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May 6 , 2015 • $ 1 .0 0
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DAILY CHRONICLE
Sycamore’s Maillefer scores 4 goals as the Spartans beat Kaneland, 5-0 / B1 HIGH
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Sycamore street plan over budget City Council approves $1.78M contract for annual resurfacing program By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Sycamore’s ambitious street maintenance and resurfacing program this year came in over budget and could drain the program’s reserve fund. But the City Council voted 6-2 Monday to approve the largest part of the Sycamore’s annual street resurfacing program. The council awarded the $1.78 million contract for resurfacing 13 streets, an alley and a parking lot to Curran Contracting. Curran, which has offices in DeKalb
and Crystal Lake, was one of two companies to bid on the project. The only other bidder, Huntley-based Landmark Contractors, bid $1.85 million. The city engineer’s estimate for the work was $1.45 million. The city allocated a total of $1.6 million for the street projects, a micro-resurfacing project and crack-filling work, according to city documents. City Manager Brian Gregory said the council could approve the contract with Curran and try to work the company to save money either by changing the timeta-
“It does tighten us up to where we might have a street’s worth of reserve.” Brian Gregory Sycamore city manager
ble for the work or reducing the scope of the work. Gregory also said the council could re-bid the projects in an effort to get more bidders and more competitive bids. Fourth Ward Alderwoman Janice Tripp recommended awarding the contract to Curran. Going back out to bid could push back the work by
a month or more and run into the city’s signature Pumpkin Festival in October. She said city staff could work with Curran to see if savings could be found, possibly by putting off work on the parking lot. City officials said that it would take more than that to get costs in line. It would require removing $330,000 worth
of work, which would mean taking out two large streets and one small street from the city’s project list. Gregory said approval of the bid would exhaust the majority of the reserves in the street maintenance fund. The fund was projected to have a balance of about $496,000 at the end of the year. The council’s vote would take the reserve fund down to about $175,000. The city’s goal for reserve funds is to keep them at 25 percent to 33 percent of expenses. In this case, reserves would be about 16.25 percent, Gregory said.
“It does tighten us up to where we might have a street’s worth of reserve,” he told the council. “If we want to move forward with awarding the bid, I think we should give it some effort to shave something off of that to make sure we’re protective somewhat of that reserve.” He said severe winters could make reserve funding necessary to address issues in the future. Mayor Ken Mundy echoed those sentiments. “We never plan on things
See SYCAMORE, page A3
Businesses, hurt employees talk workers’ comp
NORTHERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL FOOD HUB AND PROCESSING CENTER PROPOSAL
Produce to the people
By SARA BURNETT The Associated Press
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Farmer Bryan Flower, of Red Home Farm in Lee, opens the door to the hayloft of his barn that was originally bought in the 1930s from a Sears catalog, during Friday’s tour of the farm he was giving to his Northern Illinois University Quantity Food Production class. In addition to farming the 12 acre farmette with his wife, Flower is a chef and the food systems lab coordinator at NIU. The proposed DeKalb food hub interests him both from a seller’s and a buyer’s standpoint.
Food hub would connect consumers with locally grown food By DARIA SOKOLOVA dsokolova@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Bryan Flower is hoping that a food hub planned for DeKalb County will give him a place to sell the tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants he grows on his Red Home Farm in Lee. Flower, who also teaches quantity food production and catering and event planning courses at
Northern Illinois University, said he also could supply such vegetables as potatoes, onions, asparagus and broccoli for the food hub and purchase supplies for his classes as well as teach people about the benefits of eating locally grown food. “I think it interests me from all aspects,” Flower said. Local efforts are underway to bring the first regional food hub to northern Illinois. The hub would
be a warehouse for fresh produce grown outside of Chicago, and could open by next summer, DeKalb County Community Gardens Executive Director Dan Kenney said. The produce brought in by local farmers would be washed and packed and distributed to retailers, wholesale buyers and restaurants.
See FOOD, page A8
What’s next 1. A steering committee will gather more information and survey more farmers and consumers. 2. NIU students will do a feasibility study to build upon current data and create a business plan 3. A “virtual food hub” that would connect farmers and buyers will be built.
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Healthy chocolate cake giving moms a delicious treat / B10
Officials push for refurbishing Sycamore Wendy’s restaurant / A3
Korcek: Longtime journalist and NIU grad honored / B1
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FLOWERS 815-758-4455 917 West Lincoln Highway, DeKalb, IL
SPRINGFIELD – Business groups and injured employees weighed in Tuesday as Illinois lawmakers began debating whether to revamp the state’s workers’ compensation insurance program to reduce costs for employers. Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan called a meeting of the Illinois House to hear testimony on the issue, which Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said is one of his top legislative priorities. Rauner has said Illinois’ costs are among the highest in the nation, and that cutting them will help lure companies from other states and create jobs. But Madigan and other Democrats said Rauner’s proposals would hurt working people and their families. For several hours Tuesday, workers who were hurt at work told legislators how their injuries and loss of income had turned their lives upside down. Some had lost their homes or their retirement and are permanently disabled. Michael John Coffell, who was hurt on Madigan the job in Oklahoma, had to go on food stamps and send his three kids to live with relatives because Oklahoma had cut workers’ compensation benefits. “There are people just like me here in Illinois that will pay the price if you choose to go down the same path that my state did,” Coffell said. Republicans criticized the hearing as unbalanced, saying there wasn’t enough input from the business community. They also said they weren’t even proposing some of the changes Democrats were criticizing, such as cutting the amount of benefits workers with legitimate workplace injuries receive. “I don’t believe there’s anybody in this room that would not want someone that gets injured on the job, who played by the rules and who works hard not to be made right,” GOP Rep. Michael Unes said. “It appears like there’s maybe some in this room that believe that it’s more important to have good theater than good policy.” Business leaders and Republicans say they want to focus instead on reducing fraud, cutting the fees paid to some medical providers and compensating workers only if an on-the-job accident is more than 50 percent responsible for the injury. Illinois overhauled its workers’ compensation
See WORKERS, page A8
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion...............................A9 Puzzles ............................... B5 Sports..............................B1-4 State ...................................A4 Weather ........................... A10
Remembering MOM Sunday, May 10th
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