Park District should be commended for the programs they have in place for the elementary and middle school age children. The staff truly cares about the kids and they put a lot of effort into the programs that are offered.

During the school year, at the elementary level, there is a before- and after-school program along with fun days for days off school during the school year such as teacher institute days. The summer program is fantastic. What I appreciate is the Park District’s attention to not only the elementary age child, but to the middle school age children as well. This year, middle school age children can sign up and be bused to The Hub on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. What a great program and assistance for working parents to know their children are having fun in a safe environment. On Friday nights, an evening program is in place for sixth-graders and a separate program for seventh- and eighth-graders. A summer program for the middle school age children is also available with field trips each week.

I can’t thank the Batavia Park District enough for putting together these awesome programs. My hope is that others will take advantage of the programs available in our community.

Nancy Gilbert
Batavia

Smoking like playingRussian roulette

The cigarette smoker is a mixture of bold and weak characteristics — one so bold to smoke in the evidence of more than 40 years of knowledge, medical research and individual suffering that proves smoking is harmful.

They are also weak — much like the drug addict who steals to support his habit, hides in abandoned buildings with rats to “shoot up.” How can anyone do that to themselves, we ask. They laugh in the face of someone who tries to explain what it can do to them.

Did they ever tour a cancer ward? Or be a doctor called to someone’s house at 2 a.m. with the excruciating pain of dying with lung cancer? “Oh, this won’t happen to me,” they boldly say.

Smokers build up a resistance to the toxic chemicals they are ingesting, but does their spouse or do the young children living in the same house? What was fun for the smoker is no longer fun when a family member suffers the effect of second-hand smoke with a lung infection 29 years later and no one can explain where it came from.

Just as diabetics “may” suffer the effects of a bad diet and too much sugar, a person with M.S. “may” be suffering from lead poisoning. We will never know for sure, but smokers — the cigarette is the loaded gun you put in your mouth, but the smoke you put in your lungs and our environment is the bullet that shoots us all between our eyes.

Ruth Pazdziora
St. Charles

Nowling is best choicefor Dist. 303 board

Academic performance, redistricting, overcrowding, fiscal responsibility — these are all phrases we in St. Charles Community School District 303 have grown accustomed to hearing lately. Each of these topics presents a daunting challenge to the new superintendent and ultimately the board that will oversee the decisions that need to be made.

In light of this, we need individuals on the District 303 Board of Education who are not caught up in the specific political event(s) of the day, but who have long-term visions and who will unconditionally put the children at the forefront of not only the discussion, but also the final decisions.

That individual is Scott Nowling. Scott addresses issues head-on and isn’t willing to compromise his beliefs for one specific cause. His allegiance lies with the children this district serves. His sights are always set on long-term solutions that will not only impact the topic of the day but will also form a solid foundation for the events of the future. Ask Scott a question, and you get a straight answer. What a fresh approach to politics.

Be an informed voter on Tuesday, April 17, and vote for a candidate with a long-term vision.

Jim Chimienti
St. Charles

Support democracy byobserving government

Sunshine Week will be celebrated during the week of March 11 to 17. Participants of this national nonpartisan initiative include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s constitutional right to know. The event is dedicated to enlightening and empowering people to play an active role in all levels of their government, and giving them access to vital information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.  

In accordance with the spirit of Sunshine Week, the League of Women Voters of Geneva—St. Charles recently launched an Observer Corps and began attending and monitoring Kane County government meetings. Members provide a summary of activities of the various standing committees; then report their observations back to the Observer Corps for possible discussion or further action. These reports are uploaded to the www.lwvgenstc.org Web site which is available to the public.

The ability to access public records and to attend government meetings impacts everyone. The league believes everyone has the right to know what their government is doing. Knowledge of what information is legally accessible, as well as how to obtain such data, is essential to maintain transparent government, as envisioned by our founding fathers.

To ensure the continuation of open, transparent governance, LWV Geneva—St. Charles strongly encourages local individuals, officials, and organizations to join us in this national initiative to preserve the essence of our democracy.

If you, your governing body, or organization shares these values, please support this initiative by signing our pledge committed to an open, transparent government by simply providing your name, e-mail address, and organization to info@lwvgenstc.org. Supporters of this initiative will be publicized during activities slated for Sunshine Week 2008.

Darlene Bakk,
President LWV of Geneva-St. Charles
Wasco

School tax reform story is way off base

I am always deeply suspicious of people who talk about education primarily in financial terms and who make misleading statements on the subject. Such is the case with A+ Illinois and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, two organizations this paper featured in an article in the March 8 Republican. Both organizations seek to centralize funding of Illinois public schools by shifting our tax burden from property taxes to state taxes. It is widely understood that this will likely result in huge net tax increases, since local taxing authorities are not obliged to reduce our property tax rates under currently proposed schemes.

The paper quoted CTBA’s director, who puts forth the tired old lie about how Illinois is 47th in public education spending. Illinois is actually 17th. The state government ranks low in direct state funding, but we intentionally derive most of our education revenues from local property taxes. CTBA’s statement makes sense only if you regard “Illinois” and the “Illinois state government” as being the same thing, which of course they are not. And in any event, why would we pride ourselves on how highly we rank in spending? Would you brag about how much you overspent on your latest purchase?

You printed another deception when you quoted an A+ rally participant who implied that Chicago Public Schools receive less per-capita funding than suburban districts. In fact, during the 2003-04 school year (for example) Chicago’s per-pupil expenditure was $9,564, considerably more than my suburban Batavia’s $7,947 or even St. Charles’ $8,893. If students in some Chicago schools are getting less spent on them than typical suburban kids, this is due to inequitable funding within Chicago that won’t be solved by shifting state funding formulas.

What bothers me most are the blatantly incorrect assumptions that education dollars equal education quality, and that we are all somehow falling down in our supposed obligation to pay education taxes. In fact, we have more than tripled our education spending nationally since 1960 in real, inflation-adjusted dollars. In return we have gotten results which, by virtually any measure, can only be described as flat to deteriorating. Additionally, we already spend far more than many nations that outperform us in international comparisons.

All of this might seem counterintuitive until we consider that American public schools financially reward seniority rather than competence, and that our school districts are also funded regardless of competence, and often in spite of incompetence. Under these circumstances, all the money in the world could not improve them.

Dave Ziffer
Batavia

Where’s the news with Anna Nicole Smith?

It was appalling to see CNN devote three to five hours of comment on the death of Anna Nicole Smith. In fact, the entire news staff including Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, and even Anderson Cooper, who typically addresses significant issues, all steamed forward as if obsessed with — well, let’s just call it the “swollen udder syndrome.” Is it a guy thing?

Today, it’s frustrating for the female gender when they rap on the surgeon’s door. Should “they” be reduced so I can look like my emaciated boyfriend, or should they be enlarged so I can look like Anna. Despite the allure of the media, my advice is, stay focused on your good judgment and common sense and address the truly critical issues our country faces today. Shame on you CNN!

Patricia Bryan
Wayne

Thanks Rep. Linder for protecting public health

As a volunteer with the American Cancer Society, I would like to thank Rep. Patricia Reid Lindner, R-50th District, Sugar Grove, for her support of House Bill 246, the Smoke-Free Illinois Act.

As a member of the Illinois House Environmental Health Committee, Lindner recently voted in support of this legislation, which now moves to the full House for consideration. This bill, along with an identical version that has been introduced in the Illinois Senate, will prohibit smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants and bars.

If it’s passed, the Smoke-Free Illinois Act will literally save thousands of lives.

Secondhand smoke is a major public health issue and the third leading cause of preventable death in America. In Illinois about 2,900 will die each year —  that’s eight people every day — from exposure to secondhand smoke.

Right now about half of the state’s population is protected by smoke-free ordinances as a result of local initiatives that have occurred in the past year. But doesn’t everyone deserve protection from the cancer-causing poisons contained in secondhand smoke?

The time is right for Illinois to pass a comprehensive statewide smoke-free law.

I urge everyone who supports Smoke-Free Illinois to contact their state representatives and ask them to vote in favor of this legislation. To register support and learn more about secondhand smoke, go to www.smokefreeillinois.net.

Philip M. Duffin
Vice-chairman,
Fox Valley Regional Leadership Board
American Cancer Society, Batavia

Wal-Mart will work with city to stay in town

Our elected officials of the city of St. Charles surprised many of us when they announced the pursuit of land for a road through the field northeast of Charlestowne Mall. This would effectively make the supercenter that Wal-Mart has proposed for that site impossible.

Wal-Mart has implied this is the only site in the city for this facility, and the city will lose tax revenue and jobs should their proposal be denied. On closer review, however, their claims appear to be just sound bites trying to sway the uninitiated.

First, they say the store will generate about $750,000 more sales tax revenue than their current store. Two traffic experts who evaluated the proposal agreed that future population growth on the east side will be low, as most of the residential lots in the area have already been built out. Where then will the additional sales revenue come from?

The only place is from their existing competitors. If Wal-Mart wins, some of our existing merchants lose, so the sales tax revenue is, at best, a zero sum game.

They also mention that the store will employ 400 people, more than double the current number. At the public hearings held on this proposal, they refused to say how many people at the current store are residents of St. Charles. Again, if more people are hired for the supercenter, how many jobs at competitive stores will be eliminated?

They also mentioned the property tax revenue generated by the store. Once again, however, they didn’t take into account potential lost property tax revenue from current St. Charles stores that may become vacant due to competitive pressures that the world’s largest retailer can create, the negative impact on the value of nearby homes, or that the existing Wal-Mart store may well sit empty, like 300 other vacant Wal-Mart stores on the market around the country, also losing value.

There have also been many studies done concluding that supercenters place a tremendous burden on community infrastructure, and actually cost the community more in increased services (police, traffic control, road maintenance, etc.) than the tax revenues that big box retail stores provide.

Wal-Mart has said that it wants to stay in St. Charles. If so, I’m sure the city would work with them to find a suitable location.

Through their actions, our city leaders have shown they want retail development that will actually contribute to vitality of the city without disrupting our retail base or hurting its neighborhoods. They deserve our support.

William Papp
St. Charles