Dispatches from Chicago's south side.
And as always this:Please use the following resources to keep you safe and warm:
- Keep warm Illinois
- A website aimed at identifying warming centers around the state and other information necessary to assist with keeping warm during the cold months of the year.
- Getting around Illinois
- The website will provide residents and motorists with information regarding the status of our roads.
- ComED energy assistance
Be careful out there everyone! Stay safe and warm!Please check on elderly neighbors and make sure that you and any children under your care are sufficiently bundled up if you must go outside. Please do not forget pets and keep them indoors during these extreme conditions.
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Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, whose ward includes a small part of the northwest corner of Jackson's 2nd Congressional District, said he was not worried that some of his constituents will be without House representation while Jackson is treated.
"Those of us around here will help out with constituent services," Sawyer said, adding that U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis "will be very helpful in that regard."
Sawyer, who had no insight about Jackson's condition or whereabouts, said Jackson "needs to focus on getting well, concentrate on himself and his family, his wife and his children. Those are the important things now."
City sticker sales at the 6th Ward Service Office on June 19th! Also refer to our calendar for other ward office sales in nearby wards! Information provided by Greater Chatham Alliance:Dear Alderman Sawyer,
I live behind McDade School, And It's becoming a nightmare for our young children to play in the McDade Campus. The"Young Adults Thugs" are trying to take over!!! It's starting about 7 until 1:00 p.m.and sometimes later than that!! Please have the bicycle police or squads to canvas the areas in the evening. These Young People are smoking, having sex Parties in there vans or cars leaving waste materials every where in the school and on our blocks. PLease see what you can do. A Very Concerned Citizen of The Chatham Community.
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As for the show, it was taped in March, before the election and I asked Atty. Kim Egonwan, a resident to do the interview to highlight the talent we have in our Ward. I can not con...tinue to do show as Alderman because their is soon to be a new Alderman. It will be his decision as to whether he wishes to continue a Cable TV show. In fact over the years less than 10 of 50 taped any sort of show (until election time).As for the service office, it was in response to Worlee's comment about what's been going on in Ald. Lyle's office since she lost the run off election:
As to the office, the office is not closed. None of my full time staff persons have taken vacation. We’ve continued to serve the residents everyday, except for 2 and phone, email and walk in requests are still being handled. The Streets & Sanitation Office remains open and those services continue also. I’ve continued to meet with residents, City officials and I attended the last Council meeting. I held a monthly meeting and wrote a monthly Newsletter. As that was to be the last Aldermanic Ward meeting, most of those who attended came to wish me well. To my surprise, 2 persons came, I suppose, to see if I was broken and bowed. I am not and thus they left disappointed.
I took no vacation last year & can’t be paid for that time, so I took a vacation last week and will be taking another shortly, as I am permitted to do. Brian also is entitled to vacation and is taking his before he starts his new job in another Ward. So everything else written above by wg is wrong. Finally, questions about my office, staff or actions will almost certainly be answered by myself or my staff as soon as we receive them.
Literally, the 6th ward service personnel have literally all resigned. The alderman and streets and sanitation supervisor are all on vacation. Also, the current 6th ward office closes down on May 1, 2011. The bottom line is there is nothing to report, this was and is not a smooth transition. wgNot sure what to believe about the transition between Lyle & Sawyer in addition to whether or not the current service office will close on May 1st. One outgoing Alderman - Mary Ann Smith (48th) - had already announced her office will be closed for business on May 1st.
Normally today, June 30th, is the day your old Chicago city vehicle sticker expires and must be replaced on your car’s windshield with the 2010/2011 sticker.Please note that on July 13, 2010 the Ald. Lyle's service office @ 406 East 75th Street will conduct vehicle sticker and parking permit sales from 10 AM to 6 PM.
Of course, the city traditionally gives stragglers a two week grace period to purchase and affix their $75 decal, making July 15th the ultimate deadline before drivers risk a $120 ticket for “failure to display” their city sticker.
But this year, because of an un-sticky situation, the Chicago City Clerk’s office has announced an unprecedented 15-day extension of the city sticker grace period extending the deadline for until July 30th.
This break from tradition is due to quality control issues the Chicago City Clerk’s office has been facing with this year’s stickers.
As reported last week, small batches of the first shipment of defective city stickers did not have enough adhesive to keep them affixed effectively to windshields. While complaints in the very first days of June alerted the Clerk’s office to the problem, and forced them to take quick action in tossing out what remained of the first shipment of 125,000 stickers, enough of the defective decals were mailed to drivers to make it an issue.
Ald Lyle had some engaged Chicagoans at her office this afternoon with the right message - a vote for the Chatham Wal-mart is a vote for 500 new jobs!
Ald. Lyle and her staff are unorganized and do everything in slow motion. City services are unevenly distributed, litter and pot holes are out of control. She needs to concentrate on the basics and try to recruit some younger more energetic staff and volunteers.This page has probably been up since the 2007 municipal elections and this comment was very recent from April 16th, 2009!
Illinois residents anxious to share their thoughts with newly-appointed Sen. Roland Burris are finding it's not an easy task.FTR, I'm not sure if they're referring to the Chatham neighborhood or the downstate city of Chatham, IL.
Wayne Lovern, of Chatham, said he called Burris’ office in Washington five times on Tuesday and got nothing but busy signals.
To make matters worse, Burris' Web page doesn't offer an e-mail address, only an extended curriculum vitae on the 74-year-old pol.
Lovern said he ended up e-mailing Sen. Dick Durbin's office and asking them to get the message -- his opinion of the economic stimulus bill pending in the Senate -- to the junior senator.
The newspaper got busy signals, an answering device that took a message that wasn’t returned and an answering device that said it couldn’t take a message because the mailbox was full. On Wednesday morning, a live person answered the phone and provided an e-mail address, Senator_RolandBurris@burris.senate.gov.
Someone from Burris’ office subsequently left a voice mail but did not provide a callback number. When a reporter tried calling Burris’ office number, it was either busy or was answered by the answering device with a full mailbox.
By contrast, it took just one call for a reporter to reach a live person at the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who was sworn in Jan. 27, two weeks after Burris.
“We need to be ramped up, and we will be ramped up,” said Fred Lebed, an unofficial aide and adviser to Burris who has worked with the senator since the 1970s. “It’s just been that the volume of calls and e-mails coming into the office has been phenomenal. We’re not at the staff level we should be.
“I can assure you,” Lebed said. “We recognize the problem.”
Thompson called about 90 minutes later.
“There is no excuse, and I’m not going to try to make excuses,” said Thompson, who promised that he would call Lovern and Franklin as well. “People should be able to reach us.”
