The District 220 PTO Presidents’ Council extends an invitation to the Barrington 220 community of voters to attend its School Board Candidates’ Forum on Wednesday, March 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Barrington Area Library*.
There are seven school board candidates running for three seats on the Board of Education in the upcoming April 4 election. The seven candidates include:
Barry Altshuler (Current board member)
Leah Collister-Lazzari (Current board member)
Katey Baldassano
Diana L. Clopton
Nelda Munoz
Leonard Munson
Matt Sheriff
The event will start with a short period of introduction by each candidate, followed by a question and answer session using questions from the audience and questions submitted in advance online.
The forum is open to all District 220 voters and is free of charge. All interested community members are encouraged to attend. Seating is limited to 120 attendees and will be first come first serve.
*Barrington Area Library provides meeting room space as a community service. The Barrington Area Library neither sponsors nor endorses this event nor the presenting individuals or organizations.
One or two strings of lights just won’t cut it. To contend for the Daily Herald’s annual holiday lights contest, you have to think big. We’re talking lights, music, fake snow, candy canes, inflatables, Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, toy soldiers and, well, you get the idea.
Entries will be accepted from Thursday until noon Dec. 9 at events.dailyherald.com. The grand prize winner will be determined by online votes. Voting will start Dec. 11 and end Dec. 14.
The grand prize winner and Editor’s Choice winners from DuPage County, the Fox Valley, Lake County and the Northwest suburbs will appear in the Dec. 21 edition of the Daily Herald.
Entries must be residences within the Daily Herald coverage area. Previous grand prize recipients are ineligible to win again.
The grand prize winner will receive a $100 gift card from Ala Carte Entertainment. The Editor’s Choice winners each will receive a $50 Ala Carte Entertainment gift card.
A southern sea otter is one of two females at Shedd Aquarium that are part of a program in which rescued females that can’t be released into the wild are raised to be surrogate moms to orphaned pups.
Over the next week, Shedd Aquarium is looking for help to name one of the two female otters that arrived in Chicago from California this month. These furry marine mammals will join the rescued sea otter population in the exhibit in the Abbott Oceanarium.
Otters 926 and 929 are a 9-month-old pair that were discovered separately on the coast of California. At just two weeks old, they were found alone with no mother or adult otters in sight, according to a statement from Shedd Aquarium. The Monterey Bay Aquarium rescued the two and ever since, the otters have been referred to as their intake numbers, 926 and 929.
The animal care team that oversees the health and well-being of North America’s smallest marine mammals, will vote to name otter 926. Meanwhile, the public will get to vote to name otter 929.
The Shedd Aquarium staff created a short list of names for the public to choose from, each inspired by a location along the coast of California where sea otters can be found.
Jade is for the Jade Cove located in the southern area of Big Sur in California. Sunny is for Sunset Beach next to Asilomar Beach in California. Willow is for the Willow Creek Picnic Area and Beach in Monterey County, California.
Members of the public can submit digital votes as many times as they would like.
Did you know that the Village has an Ethics Commission? The independent commission adds to the overall transparency of our government and serves to investigate complaints alleging violations of the Ethics Chapter of the Village Code. We are proud to report that this 3-member Commission has never once had to meet regarding a violation!”
As previously chronicled in this publication, if one searches ourVillage Code, keying in the word “ethics,” the result reads, “No Matches Found.”
Our Village needs an Ethics Commission. How else could parties involved in complaints present their respective cases to determine if ethics violations did, or did not, occur? Listed below are typical practices that might arise in our Village, and in our opinion, may warrant investigation, understanding that there are no implications as to guilt or innocence of any on the list:
Should expensive legal battles, possibly precipitated by actions of elected and appointed Village officials, be investigated?
Should the hiring and retention of Village paid staff positions by elected family members be investigated?
Should contracts with vendors who maintain personal and professional relationships with elected Village officials and their families be investigated?
Should the solicitations of funds and hand selection of vendors by family members or close friends of elected Village officials, absent oversight by appointed Village committees, be investigated?
For these and other reasons, our Village needs to appoint an Ethics Commission to act as ombudsmen, when any question of potential maladministration or ethics violations is considered or occurs.
Candidates for this proposed commission could come from existing appointed Village bodies, ones whose objectivity would be unquestioned.
The perfect candidates for this roll are the incumbent members of the Board of Heath. They are highly qualified, underutilized, and would prove to be an effective force in maintaining ethical governance of the Village of Barrington Hills.
“If passengers on flights approaching O’Hare can see your holiday lights, then this contest is for you.
Entries in the Daily Herald’s annual holiday lights contest will be accepted through Dec. 6. Visit events.dailyherald.com to upload a photo.
Online voting will run Dec. 8-12. The top vote-getter will receive a $250 gift certificate redeemable at Ala Carte Entertainment restaurants throughout the area. Previous grand prize recipients are not eligible to win again.
The winners of Editor’s Choice awards for DuPage County, the Fox Valley, Lake County and the Northwest suburbs each will receive a $50 Ala Carte Entertainment gift card.
The winners will be featured in the Dec. 22 edition of the Daily Herald.”
-Daily Herald report
Editorial note: A link to the Village “Exterior Lighting Regulations” can be found here.
