Bacteria levels high at suburban beaches?

June 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Reported by Jake Griffin, Daily Herald

Bacteria counts were so high in Woods Creek Lake at Indian Trail Beach in Lake in the Hills last year that swimming was banned for eight days.

That’s despite test results that show the beach should have been closed for 10 days.

Due to a lag in the time it takes the state to test water samples, beachgoers may be frolicking in filth. Illinois Department of Public Health officials said it can take as much as two days for test results on water samples with dangerously high bacteria levels to be discovered.

“That’s one of the flaws in the system,” said Melaney Arnold, IDPH spokeswoman.

According to IDPH records, water samples from 150 lake beaches in Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties tested above the closure threshold 253 times in 2012. In most cases, those beaches were open during times when the bacteria levels would have mandated closure. There are no swimming beaches in DuPage County requiring the state to test.

Additionally, since water at most inland lake beaches is tested only twice a month, swimmers may spend days in contaminated water and never know it. Water at Lake Michigan beaches is tested with greater frequency, which partially accounts for a higher rate of contamination, health officials explained.

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source: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20130612/news/706129928/

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY, DUPAGE COUNTY, FEATURED STORIES, KANE COUNTY, LAKE COUNTY, McHENRY COUNTY, WILL COUNTY Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Emergency Repairs Will Close Part of I-294 Saturday night

June 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Reported by Marni Pyke, Daily Herald

All lanes of the northbound Tri-State between the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) and Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) will shut down starting around midnight Saturday until about 8 a.m. Sunday.

It’s the busiest road in the Illinois tollway system, but this weekend a section of the Tri-State (I-294) will close down for emergency repairs.

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source: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20130606/news/706069703/

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY, DUPAGE COUNTY, FEATURED STORIES

Funding for Proposed South Suburban Projects Get Preliminary OK

May 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By:  Andrea Holecek
Source: NWI Times

Calumet City, Lansing, Burnham, Riverdale, Thornton Township and Glenwood are among the proposed recipients of 2013 Community Development Block Grant Funds.

The Cook County Community Development Advisory Board on Tuesday approved 29 requests from local communities and townships totaling $4,866.880 in Capital Improvement Projects from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Renewal’s CDBG program.

The Advisory Council also approved $1.8 million in funding for planning and administration of the grants and grants of $882,202 for unemployment assistance and affordable housing through HUD’s Emergency Solutions Grant program.

The proposed projects will be presented to the Cook County Board in June and on its agenda for approval at the board’s July meeting.

Awards for street improvement are slated for: Calumet City ($140,000); Burnham ($75,000); Lansing ($200,000) and Riverdale ($280,000). Glenwood is slated to receive $100,000 for sanitary sewer and water system repairs while Thornton Township’s proposed $100,000 grant would be used for parking lot reconstruction and installation of automated doors at its Senior Center.

Although Cook County hasn’t received its total allocation this program year because of the sequester, the county expects there will be a slight decrease in funding for the Capital Improvement program, and a slight increase in the Emergency Solutions grant, said program Director Maria Choca Urban.

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Lake, Cook Counties Top State’s Endangered Species List

May 23, 2013 By 1 Comment

By: Jamie Sotonoff
Source: Daily Herald

You probably haven’t noticed many Snowy Egrets or tufts of American slough grass in suburban natural areas.

That’s because they’re among the 464 endangered or threatened mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and plants in Illinois. Lake and Cook counties have more endangered and threatened species than any other counties in the state, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Illinois Natural Heritage Database.

Lake County has 138 endangered and threatened species and Cook County has 112. The other collar counties have few by comparison: McHenry County has 83 endangered and threatened species, DuPage County has 62 and Kane County has 55.

“People think, ‘Oh, it’s only one little thing’ … but the more components you remove from the ecosystem, the more it will be in trouble,” said Joe Kath, the DNR’s endangered species manager.

Local endangered species will be among the conservation topics discussed at today’s second annual Fill the ARK in Illinois gala at the Racquet Club of Illinois in Chicago. Hosted by the nonprofit group ARKive, the event’s special guests will include former Motorola CEO Chris Galvin, Google Earth founder John Hanke and renowned oceanographer and aquanaut Dr. Sylvia Earle.

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cook County Jail Reports Lice And Scabies Outbreak

May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By: Robert Herriman
Source: Global Dispatch

Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart has ordered isolation within a Division of the Cook County Jail and a portion of Cermak Hospital after an outbreak of lice and scabies, according to a press release Friday.

At least 15 detainees have been diagnosed with the ectoparasite infestations.

Sheriff Dart says the isolation order will remain in place until further notice. Affected detainees have been isolated from the general population to allow for theirtreatment and to prevent further infestation. Detainees housed in the affected units are also being provided preventative treatment.

The units are being disinfected and detainees are being provided new linens and clothing. Linens are being laundered separately. Staff assigned to the affected units are also being closely monitored.

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Cost of Common Health Care Tests Vary Widely in Cook County

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By: John Ness and Dante Chinni
Source: Northbrook Patch

On average, the costs of common health care tests such as a mammogram or MRIs in Cook County compare well to Illinois state averages.

For example, a colonoscopy in Cook County costs about $1,050 less than state averages. However, the cost of the procedure can vary greatly within the county from a low of $1,940 to a high of $9,790. That’s according to data from New Choice Health, a private company that encourages people to become smarter healthcare consumers.

On average Lake County is even lower. A CT scan in Lake County only costs $1,760 compared to Cook County’s average of $2,010.

Although Cook County’s average cost of providing such tests is lower than the state average, the price within the county varies. For example, the maximum cost of a CT Scan was $5,960 with a minimum of $1,670 in Cook County.

These big regional differences have been in the news lately: As the Washington Post wrote on Wednesday, “One hospital charges $8,000 – another $38,000.” Using the same data as thePost, The New York Times listed out the prices of a series of procedures in hospitals across the country.

The Times and the Post used data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Patch worked with New Choice Health to examine the cost of four well-known procedures in Patch communities all across the country and found wide disparities – CT scans, colonoscopies, MRIs and mammograms. The examination revealed the costs can vary by thousands of dollars even within the same community.

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY Tagged With: , , , ,

Mayor: Hike Fines for Bicyclists Who Break Traffic Laws

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By: Hal Dardick
Source: Chicago Tribune

Bicyclists who break traffic laws and drivers and passengers who open their doors in the path of bicycles would be hit with steeper fines, under a proposal Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to introduce to the City Council today.

The current fine for bicyclists who disobey traffic laws is $25. Those would increase to a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $200, depending on the violation. For drivers and passengers who “door” a bicyclist, the fine would double to $1,000. Fines for leaving a vehicle door open in traffic also would double to $300.

The proposals come as the mayor invests millions of dollars in creating protected bicycle lanes across the city. Some of those efforts have led to outcries from drivers who complain that many bicycle riders disobey the rules of the road.

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Sheriff Tom Dart Proposes Cook County Concealed-Carry Ordinance

May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By: Frank Main
Source: Sun-Times

Sheriff Tom Dart said Sunday that he is proposing a concealed-carry gun ordinance to keep Cook County from becoming the “Wild West.”

Dart said he’s worried about a stalemate in the General Assembly on a law to license people to carry concealed guns. If legislators don’t meet a June 9 court deadline to pass such a law, anyone with a state firearm owner’s identification card could legally walk anywhere in public with a concealed weapon, Dart said.

“We would have the Wild West,” he said. “There would be no regulation.”

Dart said he’s proposing a concealed-carry law for Cook County that would take effect only if the General Assembly failed to act by June 9 and the court didn’t extend the deadline.

“I was in Springfield for 11 years,” Dart said of his time as a legislator. “Deadlines sometimes don’t mean anything. We have to be prepared in the event something does not get done.”

Dart’s ordinance would give him the power to approve and reject licenses to carry concealed guns in Cook County. Applicants would have to pay a $300 fee for a license.

Dart said he thinks the ordinance would apply not only to Cook County suburbs, but also to the city of Chicago in the absence of a state law governing concealed carrying of guns.

Chicago Police spokesman Adam Collins said: “If a statewide law is not passed, the city is preparing to implement a comprehensive concealed-carry ordinance to ensure that guns stay out of the hands of criminals.”

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Quinn Vetoes Bill That Would Have Increased ComEd Rates

May 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By: Mitch Smith
Source: Tribune

Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed legislation Sunday that would have increased utility bills and helped Commonwealth Edison improve its electrical grid.

But the bill passed the General Assembly by healthy margins, and legislators could override the veto this month.

Quinn, a Democrat, cited practicality and precedent as he slammed the black ink of his veto stamp onto the bill at a news conference in Chicago. The governor said families and businesses can’t afford a rate increase, and he expressed concern about a “very disturbing process” in which ComEd sought relief in the legislature after a disagreement with its regulator, the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Improving the grid is important, Quinn said, but legislated rate increases are the wrong way to do it.

“We cannot allow big utilities to take over and run roughshod over families and businesses,” Quinn said before stamping the bill with so much gusto that he sent a pen on the table tumbling to the floor. “We’re not going to let the utilities run Illinois.”

ComEd argues that the bill is needed to support its Smart Grid program, a modernization plan that it says would create jobs, reduce the likelihood of outages and give consumers more say over their energy consumption. The utility issued a statement Sunday expressing disappointment with the veto and asking lawmakers to pursue an override. ComEd has said that the average residential customer bill of $82 per month would increase by about 40 cents in 2014 and by about 80 cents in 2017 if the bill were enacted.

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Financial Relief Available for Flood Victims

April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By: Monifa Thomas
Source: Sun-Times

In the wake of what Gov. Pat Quinn called the most pervasive flood in Illinois since 1818, county, state and federal officials began the process Monday of trying to reach out to victims of the April floods in need of financial aid.

Teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Illinois Emergency Management Association and the U.S. Small Business Administration were dispatched to assess flood-damaged homes in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties on Monday, after Quinn sent a letter to FEMA on April 22 requesting assistance.

Data collected during the assessment will be included in a follow-up request by Quinn for federal assistance that, if approved, could provide small-interest loans and federal grants.

Quinn also declared a total of 48 counties state disaster area because of the flooding that began on April 18, including Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Will.

The state disaster declaration makes available a range of resources that are supposed to help communities recover from flooding, such as allowing more than 3,600 inmates to either assist with filling sandbags. Quinn, who spoke in front of the once-flooded North Branch of the Chicago River in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, said, “We’ve never had, in our whole state of Illinois in its history since 1818, such a pervasive flood in so many different parts of Illinois.”

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Filed Under: COOK COUNTY Tagged With: , , , , ,
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