The Herald-News • Sunday, October 4, 2015
|GETTING STARTED
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Going pink for a good cause VIEWS Kate Schott In the next week, our readers are going to be seeing pink. On Tuesday, readers of the The Herald-News will get a newspaper printed on pink paper. As we did last year, we’re printing on pink paper as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On Oct. 13, readers of the Morris Herald-News will get their pink paper. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. In 2015, an estimated 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women, and about 40,290 women will die from breast cancer. We are going pink as part of our commitment to give back to the communities we, too, live and work in. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of ads in Tuesday’s edition will benefit Pink Heals, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting women with cancer. ••• I wrote this last week but we’re still hoping to get
MEGA MILLIONS Est. jackpot: $55 million
By BOB OKON bokon@shawmedia.com
more listings, so I’m repeating it again. It’s craft fair time, and that means it is time for our annual list of the many upcoming events that allow residents to show off their creative talents. On Oct. 11, The Herald-News plans to publish a roundup of area craft fairs by local organizations. The submission deadline is Tuesday. People should include event name and address, time, date, contact information, number of vendors, deadline for accepting additional vendors and daytime contact information (for verification purposes only). Send information to news@ theherald-news.com. Contact Features Editor Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@ shawmedia.com with questions or for more information. We look forward to hearing from the organizations holding these craft fairs, and to providing our readers with the list so you can start planning your shopping. Thank you for reading The Herald-News.
JOLIET – The Joliet City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a plan to create three new business taxing districts in the city. City officials have added the Louis Joliet Mall area to two others proposed earlier, and want to begin collecting property taxes from the proposed areas next year. “We’re trying to get on this year’s tax levy,” City Manager Jim Hock said Friday. “If we wait until February or July, we’ve lost a year.” The city is proposing Special Service Areas that would create a property tax applied only to those areas to generate funds to be used for economic development. Two other SSAs on the agenda are the Jefferson Street corridor, including the medical district and other nearby business areas, and a
• Kate Schott is editor of The Herald-News, the Morris Herald-News and Herald Life. She can be reached at kschott@shawmedia.com or 815-280-4119. Follow her on Twitter @Kate_Schott78.
JOLIET – Dominic Egizio resigned Friday from his $160,000-a-year job as executive director of the Joliet Park District. The resignation comes after an internal investigation reportedly focused on Egizio’s relationship with a female employee. Egizio was placed on paid administrative leave six weeks ago when the park board hired a law firm to do the investigation. Sources have said Egizio was placed on leave after the park district received a demand letter from a lawyer representing the female employee, who was said to be seeking payment and other action to resolve the situation. Park officials have not commented on the nature of the investigation, other than to say it involved Egizio.
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Joliet council plans to vote on new business taxing districts
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Bob Okon – bokon@shawmedia.com
Jefferson Street and surrounding business areas would become a Special Service Area with a special property tax under a proposal being reviewed at Joliet City Council meetings this week. broad area on the south end of the city that includes CenterPoint Intermodal Center-Joliet, Chicagoland Speedway and Hollywood Casino. The proposal also is on the agenda for discussion Monday during the City Council’s workshop session. The plan was first present-
ed at a council committee meeting less than two weeks ago and was so new that it was not on the agenda. Businesses in Joliet are just beginning to learn about the proposal, and representatives from the Joliet Region
See TAXING DISTRICTS, page 18
Egizio resigns as executive director for Joliet Park District By BOB OKON bokon@shawmedia.com
The resignation did not come with any severance pay or other conditions, park board President Glen Marcum said. While on paid leave, Egizio received $17,229, according to park officials. He officially was placed on administrative leave Aug. 24, although Egizio stopped coming to work a few days before then. His departure came after the board met in closed session at a special meeting. According to a source, the demand letter from the employee’s attorney was reviewed at that meeting.
No comment on investigation
Marcum declined to discuss the circumstances leading to the resignation or the findings of the Sotos Law Firm investigation, referring to it as a personnel issue. Marcum would not comment on whether Egizio faced
termination if he did not resign. He also would not comment on whether the park district continues to face the threat of litigation and demand for payment from the park district employee. The resignation came after the park board on Monday reviewed a report from the Sotos Law Firm, which conducted the investigation. Park officials said they have not yet received the bill from Sotos. The investigation also involved work by Elijah Ltd., a Chicago-based information technology company. Marcum said the work by Sotos and Elijah has been completed, but the park board still would need to review the report on the investigation. “We didn’t have a good chance to review everything,” he said. “Personally, I have not even had a chance to read it all.”
See EGIZIO, page 18