Pothole Fishing!

An article in last week's Journal & Topics reports that Alderman Wsooooolman (7th ward) brought up the issue of the terrible condition of Cumberland Ave. in Park Ridge. Wsooooolman noted, "The residents are tired of hearing 'It's a state route, we have to wait for Springfield.' We have to do something; the people are begging for it."

Why would the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee bring up this issue? Because he is doing exactly the job he should be doing; looking out for the safety and welfare of the residents of Park Ridge. Our PRU Crew kudos -- or, as we like to call them, PRUdos -- to the Wsooooolman.

An ABC News/Good Morning America consumer report recently noted that Potholes Cost Drivers Millions in Car Repairs. And that's not all that's at stake in dealing with the issue of potholes. The same report goes on to note that, "New York City settled a case for more than $1 million with a woman who claimed permanent injuries after her car hit a gaping pothole in Brooklyn. And the state of California paid $1 million to the family of a San Francisco motorcyclist who died after hitting a pothole."

The Journal article goes on to report that, "Ald. Robert Ryan (5th) pushed for the city to fix the roadways.

"I think this is something that we're going to have to address long term," he said. "The state does not have the money."

Oddly enough, the State has had money over the past 6 years to award contracts to Benedict Alderman Ryan's architectural and engineering firm, HDR; a whopping $9,770,988 to HDR's architectural division, and $55,432,694 to HDR's engineering division. If you check the State's Open Book website, you can type in the search term "HDR". What you will see is a list of State contracts that have been awarded to Ryan's architectural and engineering firm along with the political campaign contributions HDR has made; a total of $117,790 to a wide variety of Illinois candidates and committees since 2000. All of that adds up to some serious "ROI".

In the Journal article Ald. Don DreadBach is quoted as saying, "I don't know if the citizens of Park Ridge are going to accept a tax hike to fix what they already pay taxes to do" ..."We need to shame our state representatives to do something to help us."

The PRU Crew's got a better idea! Disguise our state representatives as reporters, then maybe Mayor Howard will drive them around town so they'll see for themselves how bad the streets are. Then, because we know how much our city officials love a road trip, and Ald. DreadBach is just oozing persuasive diplomacy, send Ald. DreadBach to Springfield to lobby our state reps for funding for street repairs. Then Benedict Alderman Ryan's firm can lobby for the contract to do the engineering work.

And everybody's happy.