The Herald-News • Sunday, July 19, 2015
|GETTING STARTED
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JOLIET
Committee gives OK to tax incentives By BOB OKON bokon@shawmedia.com JOLIET – A Joliet City Council committee agreed Friday to recommend a tax incentive package worth an estimated $188,000 for a Cadence Premier Logistics project that includes a corporate office and indoor soccer field. Cadence Premier plans to relocate operations from Alsip. The project also includes warehouse, light assembly and truck service operations. Cadence is one of several projects planned for the Laraway Crossings Business Park along Route 53, which has become increasingly congested with truck traffic. Another 1 million-squarefoot warehouse is planned next to the Cadence operation by
Hillwood, a Texas-based developer of logistics property. The developer also has been seeking tax incentives, but put the request on hold until a user for its building is identified. The incentives for Cadence passed by a 2-0 vote with one member absent from the meeting of the Economic Development Committee. Committee Chairman Larry Hug said the Cadence project should not add much truck traffic to the area. “This is not a destination point creating a lot of new truck traffic for deliveries,” Hug said to Cadence representatives. “Most of what you do is service the truck traffic that is already here.”
The incentives
The Cadence plan includes
a 124,000-square-foot warehouse that could be expanded some day by 94,500 square feet. The tax incentives, which likely will go to the full City Council for a vote on Aug. 4., include a five-year, 50 percent abatement on property taxes estimated to be worth $28,000 a year. The city also would waive impact fees estimated at $48,000. The property tax abatement was sought only for the warehouse and corporate office building. It will not apply to a truck fueling center, convenience store and parking lot. Joliet-based attorney Michael Hansen, representing Cadence, said the company plans to add 92 jobs over three years at the warehouse and corporate building, which will include light assembly opera-
tions. Hansen said the company hopes to close on the Joliet property in August. He said the Joliet site “is not a done deal.” Cadence is looking at two other sites in Illinois and one in northwest Indiana, he said.
Indoor soccer
The project will include the unique feature of an indoor soccer field. Hansen said one of the company’s owners is a former professional soccer player from Germany, and the soccer field is available for employees’ use. The soccer field also will be made available to Joliet school-age soccer players, Hansen said. The project poses the possibility of two indoor soccer
fields on the south end of Joliet. The Joliet Park District has plans to build an indoor soccer field at Nowell Park, which is at Route 53 and Doris Avenue. The Laraway Crossings Business Park is at Laraway Road. Hansen said Cadence also is requesting property tax abatements from Will County, the Joliet Township High School District and the Laraway School District. The Hillwood incentive request was put on hold at city staff’s suggestion, said James Haller, the city’s director of community and economic development. Haller said Hillwood has not identified a user for the building yet, and staff suggested that the incentive request should come from the future owner.
Grundy County’s Hoarding Task Force joins regional group By HEIDI LITCHFIELD hlitchfield@shawmedia.com MORRIS – Just over a year ago the Grundy County Health Department assembled a Grundy County Hoarding Task Force, bringing together municipalities, first responders and mental health professionals to address the mental illness. Hoarding affects about 5 percent of the world’s population, according to statistics provided by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Susan Hudson, director of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Division at the Grundy County Health Department, said while the group hasn’t located all the residents who need help, members are seeing referrals from first responders and property managers.
“Some weeks we have no referrals, other weeks we have three or four,” Hudson said. Hudson said there are nine counties in the health department’s region, and seven of them have hoarding task forces, including Will, Kendall and DuPage counties. Once the county agencies found out there were others doing what they were, they decided to organize a regional group that will meet throughout the year to exchange information and discuss what others are doing and see if those ideas will work on a local level. They met in June at the DuPage Health Department. “It’s fascinating to share, and some will say, ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’ We are looking forward to what the group will be able to do together,” Hudson said.
crowd than last year’s 1,200 attendees. It starts at 11 a.m. at Mokena Intermediate School, 11331 W. 195th Street with a procession ending at the festival grounds
Phil Jass, public health administrator at the Grundy County Health Department, said what was once thought to be a local problem is much larger than originally thought. “We think about how it affects us locally and now we are seeing that it’s much larger,” Jass said. He said joining other agencies that have hoarding task forces in place gives the county additional resources that will
be beneficial to the residents of Grundy County. In June, Melissa Wasko, the “60-plus” therapist for the Grundy County Health Department, was seeing nine local residents who are actively working on their illness. According to Mayo Clinic, “Hoarding disorder is a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs.” Hudson said oftentimes the problem is not evident from outside the home, and the way they are found is when first responders are called to the home. A hoarding protocol flow-
chart was put into place that first responders and code officers can follow in both emergency and non-emergency situations. “Melissa responds to a report with someone, such as a first responder or a property manager, and lets them know we are here to help by being as reassuring as possible,” Hudson said. “She’s very gentle and not pushy. You can tell she is passionate about the cause.” The hoarding task force was started with a grant from the Community Foundation of Grundy County, and Hudson said like any other grant-based program, making the program easy to duplicate is important so it can be shared with others. Calls to DuPage and Will County departments for comments on this article were not immediately returned.
at the Front Street Metra Station lot. The festival is based on the traditional Italian Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Several musical acts are also scheduled to perform through-
out the day on the main stage, including local tenor Franco Martorana, who will perform traditional Italian opera classics. Tickets to enter the festival
are $6 each, or $18 a family. Following expenses, all funds raised will be donated to various local charities in Mokena and surrounding areas.
“We are looking forward to what the group will be able to do together.” Susan Hudson Mental Health & Substance Abuse Division at the Grundy County Health Department director
QUICK NEWS Festa Italiana returns to Mokena
MOKENA – The second annual Mokena “Festa Italiana” will be held Sunday and is expected to draw an even larger
– The Herald-News