Click here for one Financial Advisory Committee member’s recommendations for DeKalb’s FY2009 budget. Then comment, here and/or at Mac’s.
Category: Payment Due?
Value Engineering
Here’s a quickie overview from Wiki on Value Engineering, a recommendation we hope soon will be discussed by our school district’s Facilities Planning Committee as regards upcoming school construction. Also called value analysis, VE is a structured process of gathering and evaluating information about goods and services in terms of function and cost with an…
FPC Bombshell
The Facilities Planning Committee began planning “Phase II” of the school construction plan last night, but I could not concentrate. Part of it was brain-deadness because these meetings run too darn long, part of it was shock. Here’s why: No matter what we do to cut construction costs, we will still not come under the…
Note from Ivan on the Cop Shop
Update: The meeting dates for the Police Facility Advisory Committee are Wednesday, June 11; Thursday, June 19; and Thursday, June 26; all at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers. [Once again, Ivan Krpan brings us one of his “comments”–this time on the city’s advisory committee for the new police station–that should have been a post in…
The Absurdity of the Airport, & Other Budget Tales
Tonight at the budget workshop I remarked that it was kind of nonsensical and backwards (exact words) to continue to carry this albatross of an airport (paraphrase) when the police department does not have adequate facilities. Later in the evening, I was rebutted with a pretty picture presented by Public Works Director Rick Monas of…
District 428 & the Grassroots: Yeah, Right: Part 1
So last month I e-mailed the members of the District 428 school board a link to the great precast discussion (vs. bricks-and-mortar construction on the new high school and Cortland elementary school) we were having here at CityBarbs, in view of the debate we were so sure would occur soon at a Facilities Planning Committee…
More Water, Please
Goodness, now here’s an interesting comment on the proposed water rate hike and infrastructure. boomer44 wrote on Apr 27, 2008 9:06 AM: ” This is BS! Sure rates should go up sometime but the fact that they are saying that they need to build additional infrastructure is crazy. Our community is currently at 41,000 in…
Skating Rink Tearing Me Apart
On the one hand, the city’s shelling out $75,000 for a skating rink (p. 9) seems frivolous and inappropriate in view of the recent two tax increases, an impending big rise in water rates Monday, and a few more tax hikes coming down the pike shortly. (Not even a kiss first!) So, maybe I should…
The Fatal Flaw in Home Rule Law
[This is the 2nd part of a series examining home rule in Illinois. The first one is here.] Municipal home rule powers are granted by the Illinois Constitution. Except as limited by this Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not…
Note from Ivan Krpan
[I think Ivan’s got a great handle on the big picture. I am reprinting comments he made earlier today in a separate post as they should not be missed. Also it makes it easier to send a link to the City Council. (Wink.)] Here is some of my concerns. I like to be able to…