LOCAL NEWS – WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23rd 2019
Jim Leach
The Sycamore City Council did not vote on whether to allow the sale of marijuana in town at its Monday meeting. Instead, the council heard testimony from residents. According to the Daily Chronicle, two residents spoke out against allowing the sale in Sycamore, saying that they enjoy the safety of the community. City Manager Brian Gregory said that while Sycamore doesn’t have to allow the sale in town, the city cannot prohibit anyone from possessing it. The council will hear a second reading of the ordinance on November 4.
DeKalb businessman Jim Mason has dropped his lawsuit against School District 428. According to the Daily Chronicle, Mason had sued the district over an alleged high number of students who attend district schools but don’t live in the district boundaries. The Chronicle reports that Mason said on his radio show that he isn’t backing down from his claims about the enrollment, but decided to end his years-long legal battle with the district. His lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge last month, and Mason filed an appeal. He asserts that out-of-district students were causing property taxes to rise in the district.
City of DeKalb officials have begun working on the budget for Fiscal Year 2020, which totals $104 million – an operating fund of $38 million and a pension fund of $61 million. The Daily Chronicle is reporting that City Manager Bill Nicklas is hoping to have a full draft of the budget by November 15. The budget will then be presented in a public hearing before moving to the City Council for approval in December. At the Monday meeting of the city’s Financial Advisory Committee, Nicklas presented some funding recommendations to help repair streets and city fleets, and also reiterated the importance of potentially 1,000 new jobs coming to the city with two major companies considering coming to DeKalb’s Chicago West Business Center.
The Kendall County Sheriff’s Office has charged the driver of a hayrack tractor in a Plano accident on October 12 that left 14 people injured and a DeKalb woman cited for her role in the incident. The Daily Chronicle reports that Gary Sleezer of Plano was cited for operating a farm tractor on a roadway that wasn’t being used for farm purposes. 22-year-old Kaitlin Minick of DeKalb was driving west on River Road when her vehicle struck the back of the hay wagon. She was treated and released at the scene, but cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. The accident remains under investigation, and police are working to determine if Minick was texting and driving at the time of the accident.