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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
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Recruit enrolls early with Huskies’ football program
Teacher’s Pet K-9 School in Sycamore celebrates 20 years
Sycamore looking at increase in water fees
PUBLIC SAFETY IN DeKALB
Interactive law enforcement New app will allow DeKalb residents to report crime
By STEPHANIE HICKMAN shickman@shawmedia.com
By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com
DeKALB – DeKalb residents will soon be able to report a crime in the time it takes to send a text message. The DeKalb Police Department is planning to launch a smartphone application either this month or in early March that would allow residents to anonymously report suspicious activity and send photographs and video from their phone that could help police in investigations. The program, called iWatch, is a free application that connects police departments and residents through a third party. Reports can be submitted in more than 30 languages and translated, a key feature DeKalb Police Chief Gene Lowery said could break language barriers and make people more comfortable communicating with police. “Everything in life is based on relationship building, and this will help us connect with the community,” Lowery said. “Smartphones are becoming the norm. We are utilizing that technology to add eyes and ears that could benefit us all.” When the application is launched, residents are prompted to select a crime type with choices including assault, drunken driving, crimes against animals and more. Once the type of report is selected, submissions can be specific or general, with options to give descriptions of subjects and vehicles. If officers have questions, they will be able to contact the resident through the application without knowing the person’s identity, Lowery said. The program offers information for residents such as crime alerts and a crime map that shows areas where offenses occurred and were reported. Residents also can file complaints against officers through the application. Lowery said he is hopeful the application will appeal to students in DeKalb who witness or are victims of crimes that go unreported.
Kyle Bursaw – kbursaw@shawmedia.com
Sgt. Tracy Smith of the DeKalb Police Department shows the screen for the iWatch DeKalb app on Monday. The DeKalb version of the app that allows residents to anonymously report crimes is not available yet.
See INTERACTIVE, page A3
SYCAMORE – An increase in water and sewer fees is just one of the options Sycamore City Manager Brian Gregory proposed to City Council members Monday in an effort to bridge a $273,000 spending gap within the city’s water and sewer funds for Fiscal 2014. Sycamore’s water fund is expected to have about $2.4 million in reserves at the completion of fiscal 2013, which ends April 30. Gregory said this reserve, along with the revenue from user fees, is a relatively healthy amount. But it’s still not enough to cover the hefty cost of maintaining the city’s water and sewage systems. User fees are the main source of revenue for both the city’s water and sewer funds. The city currently utilizes a tiered fee system where the more Ken Mundy water residents use, the less they pay per unit. Gregory said the average Sycamore household pays just less than $26 a month for sewage costs and about $24 a month for water. “User fees are close to generating enough revenue to offset expenditures,” he said. “However, it comes back to that question of maintenance.” Some of the maintenance expenses include replacing 35-year-old radium removal equipment, as well as a sewer line that’s been in the ground for almost 100 years. Gregory said these expenses are measures the city should take to prevent a bigger financial problem in the future. “We’d rather be more proactive than reactive,” he said. Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy said he also feels these expenditures would benefit the city in the long run. “A proactive, planned, preventative maintenance scheme at an affordable level is only a good investment in our system,” he said. The council also approved a $13,000 tax increment financing grant Monday to reimburse the DeKalb County Community Foundation for unexpected renovation costs the organization made to their new offices at the Sycamore Train Depot. “There isn’t a better use of TIF money in my opinion,” Mundy said. “To take a building that would’ve been razed and make it productive.”
Madigan seeking more for state programs Illinois House to consider road funds, child welfare money By JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD – House Speaker Michael Madigan is proposing more money for state programs in a plan that takes advantage of new road building funds, shifts money saved from prison closures to child-welfare services that could also spare up to 1,900 jobs. The Chicago Democrat’s legislation includes a $675 million boost to tran-
sit construction highly prized by businesses and labor unions. The plan is part of an annual exercise aimed at shoring up parts of state government that are running short of money halfway through the fiscal year. The House Executive Committee was scheduled to consider the appropriations bill Monday. Michael Also part of the Madigan plan is $25 million that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn expects to save from closing correctional facilities. Quinn wants the money shifted to the Department
of Children and Family Services. The agency will use the money to add childabuse investigators and other employees to recruit foster parents and more quickly reunite children with their birth families. The bill also includes $12 million for community mental health grants, $83 million for workers’ compensation claims, $25 million for rental housing assistance, $5.7 million for job-training programs and $5 million for construction of a 200-bed veterans’ home. The so-called supplemental appropriation – including the infusion of road money and the transfer of childprotection funds – failed after political bickering in the Senate during the final days of the last legislative session
in January. A committee controlled by Democrats voted it down when senators objected to funding going to or being withheld from areas such as public schools or horse racing. That made businesses and organized labor nervous. The Transportation for Illinois Coalition turned up the pressure last week, saying the Legislature needed to move quickly to get the trucks moving this spring – the season begins as early as next month when project bids are solicited for the first time. The money includes a $175 million infusion of federal money after Congress adopted a new national transit strategy last summer. There’s $500 million of state money available this year
from healthy motor-fuel tax revenues, previous projects that cost less than expected, and work scheduled for later years that could be bumped up. The Department of Children and Family Services would avoid as many as 1,900 layoffs with the additional money, spokesman Dave Clarkin said. Middle management positions have been eliminated and the agency has moved staffers into “front line” positions. Those positions include 138 investigators who knock on doors in response to abuse complaints, staff members to recruit foster parents because of shortages, and other employees to focus on moving foster kids back into homes with their birth families.
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