The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 146

Page 1 ELGIN THE Fox VALLEY DuibHeiakt Wednesday, November 24,1999 FT IftMore local news on Pages 5,6,7 £nd 8 and in Neighbor Police say student hit teacher with book The Elgin school liaison officer with a U-46 education program arrested a 17-year-old Elgin woman Tuesday after seeing her strike a teacher, reports showed. The officer was escorting Anaya S. Taylor of 1245 Fleetwood Drive around 9:40 a.m. from the Central School Program, 355 E. Chicago when she used a book to strike a teacher in her chest area, police said.

The program supervisor, social worker and another teacher witnessed the incident, and the victim told police she wanted Taylor criminally charged. Police arrested her on a charge of battery, she posted $100 bond and was released with a Dec. 10 court date, reports showed. Women injured after intersection collision Two Elgin women were taken to area hospitals Tuesday after each tried to complete a traffic maneuver through a green light that turned yellow at the intersection of McLean and Royal boulevards, Elgin police reported Julia Saucedo-Benitez, 42, of 1909 Mark Ave. was driving a 1990 Lincoln Town Car around 11 a.m.

north on McLean, turning left onto Royal when she collided with a 1991 Honda Accord, police said. Brandi L. Manring, 21, of 331 Triggs Ave. was in the Accord heading south on McLean through the green light as it turned yellow at Royal. She was taken to Sherman Hospital and treated for minor injuries, while Saucedo-Benitez was taken to St.

Joseph Hospital, reports showed. Police cited Saucedo-Benitez for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and failure to yield the right of way turning left. Woman tells police testifying ied to threat Police advised an Elgin woman how to sign a complaint for intimidating a witness after a former neighbor threatened her because the woman had testified against her at an eviction hearing, reports showed. Officers saw the woman and the evicted neighbor arguing and threatening each other outside the Elgin Police Department, 151 Douglas around 10 a.m. before they carried the argument inside the station, police said.

The evicted woman told police the victim had threatened her in the restroom, but police learned after allowing the evicted woman to leave that the victim had testified against the woman and that the victim was slated to testify- again at a court trial next year. Police charge man with having marijuana An Elgin man was arrested on drug charges Monday following a traffic stop in South Elgin. Police said Eric N. Villalparido, 19, 737 Douglas Elgin, was stopped at 6:15 p.m. at Martin Avenue and Division Street when he failed to use a left turn signal.

According to reports, officers smelled the odor of marijuana coming from Villalpando's Pontiac and a passenger said there was a cannabis cigar in the ashtray. Police also located a plastic bag containing 3.2 grams of a green leafy substance in a compartment for sunglasses. Police field-tested the substance in the bag and the cigar, and both tested positive for cannabis. Villalpando was charged with possession of a controlled substance. A Dec.

20 court date was set. ComEd reports theft of 6 extension ladders Commonwealth Edison officials in Elgin told police this week that someone has taken extension ladders on three consecutive weekends dating back to Oct. 30. Police said two 20-foot fiberglass extension ladders were stolen each weekend from ComEd trucks parked in a fenced off lot at 350 S. Second Street, on the city's west side.

The six ladders are valued at $1,800, police say. More police reports in Neighbor. CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS Marengo residents balk at proposal to widen Route 20 Thanksgiving service for all faiths Religious leaders from the Elgin area sing hymns at the Annual Interfaith Service of Thanksgiving and Praise to God at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgin Tuesday night. The event was sponsored by the Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders. Daily Herald Hankins BY CHARLES KEESHAN Daily Herald Staff Writer Carpentersville fire station price jumps BY KATE CLEMENTS Daily Herald Staff Writer In some editions of Friday's real estate section, a story about Bridgewater Farm incorrectly said that the community is served by the Buffalo Grove Park District when it is not.

The price tag on the new-and- improved Fire Station One in Carpentersville jumped $302,000, but sticker shock didn't keep trustees from unanimously approving the extra cash. Carpentersville originally budgeted $500,000 for the remodeUng of the village's oldest fire station, plus $35,000 for architectural services. The bids all came in significantly higher than that. Carpentersville trustees agreed last week to award the contract to the lowest bidder, Libertyville-based Efraim Carlson and Son, even though it would mean adding more than $300,000 to the projected cost of the project. "I was disappointed that it came in over budget, but I think our backs are up against the wall on this one," said Trustee John Noverini.

"I don't think there's much we can do about it." According to Carpentersville Fire U46: Operating costs may require increase in taxes Continued, from Page 1 be enormous," Cascino said. "How long before we have to go back to the taxpayers and ask for more money?" Gordon Schulz, assistant superintendent of management services, said it costs about $1.8 million yearly to run a high school. District officials plan to use $18 million U-46 has in reserves to pay for operational expenses of the new schools. A document containing financial projections reportedly released by Superintendent Marvin Edwards during teacher contract talks shows the reserves will run out in 20032004. The document says U-46 will seek an operating fund increase in 2003.

Teacher union president Dave Alexander presented the document to union members last week to explain why early negotiations failed last month. The teachers contract does not expire until August 2000. Edwards will not confirm the financial projections. But at Tuesday's task force meeting he acknowledged U-46 may need to raise the tax rate in the future to pay for operation and maintenance of new schools. "That's possible.

It's probable even if we don't do this (referendum) because we are growing," he said. The majority of the task force believe taxpayers would regret not including the high school in the referendum. "I see a little bit of lack of preparation for U-46. They are always putting fires out. I see us for the first time being proactive in a planning stage.

That's the reason I support the high school," Zahrebelski said. "This is really a thorough, well- thought-out plan," said Floyd Brown of Elgin. The task force unanimously agreed U-46 should act on the building plan now to get state grant money. If U-46 voters pass the referendum, the state likely will coyer $40 million of U-46's construction costs. U-46 had thought the slate would pay at least $70 million.

Now the district will have to cut its plan by $30 million to not raise the tax rate. The task force will present its findings Dec. 6 to the board of education, which will decide if the proposal will go to referendum. "I think our backs are up against the wall on this one." John Noverini, Carpentersville trustee Chief John Schuldt, there really is not anything more that can be. cut from the plans in order to trim costs without'negatively impacting day-today operations.

"Although this sounds like and is a lot of money, it should be understood that with this remodel, the entire station with the exception of the current bay be like new. It has planned to provide service and ability to expand staffing for the next 20 to 25 years," Schuldt told board members. Fire Station One was built on Spring Street near Carpenter Park in 1952 and was not designed to house firefighters 24 hours a day. It does not have separate facilities for female firefighters, nor does it have space for department training classes. The improvements to the station will add a reception area and separate public entrance, a training area with room for 70, a day room, kitchen and eating facilities, and space to house up to eight firefighters.

Currently, only five are on duty at any given time. The plans will nearly double the size of the station, from 4,400 square feet to about 8,500. Some of that extra square footage will be in the expanded truck bay. The village has already ordered a new tower ladder truck replace the 1974 100-foot'ladder truck, even though at the time, no Carpentersville fire station had room for such a long vehicle. The Fire Station One remodeling project needs to be finished by the time the new truck is delivered next year so it will not have to be stored outside, officials said.

State plans to widen Route 20 through Kane and McHenry counties ran into some roadblocks Tuesday at a public hearing in Marengo. More than 100 people, most of them Marengo residents, attended Tuesday's hearing to protest plans they fear would turn their town into nothing more than a blur to speeding motorists. "It will make Marengo a ghost town," city resident Pat Shelton said. "Highway 20 will become a speedway for people coming to and from the (Northwest) tollway." The plan would widen the two- lane highway to four lanes separated by a median or ditch from the McHenry-Boone County line to Randall Road. In Marengo, the median would be a center turn lane.

Illinois Department of Transportation officials say the changes are needed to improve traffic flow through the growing far Northwest suburbs. Marengo residents said they would rather IDOT consider a bypass around their city if that is the state's goal. "I don't think it's a good idea to have that much traffic going through the town," Marengo resident Laura Heinberg said. "I'd like to see Route 20 improved, but five lanes is too many." IDOT Highway Systems neer Rich Starr was quick to point out the plan is only a guide for future development of the highway. Nothing within it is set in stone, he said.

"Perhaps where this has the greatest value is for local authorities so they know how to plan around the highway, where traffic signals will be needed and where the access points should be," Starr said. IDOT will consider the comments received Tuesday and craft a final plan for the highway, Starr said. The agency will then rank the plan with dozens of others by need for future state projects. With no funding in place today, it may be a decade or more before anything in the plan comes to fruition. "We know we may never be able to implement all this," Starr said, "but we want the footprint in place so everyone knows what to expect and, if funding becomes we won't run into as many problems." Kane County reports AIDS cases failing BY ERic KROL Daily Herald Staff Writer When Kane County health officials mark World AIDS Day Dec.

1, they'll have reason to celebrate: the number of people dying of complications from AIDS in Illinois is at its lowest level in 10 years. State health leaders reported Tuesday that 515 people died because of AIDS last year, the fewest since 1988. The continued drop is being attributed to better drugs that can stave off effects of the disease. In Kane County, 11 people suffered AIDS-related deaths last year, up from the five in 1997 but still down from the 15 in 1996. The number of new AIDS cases in Kane this year is four, down from 21 last year and 38 the year before.

The number of cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, also is four, down from 31 last year. The encouraging news comes as the county health department is preparing a program for World AIDS Day. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. next Wednesday at the East Side Community Center in Batavia, 14 N.

Van Buren St. The featured speaker is Brian Janney, the host Of a cable-access television AIDS education program. Janney will tell 128 eighth- grade students from Batavia Middle School of his life as a young man with AIDS. V).