The fire that gutted a Barrington Hills mansion earlier this month illustrates the kind of herculean challenge that suburban fire departments face when battling blazes in neighborhoods that lack the fire hydrants many communities take for granted.
In all, 40 fire companies from departments as far away as Hebron, Des Plaines, Hanover Park and West Chicago converged on Barrington Hills April 18 to blast the fire with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. But instead of hooking their hoses to nearby hydrants, all of that water had to be brought in from elsewhere in trucks, ratcheting up the degree of difficulty for firefighters.
Read more here.
Anyone else get their property tax bill and find that you are flabbergasted by the change in rates for taxes for the district 220 schools? Or the Harper College? Our rates are up more than 2.5 times what last year’s allocations % were last year for both, yet most other taxing bodies have only slight increases ( 5-20%). We live in Kane County, but the schools are in all 4 counties – what gives? How can the school district raise their take more than 200%? Is this a mistake or are they allowed to raise their any that much in one year?