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Board approves jail expansion DeKalb County officials OK $35M bond to fix overcrowd issues at current facilities By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – The DeKalb County Board has approved a $35 million borrowing plan to finance expansion and renovations at the county jail. County officials plan to sell bonds no earlier than September, but most likely in November or December. They could seek bids from contractors in February, and construction could begin in May. “This is a culmination of, I can’t tell you how many years of work, of how many meetings I’ve been in,” County Administrator Gary Hanson said at Wednesday’s County Board
By the numbers Q 89: Capacity of DeKalb County
jail Q 163: Capacity of jail after
expansion Q 133: Beds jail plans to use immediately Q $35 million: Amount county will borrow for project Q $500,000: Needed increase to corrections budget when new jail opens
Source: DeKalb County
meeting. “It almost seems anti-climactic. This is a good night for DeKalb County.” Hanson’s statement was met by applause by the 22 present
board members, who unanimously approved the motion – Kevin Bunge of District 1 was absent, and the District 4 seat left by Joseph Bassett who recently resigned remained vacant. Board member Misty Haji-Sheikh, a District 7 Democrat, asked if the plan would raise taxes. Hanson said it would not. The county will rely on revenue from “tipping fees” at Waste Management’s expanded landfill in Cortland to repay the bonds, along with about $5 million in uncommitted county farm sales tax funds that will become available once the DeKalb County Courthouse ex-
pansion project bonds are paid off in 2029. The county also can find other revenue sources to repay the loan. “This is funded by landfill revenue, by sales tax revenue by our County Farm property, which is the Wal-Mart and Lowe’s area, and from internal borrowing and from interest revenue,” he said. The board also approved financing and construction parameters for the expansion project. Once it is complete, the expanded jail would have capacity for 163 beds, with immediate plans to use 133. The enhanced size would require a $500,000 incremental operating cost above the 2015 budget for the county’s
corrections department. Transition costs are estimated at $1.7 million and will include staff training, according to county documents. DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott and others have long said expansion is needed because the Sycamore building is overcrowded and lacked enough facilities to accommodate prisoners with mental illness and other needs. In 2014 the facility averaged 140 inmates each day with 89 beds. In the past eight years, $7 million has been spent to house inmates in other counties, county officials have said. The project isn’t dependent on the county continuing to
collect about $2.5 million a year in sales tax on fuel purchases made by United and American airlines subsidiaries in Sycamore. Officials have said they will make other budget cuts to offset that lost revenue, should it be lost. County Board Chairman Mark Pietrowski, Jr. praised the expansion, but said the goal should still be to keep people out of jail in the first place. “We’re focused on programs we can implement and encourage the state to implement and the state government so that we can reduce jail population,” he said. “If we reduce jail population, that could further extend the life of this expansion.”
Without a budget, providers prepare; officials go to court
CLEARING THE AIR AT AREA COLLEGES
By JOHN O’CONNOR and SARA BURNETT The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ government weathered its second day without a state budget Thursday, and while legislative chambers were silent, service providers buckled up for a bumpy summer ride and state officials asked what bills could be paid if the impasse continues. The Democratic state attorney general asked Cook County Circuit Court for guidance on what the state could pay without a budget providing for it, heating up a simmering debate with the Republican governor over whether state employees can be paid. Meanwhile, some service providers began notifying staff members of layoffs, while others hoped to hobble through the month. Here’s a look at the issues at hand:
BUDGET BATTLE
Photos by Katie Smith – ksmith@shawmedia.com
Although Northern Illinois University previously allowed smoking at designated areas, the campus officially became smoke-free Wednesday.
NIU, Kishwaukee College go smoke-free Officials look to raise awareness, change culture in the decision By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com DeKALB – A smoke break between classes is going to be harder to come by at Northern Illinois University and Kishwaukee College. The campuses, in accordance with an unfunded mandate known as Illinois SmokeFree Campus Act, are now officially smokefree, along with all other public colleges and universities in the state. “Smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States,” NIU Spokesperson Paul Palian said. “There’s a public health component to it. They gave us some leeway on how [we] implement the policy, and we tried to implement a policy that was mindful and balanced public health concerns as well as the freedoms of the individual.” The policy forbids use of any lighted smoking materials including pipes, cigars, cigarettes, cigarillos, bidi, kretek, hookah, atomizer, vaporizer, marijuana, weed, herb and e-cigarettes. DeKalb County government campuses also became smoke-free Wednesday. There will be no designated smoking areas. At NIU, smoking is allowed inside vehicles
A sign disallowing smoking and guns is on display on the door of a Northern Illinois University building in DeKalb. provided they are parked in an open-air parking lot, and not the parking garage. “That is definitely something that people can do, but we’ve also got to be mindful of things like cigarette butt litter,” Palian said. To notify students – particularly incoming freshmen who will be attending in the fall and visitors – NIU has conducted an information blitz on their new smoke-free policy, including new signs, digital notifications, maps and an information page on the school’s website.
A Smoke-Free Task Force of about 14 people, led by College of Health and Human Sciences Dean Derryl Block, was responsible for finding solutions that would be fair to everyone. “It just so happened that all the people who were originally on the Task Force were either nonsmokers or previous smokers, but we didn’t have any current smokers,” Block said. “We shook the bushes a little bit to ensure we had some current smokers on the task force. We thought that was important.” Block said that “for smokers, it’s going to be hard.” “People that are smokers will have to either be really needing a cigarette or try to stop, or they’ll have to outfit themselves with nicotine replacement products.” Kishwaukee College President Tom Choice said there hadn’t been much outcry for a smoking ban on the school’s campus in Malta, but they’re acting in accordance with the law. “We have smokers, and for them it’s going to be an inconvenience,” Choice said. “But overall, it’s been shown it’s the right thing to do from a health standpoint.”
See SMOKING, page A6
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Longtime crossing guard honored at local school / B10
Man faces up to 5 years in prison for 2012 assault case / A3
Akst: Dogs and fireworks are not the best combination / A2
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Gov. Bruce Rauner has been steadfast in demanding changes to what he calls the state’s broken business and political climates before he’ll talk to legislative Democrats about what they say is a $4 billion shortfall to pay for vital services. Democrats sent Rauner a $36 billion spending plan in June, but he vetoed most of it last week, calling it unconstitutionally out of balance. Lawmakers attempted to approve a one-month, $2.3 Gov. Bruce billion budget this week, but the Rauner effort failed in the House. Wednesday was the start of the new fiscal year.
WHO’S HURTING
From suicide hotlines to food pantries, social service agencies that rely on state funding will be hardest hit by the lack of a budget. Mujeres Latinas en Accion in Chicago provides services such as counseling for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Executive director Maria Pesqueira had to lay off five fulltime employees this week and said the remaining 32 must take two furlough days a week – a “dire” picture. “The governor and the Legislature are using us as political pawns,” Pesqueira said. Chicago-based Family Focus laid off 14 employees this week, including eight working on a program that helped families get needed services to stay intact after Department of Children and Family Services intervention, according to Director Mariana Osoria. But, ironically, many agencies won’t feel an immediate pinch because of overdue state payments. The state has a $5 billion backlog, so vendors will get checks in July for work done last spring. Lutheran Social Services in Des Plaines, a wide-ranging provider for foster parents and the
See BUDGET, page A6
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