December 7, 2009

PRU Holiday Season Briefs!



#1 -- Brown Paper Packages?

If whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens aren't your bag for the holidays, then maybe brown paper packages are among your favorite things?

At tonight's Liquor License Review Board meeting the board agenda (.pdf) includes discussion of a "proposal from Affresco to allow the sale of package goods." We aren't sure if Affresco restaurant is looking to become part liquor store or not.

We confess to not feeling bad while sitting at Affresco's bar, though we aren't sure we needed to take anything home with us besides a doggie bag.


#2 -- A few of our favorite things!

Public meetings and proclamations! We love 'em! And tonight's City Council meeting agenda (.pdf) is chock full of material guaranteed to put a smile on your face -- for various reasons, of course.

And we're really looking forward to hearing the Mayor's "Statement regarding Amendment to Zoning Ordinance." In fact, Mayor Schmidtzkrieg will be the star of the Council show tonight, because all other regular council business is listed under the consent agenda -- "All items listed with an asterisk are considered routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of those items unless an Alderman so requests, in which event the item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the Agenda."


#3 -- Silver white winters that melt into Spring!

Park Ridge City Finance Director Diane Lembesis has reportedly resigned her position and, after her January 5, 2010 departure date, will be greeting the Spring as the new Finance Director for the City of Gurnee.

The PRU Crew wishes Ms. Lembesis well. We will miss her extremely dry wit at future Council meetings.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

fyi,, I saw Diane one day last week, on my way back from the post office. She was walking past the train station with about 5 reams of paper (appeared to be printed materials that were printed out on 8 1/2 x 11). I thought it was humorous watching the wind lift the top sheets of the stack of papers she was trying to carry. It wasn't in a bag, box, or anything. Now I wonder what she grabbed to take home before she left......

ParkRidgeUnderground said...

fyi, we would grab all the great memos that come in from elected officials to read over again. We are always looking for a good laugh.

Anonymous said...

The rats continue to abandon the sinking ship at 505 Butler Place.

Anonymous said...

I do not know the women but I have to ask a question. Has she ever done anything to you personally or to the city as a whole that would justify you comparing her to a rat??

Anonymous said...

I don't think 1051 was calling her a rat. It's just a saying based on the fact that rats, living closer to the water on ships, usually knew about problems even before the sailors did. They were bolting the ship as soon as the water came in while the crew could go for some time without realizing they were about to sink.
Real rats are highly intelligent animals.

Anonymous said...

Real rats have brains the size of peas. You have confused instinct with intelligence.

Anonymous said...

I am sort of sorry to see her go. In the videos I thought she said reasonable things.

Bean said...

I'm more than sorry to see Diane leaving and I wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. Among city staff, she was a standout...

Unless some hoped-for miracle befalls him, Mayor Schmidt is going to be facing an even more harrowing budget situation with her departure.

God help us all.

Steve Macko said...

Diane may not have always said the right words, but she was the only one keeping that sinking ship afloat. She had no power to increase the revenue or cut the spending, yet like most in her position she and she alone had to run the bucket from one hole to another to keep the boat from going under. The more she bailed the more water they threw in. No one ever listened. I don’t blame her one bit for leaving. Good for you Diane and best wishes. This town has no idea what they have lost.

Anonymous said...

For years Ms. Lembesis seemed almost invisible, sitting quietly and saying little even as the city's financial picture was becoming bleaker. Recently she has become more visible, although only slightly more talkative.

Under her tenure the city virtually institutionalized deficit budgets and deficit spending, with rarely a whimper from her. She could somehow find the "bright side" of multi-million dollar deficits, often using anecdotes of her visits to Trader Joe's or Jason's Deli that made little sense for someone who should be numbers, and only numbers, oriented.

Sadly for us, there's nobody even that competent in the on-deck circle, so get ready for even more economic bad news from Butler Place.

Anonymous said...

hey - the burger meister meister burger is on channel 7! i thought schmidt had a council meeting tonight! lol!