Survey of New vs. Old Champaign Central 1.5 mile radius.

Survey of New vs. Old Champaign Central 1.5 mile radius.

     Champaign School Board Member John Bambenek has been commenting on Smile Politely regarding the amount of money the busing students to the northern Interstate Drive location. http://www.smilepolitely.com/splog/racial_accusations_fly_as_unit_4_is_expected_to_place_interstate_drive_site/ I applaud Mr. Bambenek for at least engaging the community while much of the School Board has not engaged on this level.

     In the comments, Bambenek states, "The transportation numbers that everyone keeps saying are going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars are complete junk. Not partial junk, not kinda junk, absolutely worthless junk. It makes the assumption that 0 students live within 1.5 miles. Look at a map, that's obviously not true."

Student Density from Unit 4 Website

     While I am sure you may find some school children within the 1.5 mile radius, it does not take much effort to see that the bulk of students are going to be located outside this radius. While the radius of the current school includes much of the community, the radius of the new site does not have a significant population density. Based on my mapping, 1.5 miles does not reach Bradley Avenue.

     Bambenek goes on to chastise residents saying, "I can't for the life of me understand why in a town of so many educated people treats the idea that moving one high school (when the other high school and 3 middle schools are also served by MTD) would entail increasing costs by 400%. It's absurd on its face."

     Maybe it won't be 400%, but it is likely to increase significantly as the number of students within 1.5 miles of the school goes down significantly. That number is probably not zero. Is that number significantly huge? I don't think so. I encourage Mr. Bambenek to provide how many 8th graders and under are enrolled in the rough 1.5 circle below. Folks, I guarantee you that there are a significantly more currently inside the current 1.5 zone of Central.

     At least one commenter presented a link to a 2012 scholarly study, by Holly Nelson which outlined increased costs for the Interstate Drive location. http://www.champaignschools.org/sites/default/files/transportation_impact_study.pdf She also stated that almost no one would be able to bike to the location.

     Mapping programs can give an indication of the population of a roughly 1.5 mile radius. It should be noted that much of the Interstate drive is populated by fields and shopping. I have mapped the roughly middle of the new high school property and the middle of the current Central High School to give a rough indication of the 1.5 mile line for the need to bus.

New Central Proposed Location

Current Champaign Central Location

Students who are currently using the buses are already subjected to being late several times a week and crowded buses. With further to travel and more students using the buses, students will have to start earlier and may experience more delays with traffic that plagues up north.

If you travel anywhere in the vicinity of Champaign Central, you will see students walking and riding bicycles to school. This is likely to stop with the new location.

Bambenek states that, "Under no circumstance whatsoever will Unit 4 ever pay an amount of busing for one high school worth of students that is well above the cost of buying annual bus passes for all 10,000 of our students, their siblings and their parents."

Unfortunately, if you buy 10,000 passes at $72 a pass, assuming no discounts, and were able to increase frequency and availability of service with no additional money, you are looking at $720,000. With Bambenek's number of $230,000 currently spent, an increase of a little over 213 percent but of course not the 400 others have claimed.

This still does not address students being stranded out there past time when buses pick-up students. Currently my daughter, a middle school student at Franklin Middle School, plays Jazz band. She has to be a school at 7am for practice. Currently, Unit 4 does not provide transportation for her at that time. Neither does it after her after school meetings for sports or organizations. Does Unit 4 have a plan to do so after the move out there?

Practices, late night basketball games, football, band events, theatre. Is someone going to provide transportation to low incoming students after an away game? Is Unit 4 going to provide transportation for all of them or will it fall on the shoulders of the parents who currently bear the brunt of it. My guess is that it will fall on the parents. Traffic which is already a mess, will get worse. Use of cars will rise and use of pedestrian and bicycle traffic will decrease.

No one denies that an increase in seats is needed. However, this location continues to be a barrier to providing those seats.

Champaign Snow Plows 'Phone It In'

It is not amazing that it takes almost 24 hours to get a snow plow down my street in Champaign, IL. This is common place. What is amazing is that when one does come down our street, the driver has the blade six inches off the road. It did almost nothing since the neighborhood cars have already packed it down.

This is basically what the Don Gerard administration has brought us. If they are going to phone it in, please spare us the gasoline and salary. With government the quality of ours, I am wondering if we would be better off with a lawn tractor and a plow. It is becoming more and more obvious that government is not the answer in most cases.

Voters will soon have the opportunity to send a message and send home our local politicians. Let's end the waste, vote them out.

Champaign Unit 4 Chief Council Can't Practice Law in Illinois

Per John C. A. Bambenek's Facebook :

 

Champaign Unit 4 School District creates a lucrative chief counsel position then gives it to board member who resigns to take the high-paying job. Funny thing is, shouldn't have they have checked to see if the lawyer they were hiring was actually authorized to practice law in Illinois before giving him that nice salary? Check for yourself at Illinois' ARDC website, Thomas Lockman.

 

http://www.iardc.org/ldetail.asp?id=650121984

 

 

Gerard's Independent Claim Doesn't Hold Up

 Gerard's Independent Claim Doesn't Hold Up

Filed State Documents for his Mayoral Political Committee as a Democrat

Don Gerard, throughout his brief political career, has maintained that he is non-partisan. This is a stance that does not hold up in either actions nor in documents Gerard has filed.

On January 26, 2011, I asked Gerard what his party affiliation is and he responded, “Thank you for your note and interest in the municipal election on April 5. I am an independent candidate for a non-partisan position” Gerard wrote.

Unfortunately, the paper trail betrays Gerard's assertion that he is non-partisan and an independent. His very own Friends of Gerard Candidate Political Committee was created with Form D-1 submitted to the State Board of Elections on September 29, 2010 states on question 5B that his political party affiliation is “Democratic.”

For those who want to see the document, it is a matter of public record and a scanned PDF can be seen here: http://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/CommitteeDetail.aspx?id=22970&pageindex=1

Now I don't care if Don Gerard subscribes to a certain political leaning. What I do care about is when he is asked a direct question, that he answers it correctly and without side-stepping the issue. If he is a Democrat, like his documents state, then say so if asked.

No city Council Meeting but Little Information on City Website

I was interested in the city council meeting for July 31st but could not find any information on it. I search several areas of the website figuring it would be on the front page. It wasn't. I finally found it but only after doing a search for July 31st on the website.

http://ci.champaign.il.us/2012/07/26/no-city-council-meeting-for-july-31-2012/

No City Council Meeting for July 31, 2012

There is no City Council Meeting on July 31, 2012. The next Regular Meeting of the Champaign City Council will be held in the City Council Chambers of the City Building, 102 N. Neil St in Champaign, at 7:00pm.

 

Unfortunately, what date is the next regular meeting being held on? Everyone makes mistakes but when there is a change, shouldn't the information be better disseminated?

Thanks to Karen Foster who was the only one who informed me of the 5th Tuesday of the month rule via Twitter, but I could not find that in a search on the city's website. How can citizens be better informed about their city government when it is so hard to find information?

Fire Chief Confirms Watering Will Stop through Drought

According to Fire Chief Douglas Forsman the City will stop watering at all fire stations through the end of the drought. Champaign Liberty has really made a difference. You have made a difference.

In a personal e-mail he sent to Champaign Liberty Friday afternoon Forsman stated, "Todd, we had a discussion at City Hall today and your points are well taken.  In addition, it appears that with rare exceptions, our efforts to save landscaped lawns were failing.  I have just issued an order to our staff to cease watering any lawns at our 6 fire stations (a couple were never doing so).  We will continue to hand water the shrubs as needed.  Thanks for your input and patience."

So it is possible to enact change in your local community. Unfortunately, the City of Champaign has so much more that needs to be done but this is a good first step.

It was good that Chief Foresman confirmed this. I had heard that claiming that we had won this common sense argument but it is good that he came out and acknowledged it. It meant a lot.

Unfortunately, I have not heard from any of my communications with City Manager Steve Carter and Mayor Don Gerard or the City Council on this matter. They could use to learn a lesson from Chief Forsman. I may have been critical of some of his decisions in the past month or so but I respect the fact that he was adult enough to stand up and have a reasonable debate on the subjects and admit when a change in policy is warranted.

I encourage Chief Foresman, Mayor Gerard and Manager Carter to start to look at ways they can have water friendly landscapes. It is likely that the sod is not going to make it and it may not come back. Sod was a bad idea and of course money has been wasted on it. Lets challenge these leaders to come up with something better that will not fritter away water which is our most valuable resource next to oxygen. To go back to the same old sod, really isn't going to solve anything. We need bold new ideas in this avenue and the city should be leading by example in this situation. Only time will tell if lessons have been learned or not. This may not be a one year problem.

If you have some ideas or information on what needs to be changed in the Champaign area, let me know by e-mailing me at champaignliberty@gmail.com. All communication is anonymous unless you let me know you want your information submitted.

Fire Chief Forsman Admits to Using Public Space to Park RV

In June, I was out at the YMCA and saw an RV parked at the Champaign Fire Station Number 6. I wondered what that was about and did not think anything more about it till I was out there a couple of weeks later and saw it still parked at the firehouse.  An investigation alluded that it was the Fire Chief Doug Forsman who had it parked out there.

Chief Forsman confirmed via e-mail that it was in fact his, “You are correct that my personal RV was parked in a rear corner of the parking lot at Fire Station Number Six for about 2.5 weeks.”  When questioned about the rationale of that storage he stated, “.  As I am on call at all times, I much prefer being close to town and available during my after hours(SIC) time when I was accomplishing the repairs.  Thus I decided to work on it at that location. “

Forsman continues by saying, “However, it was parked at the far SW corner of the lot away from any usable areas and would not under any circumstance represent a hazard. I am unable to work on it at home since my driveway is too short.” Unfortunately, Forsman  has just unwittingly given anybody else who wants to do park their RV a broad opening to argue that they should be able to.

The problem is a working Fire Station the best place for RV storage and a repair depot? What if other fire fighters, city workers or residents want to do the same thing? Have we created a situation where a public servant can do what he or she wants just because he is in charge? Chief Forsman has created a situation where he has opened himself up to scrutiny and gives him limited recourse if some other employee tried to do the same thing. In this situation, I feel that he has overstepped his authority and needs to pay back the citizens of Champaign for his actions.

 “I don't pay for storage but normally store it outdoors at a rural property of a friend,” Forsman said. I suggest that Forsman does owe the city of Champaign rent for that time he was there.

”There were certainly no laws broken.  I agree that it was probably poor judgement(SIC) to leave it there as long as I did.  I certainly apologize if it offended you or anyone else.  It has been returned to its rural storage area for some time now,” Forsman said. A resident who wishes to remain unnamed stated to me when they heard about Forsman’s response and said, “A typical politician’s response. I broke no laws except those of common sense!”

As will see in the coming weeks, there are plenty of issues with the Champaign city government and particularly with department heads and departments. Mayor Don Gerard has had a year to try to clean things up and has been unwilling or unsuccessful. The common link between both the Schweighart and Gerard administrations is city manager Steve Carter. Ultimately, it is Carter who is responsible and whom needs to take the heat. Like Forsman, maybe it is time to retire.