The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 257

I Ready to step up Bears receivers eager to Curtis Conway's absence SPORTS WEATHER Mostly sunny Mostly sunny today, with highs ranging from the middle 70s near Lake Michigan to the middle 80s well inland. Light northwest winds. Fair tonight, with a low in the lower 60s. Thursday, partly sunny. High near 80.

SUBURBS Edgar orders reforms In the wake of the MSI bribery trial, Gov. Jim Edgar Tuesday ordered state ethics reforms and an independent investigation into some of his top aides, and gave more Gov. Jim Edgar than $53,000 to charity Page 10. F.W. de Klerk, a pragmatic reformer, is retiring from South African politics.

De Klerk resigns Ex-South African President F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in dismantling apartheid, quit Tuesday as leader of the party that created it Page 12. Don't bet on'Net Will anybody with an ounce of sense send money to an address on the Internet as a wager? And expect there will never be a fix? Or expect to be paid off for a winning bet? Back Page. Lunchtirae success Now that the kids have picked out their lunch boxes, it's time to figure out what to put in them. You want them to eat healthy, but how do you stop them from trading carrot sticks for potato chips? The answers are in "Brown Bag Success" Section 3.

Massage therapists still upset with proposed law BY DEBORAH JOHNSON Daily Herald Staff Writer One more kink may need to be worked out of a law aimed at cleaning up the massage business in DuPage County. Massage therapists told the county board Tuesday the proposed law should not ban them from treating their customers' buttocks, which often can be the source of lower back or leg pain. "The buttocks area results in one-third to one-half of my business," said Noreen Steele, past president of the Illinois chapter of Ordinance would ban touching clients' buttocks the American Massage Therapy. Association. County officials are trying to rid the unincorporated areas of massage spas that offer sexually oriented services, such as topless massage.

At the same time, officials want to avoid trampling on the rights and practices of trained, experienced massage therapists. The current version of the proposal approved Tuesday by a board committee forbids mas- sage workers from touching the "sexual areas" of clients, which includes the buttocks. But Michael Marlow, a massage therapist from Lombard, said that area includes several important muscles that require treatment. One, he said, is positioned over the sciatic nerve that can cause pain to shoot down a person's leg if the muscle becomes tight. Jan Dimasi, a therapist from unincorporated Milton Township agreed.

"You can work on that leg all you want," she s'aid, "but unless you get into the buttocks, you're not going to get to the origin of the pain." Otherwise, the massage therapists said, they like the proposed ordinance, which will go to the full county board for approval in two weeks. Robert Heap, chairman of the, committee drafting the ordinance, said the therapists may have a point. "It sounds like it's something that's pretty important to them," he said. "We don't want to take away something that's important for them doing their job." Not happy with the proposed ordinance are the owners of topless massage parlors, who attended Tuesday's did not address the board. They did, however, have plenty i to say.

Jay Wright, owner of Spa 64 near Lombard and Lake Street Spa near Roselle, 'ffid-friendliest' dry in America Naperville gets top rating for low crime, unemployment BY RAY MINOR Daily Herald Staff Writer When it comes to raising a family, Naperville is as good as it gets. So says a national group that rated Naperville the "kid-friendliest" city in the United States over 218 other communities. A two-year study, released Tuesday by Zero Population Growth in Washington, D.C., called Naperville the best place to raise a family. The group cited the city's low crime rate, low unemployment and high incomes as prime reasons why Naperville does so well. "I'm excited for the people of Naperville," Mayor George Pradel said.

"People work hard to get that kind of recognition, and they've done a lot of good things for our kids. It's a credit to all the schools, the park district, the parents and all the other organizations in town." The rating, compiled in a report called the Children's Environmental Index, looked at 20 categories, such as teenage birth rates, infant mortality, juvenile crirrie, school dropout rates, education spending and pollution. The highest priorities are placed on education, children's health and environmental issues. The study included all cities in the United States with at least 100,000 residents and eight other towns from states that don't have any cities with a population of 100,000. This is the first of six studies from the group that included Naperville, which surpassed the 100,000 population mark only three years ago.

After compiling the ratings in all the categories, Naperville edged Overland Park, and Irvine, for the top spot. Gary, was tagged with the lowest score. "When we do a study, it's not just an attempt, to look at the numbers but to take a look a the quality of life," said Joy Fishel, lead researcher for the report. "This is a wake-up call. We see that towns with a population decline are falling on the list Group zeroes in on population changes One-year-old William Gayde and his dad, Peter, aren't the only Naperville residents to be all smiles this week.

The city won national recognition from a Washington, D.C.-based group that called Naperville the kid-friendliest community in the country. Daily Herald Bnght Friendly Naperville Naperville is the "kid-friendliest" community in the nation among towns with more than 100,000 residents, according to Zero Population-Growth. The top ten B1. Naperville 2. Overland Park, Kan.

3. Irvine, Calif. 4. Piano, Texas 5. Fargo, N.D.

6. Madison, Wis. a 7. Sterling Heights, Mich. a 8.

Ann Arbor, Mich. 9. Livonia, Mich. 10. Sioux Falls, S.D.

Others 69. Aurora B119. Springfield 131.Rockford 161. Peoria a 175. Milwaukee 200.

Chicago 219. Gary, Ind. Souro: Znm Population Growth So how does an organization advocating a controlled national population pick Naperville one of the fastest growing cities in the United States as the best place to raise a family? "That's a good question because it looks like we are contradicting ourselves," said Joy Fishel, a researcher with Zero Population Growth. The organization doesn't just look at size or growth when it compares cities, Fishel said. It looks at the effects population changes have on the quality of life.

While most towns with high marks are growing, two of the Top 10 are getting smaller. "We are looking to see how cities that maintaintheir size also maintain their quality," she said. "What we are finding is that while cities with growth tend to do well, that growth is hurting other areas-that are declining in population. "We need to look at ways to structure the resources and stabilize the population so resources are used equally." Ray Minor are if while others that are growing an doing well. The question will be i the towns that are growing now can keep it up." Cities doing well likely are near other larger towns that are at the bottom oFthe list, Fishel said.

Chicago, Los Angeles and Kansas City aD near the top three cities were rated in the bottom tier. Fishel said the reason some of the suburban cities do so well is that people are fleeing inner cities where crime, teenage pregnancy rates and low incomes are more typical. "Cities that are on the upper ends of the study tend to grow faster and provide a better quality of life," Fishel said. "Overall though, the fast growth in one area is related to the declines in another. You can't separate them.

That is what we are watching." Zero Population Growth advocates a national population control and studies teenage pregnancy prevention. While it is not See KIDS on Page 5 Glenbard students squeeze into classes BY MATTHEW NICKERSON Daily Herald Staff Writer Going back to school Tuesday meant going back to submarine- like crowding for students at Glen- bard North, Glenbard East and Glenbard West high schools. At Glenbard North in Carol Stream, Principal Manuel Isquierdo managed to squeeze every class into a classroom, but just barely. "We have no free room. If someone wanted a meeting, we have almost no space," said Isquierdo, as he patrolled a hallway.

More back to proven minutes School news later, when the Page 4 8:10 a.m. bell rang. "We've got to step back just a little bit," he advised a visitor, as students surged by. Help is on the way for the Glen- bard schools, although it will not be immediate. The Glenbard school board, which had a combined enrollment last spring of 8,000, is talking about remodeling, building additions or reconfiguring foot traffic at the schools.

That number was expected, to rise to 8,700 within three years, and officials believe even Glen- bard South needs more space, as well as its three sister schools. But any changes are still in the discussion stage, and Glenbard spokeswoman Julie Armantrout said, "We have absolutely decided nothing." The Glenbard schools aren't the only ones with crowding woes. A feeder elementary school district, Lombard District 44, is proposing major expansions at Park View, Hammerschmidt and Pleasant Lane schools. At Park View, 27 second-graders will cram into one classroom, which troubles school mother Donna Grote. "I don't know how anyone can take care of 27 children," said Grote, who was accompanying her daughter to the first day of school.

"How do you go around and answer everyone's question?" Many students, however, were unfazed by having an ever-growing number of schoolmates. Marcus Smith, a senior at Glen- bard East in Lombard, said hallways were tight, but he liked it. "It's really better like that," the Bloomingdale teen said. "It's more diverse. It's more students." Villa Park officials launch study to pinpoint nagging sewer woes BY KEVIN BARRETT Daily Herald Staff Writer For years, Villa Park resident Tom King has fought the floods.

And when the waters receded, he fought the village board. "It seems like Villa Park never learns its lesson," he told the board Monday night after Aug. 16 storms again left the intersection near his home covered in waste water. Village officials, who are well aware of the problem, responded that this time a lesson is exactly what they hope to learn. In the coming weeks, the village will consider floating funds for a hydraulic-study of the sewer system, including lines under about a dozen intersections like the one near King's home at Monterey Avenue and Wildwood Street.

Although village officials have a pretty good idea what causes.the flooding, they hope the study will identify trouble spots and point them in the direction of a solution, said Village Manager Wayne Lulay. Central to the problem is that each of the intersections is serviced by an aging combination storm and sanitary sewer line that is inadequate for current needs, he said. Adding to the capacity problems are illegal sump pump and down spout connections that dump gallons and gallons of rain water directly into sewers instead of back yards, he said. The result, called surcharging, is inches and sometimes feet of potentially hazardous sewage spilling out of sewers and into streets and yards. "What were trying to find out is why there and not someplace else," Lulay said, Similar problems have been corrected in other parts of town by dividing sewage and storm water lines, he But roads in the flooded intersections aren't dilapidated enough to warrant costly overhauls that have been undertaken elsewhere.

In the meantime, village officials plan to study improvements in sewer management and continue to request that homes with illegal hookups reroute their storm water, he said. "We always say it would be better to have the water in your back yard than in your basement," he said. After a colorful political career, Kustra will take a break in '98 Lt Gov. Bob Kustra considered a second run for U.S. Senate.

He considered a eo for governor, until he saw that likely candidate Secretary of State George Ryan already has amassed a $2 million campaign fund. He even looked at the Secre- tary of State's office with 3,635 employees and 136 license facilities. But during a weekend away at his Wisconsin summer home, Park Ridge resident Kustra simply decided the fire in the belly wasn't burning bright enough. "I really don't have enough interest in the office," Kustra said in an interview Tuesday, "I did not care to raise the money it takes." Kustra brought a suburban perspective to the Republican governor who hails from downstate. He cited Chicago school reform, higher education reorganization, and UT It's meaner, more partisan, and more cynical and money Kustra seems to be almost all that matters." even criticism of former Supreme Court Chief Judge James Heiple among his accomplishments.

See story on Page 10..