Following are some of the stories reported by The Observer in July 2010 and 2011. These articles, gathered from various publications, are noteworthy for residents in that they remind us of where we’ve been as a community. Readers can view further articles from those and other prior months by utilizing the “Archives By Month” menu tool on the right sidebar in all page views of this website.
Residents turned off by ‘dark sky’ proposal (2010)
A well-lit church steeple might be picturesque to some and a beacon to others, but at least one northwest suburban village president wouldn’t mind pulling the plug, saying the glare makes it hard to see the stars and detracts from the beauty of the nighttime sky.
“At 3 a.m., my sense is that God’s pretty powerful, and he knows where the church is,” said Robert Abboud, village president of Barrington Hills.
The full TribLocal article can be viewed here.
Landowner faces big fine for wood piles, dogs (2010)
Philip Maksymonko’s property in Barrington Hills is as secluded as most of the parcels of land that line the roads of this rural oasis in the middle of the Northwest suburbs.
For the last half decade, though, his neighbors claim he has caused problems for everyone in the area by keeping huge wood piles on his property, raising dogs and composting his dogs’ feces.
Read the Daily Herald account of the story here.
Village expected to be fully lit up again by midnight (2011)
The tiny village of Barrington Hills, which was left in the dark when a storm swept through the suburbs Monday, should soon be lit up again, as electricity to 250 homes is expected to be restored by midnight, a spokesman for ComEd said Friday. Since Monday, power has been restored to 1,300 households, the spokesman said.
TribLocal’s story of last year’s massive power outage can be read here.
Village Board considering ZBA proposal on horse boarding (2011)
ZBA chair Judith Freeman presented a proposal to address horse boarding codes in the Village at the July BOT meeting. President Abboud deferred discussion/comment by the board on the ZBA proposal until the August BOT meeting to allow time for trustees to further consider the proposal.
The ZBA proposal calls for any property owner that boards ten (10) horses or more within the Village on R-1 properties to be classified as “Commercial” and residents boarding nine (9) or fewer horses would be allowed to conduct their businesses under the “Home Occupation Ordinance.”
For more detail, download a copy of the ZBA proposal from a year ago this month here.
– The Observer
