The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 140

Page 1 Roselle promotes 2 veteran officers to deputy chief BY MIKE BURKE Daily Herald Staff Writer Two longtime Roselle police officers have been promoted to the rank of deputy chief. Linda M. Zerwin and Patrick Dempsey were chosen to fill the newly created positions by Police Chief Richard Eddington. Zerwin, a 15-year veteran of the department, has been the department's grant writer. Her work in this area has brought more than $450,000 to the village for police salaries and equipment, Eddington said.

Dempsey began his police career with Roselle in 1979. He was promoted to detective in 1984 and has coordinated Roselle's Crime Prevention and Neighborhood Watch programs for the last 15 years. Village President Gayle Smolinski, at swearing-in ceremonies Monday night, said both officers had served Roselle well in the past, and would continue to do so in their new jobs. Zerwin has served both as Roselle's Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer and the department's liaison officer to Lake Park High School. She was a member of the Illinois State Police Curriculum Task Force during the creation of the Violence Education and Gang Awareness program, now taught in junior high schools.

Zerwin graduated cum laude with a degree in police management from Aurora University and currently is working toward her master's degree. Eddington said Dempsey has 26 letters of commendation to his In 1992, he received the village's Officer of the Year award. Dempsey has completed training programs at both the FBI National Academy and the Northwestern Staff and Command School. Dempsey also is one of the supervisors for the investigation division of the DuPage County Major Crimes Task Force, which is made up of officers from more than 20 communities. Dempsey will oversee much of the day-to-day patrol and investigative operations of the department.

Zerwin's duties now include coordination of the police department budget, operation of the police building, grant applications and submissions, and supervision of 17 employees in the communications, records and crime prevention divisions. She also will oversee parking attendants and crossing guards. Es la verdad! Spanish lessons to be offered to 2nd-graders BY DAVID R. KAZAK Dally Herald Staff Writer Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200's first districtwide dip into the world of elementary school foreign language classes will start this year with an after-school Spanish program for second-graders. The pilot program, organized by Berlitz a subsidiary of Berlitz International, will begin in April with 50-minute sessions that will cost parents $99.

"The intent is to offer this opportunity to as many students as possible," said district spokeswoman Denie Young. For the past several years, seven District 200 schools have offered extracurricular foreign language programs through local PTA organizations. But none had been open to all students in the district. No plans exist to include foreign language lessons into the school day, Young said. But, she added, "You never know where this will lead." The classes, which start on April 3, will take place at Pleasant Hill and Wiesbrook schools.

Class times start at 3:30 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. The move to provide the foreign language classes comes, in part, as a response to meet state standards, which include foreign language as a "fundamental learning area." Illinois standards, according to information provided by Superintendent Gary Catalani, are based in part on a rationale spelled out by the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning. "The approach to second language instruction found in today's schools is designed to facilitate genuine interaction with others, whether they are on another town or within the neighborhood," the document states. Parents should find many answers to their questions about the classes, which will be limited to 10 students each, in a flier being mailed within the next few days.

Following the eight-week course, parents and students will be surveyed for their thoughts on whether the classes were heloful. DUPAGE COUNTY More local news on Pages 5 and 9 and in Neighbor DailyHeiald Tuesday, Febiuary 29,2000 Bond lowered for hit-and-run suspect Woodridge man now needs to post $75,000 to be released BY CHRISTY GUTOWSKI Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer A judge agreed Monday to lower bond for one of two men arrested for the hit-and-run death of a college student killed while walking with friends in Downers Grove. Corey Schmidt's $2 million bond was lowered to $750,000 by DuPage County Judge Joseph Bongiorno. Schmidt, 22, of Woodridge, and a friend were arrested Dec. 28 two days after 18-year-old Candace Wesolowski of Burr Ridge died.

Both men face charges that include reckless homicide and failure to report an accident involving Candace Wesolowski personal injury or death. Bongiorno made the ruling over prosecutors' objections that Schmidt is a flight risk. Prosecutor Jeffrey MacKay said Schmidt told a friend prior to his arrest that he may flee to Texas or Georgia. MacKay also noted Schmidt breached court orders while out on bond for four earlier offenses. But defense attorney George Lynch said the $2 million bond was excessive.

He argued that although both cars hit Wesolowski, it was the friend who caused the fatal injury. He said Schmidt was traveling behind Shaun Shay, 21, of Downers Grove. Schmidt didn't know he hit a pedestrian. He continued driving, Lynch said, assuming Shay would have stopped if it were serious. "This was an accident," Lynch said.

"The evidence is going to Corey Schmidt show that the second car did not cause the death of this young girl." A coroner's report wasn't as specific. It said Wesolowski died of multiple injuries caused by being struck by two cars. Monday's hearing also shed more light on the two young drivers' whereabouts that evening. Prosecutors say Shay was on a five-hour drinking binge at DJ's Sports Bar in Westmont. Schmidt met him at the bar about an hour before the fatal accident.

After the accident, the two drank more alcohol at Tailgater's in Bolingbrook, prosecutors say. Shay admitted to Schmidt he may have hit a pedestrian shortly court testimony revealed. Still, Schmidt didn't call police. Wesolowski was killed Dec. 26 while walking with three friends along 41st Street near Lindley Road in Downers Grove.

Shay is accused of hitting Wesolowski after turning left onto 41st Street from Lindley Road. Police say his black Eagle Talon sped off in a lane on 41st Street without stopping to help. Wesolowski tumbled over his car and then, as she lay on the pavement, was run over by Schmidt's red Chrysler, officials said. Neither driver stopped. Both were speeding, squealing tires and swerving from lane to lane, MacKay said.

Police got a break several hours after the accident, when a Down-, ers Grove police officer, Todd Roundtree, spotted Shay's Talon parked in a friend's driveway near the scene. The car had a broken windshield. Shay remains jailed on a $2 million bond. Schmidt would live with his grandfather in Oak Brook upon his release. He needs to post $75,000 cash to be released.

GROWTH: County's increase in population still second in state Continued from Page 1 the next 20 years and remain a job importer, providing more jobs than it has residents. "There is still plenty of opportunity for future growth," Vasandani said. Inevitably, though, as collar counties like DuPage get built out, population growth will spread to formerly rural counties for the same reasons that built DuPage: good schools, less costly housing and less congestion. "People are moving further out because they're priced out of the mature DuPage housing market," said Scott Goldstein, vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council in Chicago, Redevelopment will keep growth alive in places like downtown Wheaton, Goldstein predicted. Crews recover car from pond in Villa Park BY DAWN RUFFOLO Daily Herald Staff Writer Police recovered a suspected stolen vehicle Monday night from a retention pond in Villa Park.

Addison and Oak Brook fire department divers assisted Villa Park police and fire departments in recovering the 1996 Plymouth Neon that was reported stolen on Oct. 21 by a Villa Park'resident. Villa Park -Police Chief Ron Ohlson said an anonymous call at 3:30 p.m. sparked the activity at the pond adjacent to Lufkin Park. The caller said a car was in the pond.

Police using a rowboat probed the pond for the car with a long, metal rod. Divers attached harnesses from a tow truck to the car while it was still underwater, Ohlson said. The car was recovered about 7 p.m. Builders are realizing that some young home buyers and older empty-nesters are not so interested in a big yard but want to be in walking distance of downtown amenities such as trains and shops. In contrast, the challenge for growing counties like Kendall home to burgeoning communities like is to attract the business and commercial use to share the tax burden with homeowners.

Home buyers, who can build almost twice the house for the same amount of money as in DuPage, have outpaced the spread of business, Kendall County Administrator Peter Austin said. "The economy is strong, and people keep looking for their piece of the American Dream, their new home," Austin said. "It's affordable out here." OFF i wee Vinyl Verticals DRAPJERY JJS 728 N. York Rd. Hinsdale Block of Ogden 4 Blocks W.

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29 birth dates Continued from Page 1 was a real stickler when I was young," she says. Some leapers can't decide. They pick one day one year and one the next. And still others milk their leap day status for all it's worth. "I just figured I was luckier than most.

When there wasn't a leap year, you had two birthdays," said Rosa Munoz of Glendale Heights. That meant more birthday cake, she said. And then, as leapers age, a birthday every four years starts to sound better and better. Bob Comelli is celebrating his "oh lordy, he's 40" birthday. Comelli, of Burbank, prefers to think of it as turning 10.

"It's taking the edge off a bit," he said with a chuckle. "No mid-life crisis." But all leapers agree: It's best to have a sense of humor about the unusual circumstance. Leapers tell stories of crashing computer systems that can't accept their date of birth. Web sites that won't accept their information when they register. And the mean-spirited teasing of schoolchildren who would taunt them about not having a birthday.

Heather Rankin's father told her she couldn't have her drivers' license until she was 64. "At 5, it was very distressing," the Chicago woman says. Lisa Delesano of Glendale Leap Day facts A year is 365.24219 days long. Every four years, the calendar needs a day added to keep the seasons and months in sync. Before Leap Day came along, a person could have their birthday in two or three different seasons.

Julius Caesar proclaimed the last day of February as Leap Year Day in 45 B.C. The day was chosen because back then, Feb. 30 was the last day of the last month of the year. Leap Years occur every four years except in years that end in unless the year is divisible by 400. Therefore, 2000 is a Leap Year, but 1900 was not.

Having trouble remembering what years are Leap Years? One ciue is if Jan. 1 of one year and Dec. 31 of that same year fall on different days of the week. In all other years, those dates fall on the same day. Leap Day babies would have to live to be 116 before they could have a "golden birthday," which occurs when the number of your birthdays and your birthdate match.

(Example, turning 29 on the 29th.) Leap Day used to be called "Bachelor's Day" because it was Heights used to do some teasing of her own when she was young. "It's not really my birthday," she'd tell her friends. "It was sup- the one day women could propose to men. The tradition started in Scotland and spread through Europe before coming to America. And then there's those leap seconds.

Some years are longer than others because of the Earth's orfa'rt around the sun. Every few years scientists agree to add or remove a second from the year at midnight on Dec. 31. That is a leap second. Leap Day babies include: 1468 Paul II 1712 French Indian War hero General Louis Joseph de Montcalm 1808 British astronomer Charles Pritchard 1904 Clarinetist and bandleader Jimmy Dorsey 1908 French painter Batthus 1916 Singer Dinah Shore 1924 Ballplayer Al Rosen 1936 Astronaut Jack Lousma and hockey star Henri "Rocket" Richard 1944 Dallas football player John Niland 1948 Fashion designer Willi Smith 1972 Actor Antonio Sabato, Jr.

posed to be yesterday, but there was not a yesterday." Then, she'd leave the poor, hapless child to figure out the riddle. The Power To Make Ybur Wish Comelrue If you can wish it, if you can dream it, if you want it more than anything in your life, we can help make it happen. From high school or career-to-career advancement. College of DuPage offers the class times, the course selection and the locations that make it possible. Call 63O.942.23SO and ask for a list of classes, financial assistance or to speak with a career counselor.

Make your wish a reality. Call today. Spring Quarter begins Monday, March 27. College of DuPage Glen Eilyn Six convenient ways to register including online at www.cod.edu.