City of Evanston Blog
Articles Posted in: General Announcements
Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
1. Under presentations we will be recognizing Evanston residents Adrian and Daphne Dortch who have recently participated in the NBC television program, “The Biggest Loser” a weight loss reality show. The Dortchs will also be speaking at the kick off of this year’s Women Out Walking on Saturday. 2. Staff will be giving an update on our efforts to sell water to other neighboring communities. We are now in discussions to sell water to 11 new communities. 3. Presentation of…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
1. Township of Evanston Meeting: Final action on FY 2010/11 budget and further discussion of next steps with organization/dissolution of Township. Corporation Counsel will review answers to questions from Township Board at meeting and distribute additional written information. 2. Staff and consultant with provide overview of what we heard through “Engage Evanston” process over last month and summarize results of community meetings and surveys on budget. Proposed budget will be released on Friday October 7. First City Council budget…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All links are Adobe Acrobat PDF Monday is the City Council's last meeting before its Summer Recess. The next meeting of the City Council is Monday September 12, 2011. 1. The Council will receive an update on FY 2012 budget preparation. Staff has been reviewing and costing 39 service changes and will report on our progress. In addition, staff will report on its exercise to prioritize every service provided by the City. We hope that this information will be helpful…
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Latest Power Outage Information
The latest power outage information can be found on the City's News Site. …
Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All Links PDF 1. Discussion of Exploration of Alternate Property Uses /Alternate Provision of Services: Chandler-Newberger Community Center, Noyes Cultural Arts Center and Harley Clarke Mansion (Evanston Arts Center) 2. Consideration of purchase of animal control vehicle from Village of Wilmette. This purchase would be for cash only and would not involve any consideration for provision of animal control services by Evanston for Wilmette. Those discussions are continuing with Wilmette separately. 3. Consideration of issuance of 2011 General Obligation Bonds. 4. Consideration of…
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Power Outage Update - 6:30 PM Friday June 24, 2011
ComEd reached out to Evanston this afternoon and located a staff member at our Utilities Department to coordinate its efforts here. 223 customers remained without power at 6:30 PM. It remains ComEd's goal to restore all power by end of Friday. Kudos to ComEd for stepping up it's response here today.…
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Power Outage Update - 9:30 AM Friday June 24, 2011
Much progress has been made in last twelve hours in restoring power around Evanston, however several hundred residents scattered around the community remain without power. ComEd still believes that all customers will have power restored by end of day today. Contact 3-1-1 for information regarding any general City issues or 9-1-1 for emergency medical or police assistance. …
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Power Outage Update - 5:00 PM Thursday June 23, 2011
Evanston Utility Department staff spoke with ComEd representatives late this afternoon. There are still over 2,100 customers in Evanston without power. The biggest concentration is in southeast Evanston. The number of customers there are larger than previously reported. Many customers have had power restored in north Evanston, but pockets of outages remain throughout the City. ComEd still believes that all customers will have power restored by end of day Friday. Evanston Police and Fire Departments will continue extended patrols in…
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Power Outage Update - 10:00 AM Thursday June 23, 2011
Some power was restored last night in northwest Evanston. Still areas in northeast Evanston, lakefront neighborhoods and scattered smaller pockets around the City without power, estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 customers. No good estimates when all will be restored in Evanston, other than general ComEd estimates for full area restoration by end of day Friday. Contact 3-1-1 for information regarding any general City issues or 9-1-1 for emergency medical or police assistance. …
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Power Outage Update - 3:00 PM
ComEd is making slow progress in restoring power throughout the region. It looks like many Evanston residents will face another night in the dark. The City is finalizing plans for the night to address these issues. We will have more information here by 5:00 PM. …
Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All link to Adobe Acrobat Files (PDF). The City Council sitting as the Township of Evanston Board will consider the Township's FY 2011/12 budget. Items for the City Council: 1. Consideration of memorandum of understanding for employment of Police Sergeants bargaining unit through December 31, 2012. 2. Consideration of amending the City Code to prohibit the use of leaf blowers on holidays. Prohibition currently exists for Sundays. A resident who has been bothered on two consecutive Thanksgiving Days by leaf…
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Firefighter Examination Today
Over 500 people gathered this morning at ETHS to take the firefighter candidate exam. …
Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All links to Adobe Acrobat Files 1. Consideration of new two year, eight month contract to operate City parking garages. 2. Consideration of the first of multiple revisions to the Evanston City Code. The Law Department has done a beginning to end review of the City Code and will be bringing revisions to the Code by Title over the next several months. These first revisions include changes to the General Administration, Boards and Commissions and Administrative Adjudication sections of the…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
The City Council is transitioning to a new schedule that will include a regular meeting on the third Monday of each month. Items for this meeting at 7 PM will be reserved for presentations and discussions of larger community-wide issues. Items on Monday's agenda (all links PDF): 1. Discussion on issues related to construction of new salt dome. This is an issue that was discussed at some length by the City Council most recently in late 2008 and early…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
1. Mayor Tisdahl will be presenting a Key to the City to Rotary International President Ray Klinginsmith and an appreciation plaque to retiring Rotary General Secretary Ed Futa. Several members of the Rotary International Board of Directors are also expected to attend the City Council meeting. Rotary International has been headquartered in Evanston since 1955. An article in this month's Rotarian magazine gives a history of the headquarters of Rotary. 2. Consideration of a lease for space in the Evanston Main…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
Links are to PDF files unless otherwise indicated: 1. Presentation by Downtown Evanston on results of study for future uses of the Varsity Theater. 2. Consideration of tax on disposable carryout bags. 3. Consideration of updates to City's subdivision ordinance. Agenda Full Agenda Packet…
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Newsy Items on Tuesday City Council Agenda
The City Council meets once a year on a Tuesday for a regular meeting when the Township of Evanston holds its annual meeting. I talked last year about the Township in the Blog. The Township meeting will start around 7:30 PM after the regular meetings of the Council's Administration and Public Works and Planning and Development committees. After the Township meeting and before the City Council meeting, the City Council will recognize the Evanston Kiwanis Club and the Rotary Club of…
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City Council Meeting Format to be Discussed by Rules Committee
The City Council's schedule is a little different this week because of the annual meeting of Evanston Township jointly held with the City Council on Tuesday night. So the Council decided last month to move the monthly Rules Committee meeting in April to the second Monday. Many members were out of town last week for Spring Vacation, so all works out. The main item on Monday night's Rules Committee agenda is to review some research Executive Assistant to the City…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All links are Adobe Acrobat PDF. No Planning and Development Committee Meeting. Full City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:15 PM. 1. Community and Economic Development Committee staff will give an update on NSP 2 and other affordable housing initiatives. 2. Review of plan for three year schedule for public elm tree injection program. This is follow up from direction during FY 2011 budget deliberations. 3. Consideration of subdivision of former Kendall College site. Staff expects that the…
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FY 2012 Budget Preparation Begins Early
The City Council will be meeting tomorrow night to begin discussion on the preparation of the FY 2012 budget. Never before in my 22 years of local government service have I been involved in starting the discussion of the preparation of the next year's budget nine months before its start. I bring the issue to the City Council so far in advance because I believe the decisions made for FY 2012 will set a course for the City of Evanston…
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Judge Jean-Baptiste
I had the pleasure of joining Mayor Tisdahl and Aldermen Holmes. Wilson and Grover yesterday at the Illinois Supreme Court in Chicago to witness Lionel Jean-Baptiste's swearing in ceremony as a new Cook County Circuit Court Judge. Supreme Court Justice Charles Freeman presided at the ceremony which was attended by Judge Jean-Baptiste's extended family and friends. Sorry for fuzzy IPhone photo.…
Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All links are Adobe PDF files unless otherwise indicated. 1. Farewell to Alderman Jean-Baptiste as he leaves to become a Cook County Circuit Court Judge 2. Consideration of new City policy on sponsorship and advertising and consideration of RFP for a pilot program for an advertising on City property. The City is beginning a process of being more aggressive in bringing in non-tax revenue to support City services. These items are among the first in this new effort. The pilot advertising…
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Happy 106th Birthday Rotary International
Today marks the anniversary of the founding of Evanston-based Rotary International 106 years ago today. Read more about that night in 1905 at this Rotary history page.…
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Weird Coincidence in Evanston, WY
The Evanston, Wyoming City Council last week appointed a replacement to serve out remainder of term of it's Second Ward Alderman. Read all about it in the Unita County (WY) Herald.…
Thanks for Patience with Snow
On behalf of the City of Evanston, my thanks to everyone in the community for your understanding and cooperation as we have worked to move snow out of your way. It has been a major undertaking. Staff has been working 24 hours a day since last Tuesday afternoon to clear and remove snow. There are many things we think we did right and many things we want to change not only for the next blizzard, but anytime we declare a…
Thoughts on Housing Occupancy Issues
A good part of last week was spent on reports of City enforcement strategies of housing rental occupancy laws in Evanston. The City issued a release that goes over the specifics. It was a frustrating series of events. Many renters in Evanston are students at Northwestern University. The student newspaper, the Daily Northwestern, wrote an article Tuesday that started a chain of events that played out over the next several days. The article stated that the City would start enforcing…
Special City Council Meeting Monday / 311 and Mass Notification
The City Council will be meeting Monday at 7 PM to discuss and approve two new policies to help us roll out two new City services. First, the City Council will get an update on our launch of 311 on March 1 (3-1-11). In addition the Council will be asked to approve service level agreements for the operation of 311. These service level agreements will be the City's contract with the community on the time frame the City responds to…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All links Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files unless indicated: 1. There has been a lot of discussion recently about drinking water quality in the news. Utilities Department staff will be doing a presentation sharing information on how we regularly test our water, including a video tour of of water testing lab. 2. Update on progress of selecting team to design, build, operate and finance new Recreation and Ice Center at Crown Park. The three final firms will be introduced to…
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City Launches New Transparency Website
The City of Evanston strives to promote transparency in all operations. By providing as much data as possible through our website, residents can be better informed about what is going on in their city. Transparency promotes accountability and openness and it is our hope that by being transparent we can help improve our effectiveness and the efficiency of city operations. The launch of our new Transparency site exhibits our commitment as a city to our residents to do just that.…
City Council Actions - January 10, 2011
Special Order of Business (SP1) FY 2011 Capital Improvement Plan of the City of Evanston HELD FOR ACTION UNTIL FEBRUARY 14TH, 2011 The City Council decided to hold the CIP until staff responded to several additional questions. The City Manager recommended that the City Council consider reducing the amount of new CIP projects by approximately 1 million dollars. Administration & Public Works (A3.1) Approval of Fire & Life Safety Department Vehicle Replacement Purchase PASSES ON CONSENT AGENDA (A3.1) Approval of…
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Alderman Jean-Baptiste on WBEZ on Haiti
Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste was on WBEZ this afternoon talking about the one year anniversary of the earthquake and Haiti and his activities in support of disaster recovery efforts.…
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Christmas Morning Fire - 1807, 1809, 1811 Laurel
Evanston Fire Department was called to a structure fire at 1800 hundred block of Laurel around 5 AM this morning. The fire impacted all homes and rear garages at 1807, 1809, 1811 Laurel. No one was home at any of the houses and it is unclear if any of the houses were vacant. One EFD Firefighter was taken to the hospital with trouble breathing. He is in good condition. Fire units from all over area responded to assist at scene…
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Holiday Sustainability Ideas
The City's new Sustainable Programs Coordinator Catherine Hurley passes along the following post on holiday sustainability ideas: "As our cold winter weather continues, many people may be looking for creative activities to do inside and around the house. One tradition that many families participate in during the holidays is to donate extra or unneeded items to local charities. This also helps to make room for the gifts that we hope to receive. I saw a great article in the Evanston…
Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
All links PDF unless otherwise identified. 1. Recognition of the Evanston Police Department winning 2010 International Association of Chiefs of Police Community Policing Award. 2. Recognition of Retirement of Deputy Police Chief Demitrous Cook. 3. Continued discussion and action of changes to zoning of Churches in business zones. 4. Annual report of the City's Utilities Commission including review of service reports from ComEd. 5. Continued discussion and action of proposed adult day care facility at 524-26 Davis. 6. Discussion at…
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Evanston Wind Farm Article
The magazine "Next American City" has article about our efforts to put a wind farm in Lake Michigan in its Winter issue.…
Debt and the Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune newspaper is an expert on debt on many fronts. Unfortunately a recent editorial by the Chicago Tribune on local government debt got it wrong about Evanston. Below is the text of a Letter to the Editor Mayor Tisdahl sent today to the Tribune: Dear Editor: I am writing to express my concerns about the incomplete information contained in your December 3, 2010 editorial regarding debts and liabilities held by the City of Evanston. The editorial listed all…
Public Safety Pension Reforms Pass Illinois General Assembly
Here is a summary of the bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly today as prepared by Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator Matt Swentkofske: By a vote of 95 – 18 in the House and 47 to 4 in the Senate, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 3538 enacting some much needed Public Safety Pension reforms. Assuming the city keeps properly funding its police and fire pension funds, this enforcement measure will have little impact. If the city does not fund…
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Council Actions - 11/17/10
The City Council finished the majority of its work on the budget tonight and is set to approve the FY 2011 budget at its meeting Monday evening. Highlights: • Made no change to proposed Library budget and gave latitude to the Library Board to spend budget as it sees fit. This means that the branches will likely stay open. Not clear on other impacts to Library operations. • Approved a package of changes I proposed amending the original budget I…
Channel 16 Now Streaming on the Internet
The Evanston Community Media Center is now streaming Channel 16 live over the Internet 24 hours a day. Folks all over the world will now be able to see the City Council live and also able to watch scheduled playbacks. The City has added the feed to our website Thanks to ECMC Executive Director Steve Bartlebaugh and his team for making this happen.…
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3-1-1 Website
We have launched the beginning of a website on 3-1-1. It contains a list of frequently asked questions, links to on-line sites of other communities that will be using the same systems we will and links to additional information on 3-1-1 services around the county. …
World Polio Day
Rotary International Marks World Polio Day from Rotary International on Vimeo. Today is World Polio Day. Evanston-based Rotary International is the leader in the fight against polio. The video above gives an update on Rotary's efforts. …
Appearance on "Evanston Issues"
This week I taped a segment of the public access cable tv program "Evanston Issues" hosted by former Alderman Art Newman. The hour long program is a good overview of current issues facing Evanston.…
NU Professor and Evanston Resident Wins Nobel Prize
NU Economics Professor Dale Mortensen today was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. I checked our utility records and Professor Mortensen appears to be an Evanston resident. (Thanks for keeping your water and sewer payments up to date). Interesting question....How many other Nobel Laureates are Evanston residents?…
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Evanston Named Best Sports City in USA
Last year, I reported on the blog that Evanston was named the 4th best sports city in USA. Of course we were grouped in with another area city .......Chicago. Well, the same Sporting News poll has come out for 2010 and we are now the best sports city in the USA (with Chicago). It was the purple water in Fountain Square that made the difference. That or the Stanley Cup, but I bet it was the purple fountain.…
City Council Actions - September 27, 2010
CITY COUNCIL ACTIONS Monday, September 27, 2010 SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS: (SP1) Ordinances 57-O-10 and 63-O-10: Water & Sewer Rates Action: INTRODUCED (SP1a) Ordinance 57-O-10 Amending the Evanston City Code Title 7, Chapter 13, Relating to the City Sewer System Action: INTRODUCED (SP1b) Ordinance 63-O-10 Amending the Evanston City Code Title 7, Chapter 12, Relating to the City Waterworks System Action: INTRODUCED (SP2) Ordinance 52-O-10 Regarding Taxicab Regulation Action: PASS AS AMENDED (9-0) ADMINISTRATION & PUBLIC WORKS (A2) City of…
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Mayor Tisdahl Meets with Senator Richard Durbin
Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl met Friday afternoon with Illinois Senator Richard Durbin in Chicago to discuss Evanston issues and ask for the Senator's support of the City's Federal Community Challenge Planning Grant to construct 67 low-income housing units on the City's westside. This project, known as Emerson Square, would be an offshoot of the City's existing work through the $18 million NSP2 grant the City received last year. Mayor Tisdahl reports that Senator Durbin was very interested in the project and…
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Evanston Police and Fire Departments Now on Facebook
The City has recently added Facebook pages for the Evanston Police and Fire Departments. Check out all the City's Facebook pages on our website.…
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WBBM-TV Coverage of Metra Evanston Service Problems
Check out link to story on Channel 2 tonight regarding Metra issues in Evanston http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=74205@wbbm.dayport.com…
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Newsy Items on Monday City Council Agenda
Links to Adobe Acrobat Files (unless indicated). 1. Presentation by United Way of the North Shore commending the City on its 2009 employee campaign and announcing 2010 campaigns in Evanston. 2. Swearing in of New Evanston Fire Chief Greg Klaiber. 3. Presentation by NU Finance Professor Joshua Rauh on state of public pensions. Rauh is a national expert on the subject and will comment on his views of Evanston's pension issues. More info on Rauh on his Kellogg School website.…
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New On-Line City Code
The City Clerk's Office changed the vendor that codifies our City Code. With the change, there is a new web interface for accessing the Evanston City Code. Big day for us government geeks......…
Blog Turns One Year Old
This blog is celebrating its first anniversary today. During the past year, I have posted 248 entries to the blog which have received 208 total comments from the public. The most commented blog post dealt with feral cats, while the ones with the most visits talked about animal control, snow and our efforts to bring Google to Evanston. The blog has had 19,275 "page views." I have been doing a blog between here and my former position in Santa Paula,…
Evanston Commercial on NU/Vanderbilt Football Broadcast
The NU Athletic Department has made available to the City a 30 second commercial slot in the broadcast of the NU/Vanderbilt football game Saturday night beginning at 6:30 PM. The game will be televised on CLTV. The Evanston Community Media Center took the video they made for us for the Google campaign and created a 30 second spot for us.…
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Edzos Burgers Featured in Bon Appetit
Bon Appetit magazine has featured Edzo's in Evanston as a must stop restaurant when visiting Chicago. Thanks to Alderman Jane Grover for picking this up.…
Sustainability Coordinator Heads Back Home
Carolyn Collopy, the City's Sustainability Coordinator, is leaving the City Friday after three years in the position. Carolyn and her family are moving to the Minneapolis area to be closer to her extended family and will be taking a similar position with Hennepin County, Minnesota. Carolyn was the first position to hold the position of Sustainability Coordinator in Evanston. During her time with the City she helped create the City’s Climate Action Plan and has brought hundreds of thousands of…
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Update on Civic Center Roof Repair Project
With the first change order for the project on Monday's City Council Agenda I asked project manager Stefanie Levine for a status report: "Roofing work continues on schedule at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center. The contractor is currently in the process of performing work on the building’s north wing. Work on the south wing will follow later this summer once the north wing is complete. Currently the contractor is nearly a third complete with tearing off the old slate…
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Evanston Plays Part in "Transformers 3"
Here is a photo (a little hard to make out) of an "Evanston Taxi" destroyed during filming of "Transfomers 3" this weekend in downtown Chicago. Thanks to Alderman Ann Rainey for pointing this out from a posting from Joe P. on her message board.…
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Blog Update
The City's new website presents a problem for me with the blog. I have often used the blog as a way to post "news" about what is going on in the City government and the community. We now have a specific module on the website for news. This takes away that portion of what I blogged about before, leaves me to re-evaluate how I use the blog and direct it toward more longer posts with perhaps different insights on what…
New Website and Firefox
The new City website has been getting great reviews. However, one problem we have encountered and are still working on is how the website is rendered in Firefox a web browser. There is one particular page (with the City Council agendas) that does not render at all. We know of the problem and are working on it. Update 07/20/10: All fixed.…
Emerson Street YMCA Featured in New York Times
There is a great article in the Thursday July 8 edition of the New York Times on the recent commemorations of the former Emerson Street YMCA (on the Times website tonight). Also check out the photo gallery that accompanies the story.…
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ComEd Power Outages
Yesterday's storms caused havoc with power throughout the region. According to ComEd, approximately 500,000 customers were impacted. As of 8:30 AM, 904 Evanston customers were still out of service. ComEd is telling customers that it will likely take days to restore power everywhere. There is no timeframe for restoration of power to remaining customers in Evanston.…
NU/City Committee Meeting tonight
Agenda items include discussion of 1865 Sherman and the impact of a proposed traffic signal on Sheridan Road. Full agenda available here…
Budget Update
Here is the text of an email I sent to all City staff this afternoon: "The City Council will be having a special meeting Monday evening to discuss budget issues now that we are through the first quarter of FY 2010/11. I will be sending everyone the information that will be presented to the City Council once the agenda is completed on Friday. However, I wanted to share with you today that I have issued layoff notices to three firefighters…
Community Meeting Tuesday on Neighborhood Shooting
Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste sent this email to members of the community last night: "Dear Friends, The Mayor, Ald. Wilson and I are planning a community meeting for this coming Tuesday at 7:15PM at Robert Crown Center. At that time, our Police Department will give us a report on the tragic incident of May 20, 2010 resulting in the shooting death of a young man and injury to another. The Mayor and I walked around the area and spoke with neighbors this afternoon. …
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New on City YouTube Channel
Great exit interview with retiring Fire Chief Alan Berkowsky and coverage of Monday night's Police Awards Ceremony.…
Evanston Police "Click it or Ticket" Results in an Array of Driver Violations
From Evanston Police Department: "On Friday May 14th the Evanston Police Department traffic bureau in conjunction with the national “Click it or Ticket” seatbelt enforcement campaign, conducted the first of three planned enforcement actions. In further efforts to educate and safe guard the driving public, Evanston police officers will be enforcing an array driving violations, with the goal being to make Evanston streets safer for operators of motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. On May 14th 2010, traffic officers conducted enforcement…
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Library Falcons Have Their Own Facebook Page
The falcons living on the roof of the Evanston Public Library downtown now have their own Facebook page.…
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Evanston Census Response Update
Evanston is just about at national average as of April 2. Check post over next few weeks to see how we are doing.…
Public Works Department Reorganization
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Suzette Robinson as Director of Public Works. Suzette was selected as part of a nationwide search of public works professionals who applied for the position. Suzette has done an outstanding job as Interim Department Director while continuing her service as Superintendent of Streets and Sanitation. Suzette has been with the City of Evanston since 2006 as Superintendent of Streets and Sanitation. Before her service in Evanston, Suzette spent seven years working as…
Earth Hour in Evanston
The City of Evanston is joining communities throughout the world in observing Earth Hour tomorrow night, Saturday March 27. We will be turning off lights at all City facilities from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM and we encourage all residents to join us. Video above does great job illustrating the event.…
Evanston City Website Wins Sunny Award
The City of Evanston's website has won a 2010 "Sunny Award." The Sunny Award is presented by the Editors of Sunshine Review to honor the most transparent government websites in America. These websites have scored an "A" transparency grade on Sunshine Review's Transparency Checklist. This year, only one percent of the 5,000 government websites ranked by Sunshine Review earned a Sunny Award. See the full list of winners here.…
Google Day in Evanston, IL Wednesday March 24th
The City, Northwestern University, interested residents and community organizations continue to work on our response to Google to bring their proposed ultra-high speed network to Evanston. These efforts will culminate in "Google Day in Evanston, IL" on Wednesday March 24, 2010. Various events are being planned for the day including a meeting of community leaders at the Civic Center beginning at 1:30 PM. Check out the City's Google website for more details on how you can be a part of bringing…
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Special City Council Meeting Thursday 12:30 PM
The City Council will be holding a special meeting Thursday March 11 at 12:30 PM in the Aldermanic Library at the Civic Center to discuss changes to the City's street sweeping schedule.…
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Google Fiber for Evanston Update
The City's initiative to bring Google's high speed fiber network to town is well underway. To be part of the effort, sign up to be part of our Google Group "Google Fiber for Evanston." You can also follow the efforts on Facebook.…
1,000,000th Item Checked Out at EPL in FY 09/10
The Evanston Public Library celebrated a milestone this week when a patron checked out the 1,000,000th item this year (year ends February 28). This is the first time EPL has surpassed circulation of 1,000,000 items. The lucky patron was a mother, accompanied by her two young sons. The family has just relocated to Evanston from California (a lot of that going on), and have fallen in love with the children’s room. Mayor Tisdahl was on hand to mark the occasion…
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Library Hours As of March 1
With the beginning of the 2010/11 fiscal year starting Monday, there are changes in the operating hours of the Evanston Public Library. The main library returns to its previous hours prior to December 1, 2009 and the branch library hours are reduced one day a week. Here is the schedule: Main Library (resume regular hours) Monday – Thursday 9:00 – 9:00 Friday & Saturday 9:00 – 6:00 Sunday Noon – 6:00 North Branch Monday 10:00 – 8:00 Tuesday …
Smoking Cessation Clinic
Need help quitting? The City of Evanston Health Department is holding a FREE smoking cessation clinic. The clinic will be conducted be Jerry Zabin, L.C.S.W here at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center in room 1700. The clinic dates are March 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, and 23 and you must registrar and attend the first class. For more information and to register call the Evanston Health Department at 847-866-2949 and ask for Mayda Figueroa or Whitney Jones. Don’t miss…
AT&T Phone Outage in Dempster/Florence Area
The City of Evanston has been notified of a telephone outage in the Dempster St./Florence Ave. area. The City is working with AT&T to resolve this issue as soon as possible.…
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Information regarding the Children Dental Clinic
Monday through Thursday, 8:30am to 12pm; 1:30 to 5pm, BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Established in 1967 for children pre-school through 12th grade (high school senior). Services include: dental examinations, cleanings, fluoride treatments, dental sealant, restorations, minor surgical procedures, dental x-rays, root canal therapy, dental health education and emergency care. Income within eligibility guidelines are required. Call for details. Cost: Sliding scale fees apply. All Kids / Medicaid is accepted. For appointment or more information, call (847) 866-2953 or (847) 866-2948.…
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NBC 5 Brings Winter Olympic Spirit to Evanston
WMAQ-TV Channel 5 is bringing their 5 AM to 7 AM early news show to Evanston Friday morning. They will be broadcasting their 6 AM to 7 AM hour "on ice" from the outdoor ice rink at Dawes Park as NBC prepares to begin its coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics.…
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Snow Route Parking Ban in Effect Tonight, Feb. 10th
The City of Evanston has declared a Snow Route Parking Ban for tonight, Wednesday, February 10th focusing on snow removal in the retail and metered parking areas. Community members are requested to park according to the red, white and blue signs on their streets to allow the City to effectively clear the snow. Emergency sirens will sound to alert community members to move their cars at 8:15 p.m. on nights snow route parking bans are in effect after an accumulation…
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Get Emergency Notifications on Twitter
The City has created a sub-list off our main Twitter feed for emregncy notifications. Follow it @CityofEvanston/urgent…
Facebook Fans
We have met our challenge of 2,010 Facebook Fans by 2010. We put out the challenge on December 23, 2009 when we had 1,032 Fans. Today, 47 days later, we have 2,011 Fans.…
New City Council Meeting Times
The Evanston City Council's Rules Committee unanimously voted this week to change the meeting times for the Administration and Public Works (A&PW) Committee, Planning and Development (P&D) Committee and City Council meetings. The change in times would eliminate potentially long waiting periods between committee and Council meetings giving citizens a greater opportunity to participate in the process. Previously, on nights of City Council meetings, the A&PW meeting would start at 5:30 p.m., the P&D meeting would start at 7:00 p.m.…
Community Animal Control Notice
Please be advised that a feral cat colony has been identified at a specific address located in the 1900 block of Grant St. The Evanston Animal Control Bureau will be conducting an on-going animal control abatement process, focusing on the feral cat population at this address. The propensity does exist for area domestic cats to wander onto this property. In efforts to further safeguard the area’s domestic cat population, the City of Evanston will be canvassing the target area(s)…
Evanston Takes Facebook By Storm
The City's Facebook page has reached over 1,000 (1,032 as of this writing) fans since being created in early October. Our Public Information folks have decided we needed campaign to get 2,010 fans by January 1. So check out our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CityofEvanston and become a fan. I was curious to the fan status of other local communities. Here is a sample: Oak Park: 1,305 Skokie: No City page, but Skokie Public Library has 416 fans Schaumburg: No page Arlington…
Snow
Evanston received its first significant snowfall of the season this morning (photo is back of Civic Center). For all you need to know about the City's snow removal program, check out our website.…
Community Budget Workshop Marathon
The City is showing all of the recent Community Budget Workshops on Channel 16 as a marathon beginning at 12 Noon Friday and concluding with a live call-in telecast on Sunday at 6 PM. The video above is a commercial City staff made with help from the Evanston Community Media Center which is being shown this weekend 294 times on Comcast in Evanston on various cable networks (CNBC, BET, Bravo, History Channel, TLC, TNT, AMC, USA, VH1, TV Land,…
Are You a Wireless Telecom Professional?
The City is renegotiating the lease of cell site on City property. We are trying to get the best deal and it was suggested at City Council last night that staff look for "professionals in the field" to help us out to get the most money for the site. I do not have a budget to hire a consultant for this ($8 million deficit and all), so am looking for some free volunteer help from an Evanston resident or Friend…
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New Media Advisory Board
The City has a lot going on in areas of "new media." We are on Facebook, You Tube and Twitter. Our website has lots of information with a relatively good way to access it. I have been blogging here since September. But is it enough to be the most cutting edge City in America communicating with our residents? My guess is that we can do even better. I am creating a new citizen group to advise me on new media issues. …
Community Budget Workshops Update/Rebroadcasts
The Community Budget Workshops will be played on Channel 16 on the following schedule in order starting with the Saturday November 7 workshop, followed approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes later by the Thursday November12 workshop and then approximately 2 hours later by the Tuesday November 17 workshop. For further information on the workshops, go to the budget website. Sunday – 2:00pm & 6:00pm, Nov. 8, 15, 22, 29, 2009 (Plus regular City Council meeting playback at 12pm) Monday –…
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Walker Appointed Community Development Director
Lehman Walker has been appointed the City's new Director of Community Development. Walker currently holds same position in University City, Missouri. See press release for more information.…
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Council Actions on 11/16/09
1. Received report on Climate Action Plan and directed staff to continue implementation of the plan with particular emphasis on distributing grant funds received for residential weatherization programs and to continue close partnership with Citizens for a Greener Evanston and other community and business groups to implement the plan. 2. Directed staff to continue implementation of the City's Lakefront Plan. While there was much discussion on this, the Council ultimately agreed they were not interested in exploring uses beyond what…
Budget Workshop Update
The City's series of four budget workshops continued Thursday evening. See the budget website for notes and video from the meeting. The workshop will also be replayed on Channel 16 on Saturday at approximately 2:40 PM; Sunday at approximately 4:40 PM; and Tuesday at approximately 2:40 PM. The next workshop is Tuesday at 7 PM at Fleetwood Jourdain Center.…
Evanston Families Speak
Alderman Don Wilson asked that I pass this along to the community: "What’s on your mind when it comes to juggling work and family? ParentsWork - a local nonprofit organization advocating for changes that will better enable parents to care for their children - wants to hear. The group is conducting a survey of Evanston parents (and grandparents!) to find out more about their needs and ideas for how we can create a more family-friendly community. The five-minute survey can…
Tax Levy Information
Lots of discussion at community meetings and through emails about the Evanston property tax levy. Assistant City Manager Marty Lyons did a good overview for the Council Monday night on subject. Here is a memo (PDF) from Marty to the Council with information.…
Saturday Budget Workshop Playback on Channel 16
It will be replayed on Channel 16 at 12 Noon today and 7 PM Thursday. We are working on full schedule of playbacks, including a “marathon weekend” in December.…
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Grant Farrar Appointed City Attorney/Corporation Counsel
See release here.…
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In the News This Week
Two interesting articles.... An article in the Bond Buyer talks about a Moody's Investors Service report on impacts of public pension fund deficits on municipal bond ratings. Evanston is a singled out as a city where the bond rating has been impacted by pension funding issues (City was downgraded over two years ago now). The Century Theaters downtown have been getting press on the theater they have installed with state of the art projection and sound.…
This Day in History
Curious item about Evanston's role in first automobile race in USA that was to take place on this date in 1895.…
Test Video of City Council Meeting on YouTube
Staff is working bringing all City Council meetings to the Internet. We have placed the Council's budget meeting from Monday night on our new YouTube channel. What do you think?…
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Libraries Serve as Workforce Development Tool
An interesting article from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) about the role of public libraries in helping people caught in the recession. Look at any Evanston Public Library any week day and you will see the findings of this article are very true here.…
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Daily Northwestern Video on Town Gown Relations
N-U Said: Town-gown relations from Daily Northwestern on Vimeo.…
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Evanston Ranked 4th Best Sports City in U.S.
The Sporting News has ranked Evanston the 4th Best Sports City in America. A little shocked.... Well I was too. As you look at the rankings on the Sporting News website, you will see that we share the ranking with another local community. It reads "Chicago-Evanston." I may be new to the area, but I have never seen this pairing in a ranking like this before. We will take it.…
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Compostable Corn Based Cup
I have seen corn based products like this before, but never at a professional conference at a major chain hotel like I did today. Time to buy some for City Hall where we do not already use glass cups or ceramic mugs.…
Illinois Municipal League Conference
I have been attending the 96th Annual Conference of the Illinois Municipal League (IML) in Chicago the last two days with Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, Alderman Jane Grover (pictured left) and City Clerk Rodney Greene. IML is the organization of Illinois' approximately 1,200 cities, villages and towns and the conference attracts elected and appointed officials throughout the state. I spent yesterday meeting with other municipal managers and officials from larger communities in Illinois (over 25,000). Per the 2000 Census, Evanston is…
Where Do City Employees Live?
As I meet with community members, a question I have been asked and could not answer was: "How many City employees live in Evanston?" I did not know, so have asked our crack Human Resources Department. The City's 840 budgeted permanent full and part-time employees translate into 1,057 individuals when we take into account the permanent full and part-time breakdown. The residency breakdown is as follows: Evanston – 33% Chicago – 23% Skokie – 7% Glenview – 2% The remaining 35% of…
City Council Selects Twelve Goals
The City Council met this evening to discuss goal setting. While each Alderman and the Mayor expressed the importance of all City services, they selected twelve goal areas to focus attention. These are in alphabetical order: Affordable Housing Budget Planning Capital Improvement Program Planning Climate Action Plan Economic Development Efficiency and Effectiveness of Services Federal/State/Regional Government Affairs Agenda Lakefront Development Northwestern University Police and Fire Pension Funding Issues Robert Crown Center Improvements Safety Issues The Council selected subheadings the Capital…
Bus Accident / Ridge and Davis
A woman was hit by a PACE bus late this afternoon at Ridge and Davis. She was trapped underneath the bus for 15 minutes until Evanston Fire removed her. She was taken to the hospital where she is being treated for serious injuries. The area is closed to traffic for Police investigation.…
Skunks
Skunks are out in more force than usual at this time of year in Evanston. The City issued a press release today (PDF) on ways to combat skunks today which has a number of helpful hints on helping to keep them away from your home. Something I learned in all of this is that skunks bulk up their weight for the winter and are more likely to spray in the fall as they defend their den site.…
Tiki Given to City
Much has been written in the last few weeks about Johnnie "Keoni" Durant carving a Tiki for the City of Evanston, but I hadn't seen a photo of the final product. See it here and notice the City logo carved at the base.…
Northwestern University Donates Fire Engine to City
Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl announced today that Northwestern University has agreed to donate $550,000 for a new fire engine. See full details in press release (PDF).…
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City Facebook and Twitter Accounts
The City's march into social networking continues with a Facebook and Twitter account now up and running. "Friend" and "Follow" us.…
Chicago Tribune Likes Our Website
An article in today’s Chicago Tribune cites the City of Evanston website as a model of what a city website should contain. It compares our website to other city websites around the Chicago area.…
Rules Committee Actions
The Council's Rules Committee met this evening: 1. Voted 9-1 (Rainey opposed) moving to the City Council an ordinance prohibiting video gaming in Evanston. Ordinance will be on September 14 Council agenda for consideration. 2. Directed staff to bring back a plan to the committee to begin streaming Council meetings live on the Internet, to provide recorded meetings for playback on City's website, to offer replays of meetings more frequently on Comcast Channel 16 and to propose other ways to increase access to…
Human Services Committee Not Televised
Tonight's Human Services Committee meeting is not being televised due to staffing issue. Sorry for inconvenience.…
"Man Caves" Comes to Evanston
I drove into the parking lot at the Civic Center this morning and was surprised to see a large tractor-trailer parked from the show "Man Caves" on the DIY cable network (Channel 121 on Comcast in Evanston). A quick Google search helped me discover that Evanston residents Dave and Becca Roseman had won a contest sponsored by DIY and the MLB Network for the home in America that most needed a "Man Cave" for watching baseball. More details from the…
Labor Day in Evanston
City offices will be closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday. Trash pickups will be delayed one day next week. Northwestern begins their home football schedule Saturday at 11 AM against Towson University from Maryland. If you are looking for the most interesting Evanston event of the weekend, look no further than the 73rd Annual Evanston Cowboy Days. Of course, you will need to get to Evanston, Wyoming.......…
Fall Edition of "City Highlights"
The Fall edition of "Highlights," the City newsletter, is now available on-line (PDF).…
Library Card Month
September is Library Card Month. Get details from the Evanston Public Library here.…
Twitter and Facebook
The City will start "twittering" in the next several days. I will let everyone know when we start doing this. We will also start a Facebook page this month too. What else should we be doing on the Internet to communicate with folks?…
Welcome to the Blog
I am starting a City of Evanston blog to share with the community happenings within the City government in Evanston. I kept a blog in my former position as City Manager in Santa Paula, California which I started in 2004. During that time, I posted 1,153 items about the City. The blog will allow for comments. This can be a dicey proposition for a blog kept by a City Manager. Comments posted on the blog will be screened to ensure…