And People Thought PRU Was Rough!

We understand there's a desire among some Alderdunces to allow more billboards to be erected in Park Ridge.

How about billboards like this --



And some people thought our pictures of dead Victorian kids was bad!

Any faithful PRU readers giving the Pub-dogs a bone this week? You should be.

Freewheeling Recap!

Anyone wanting to share what they observed at last night's Council meeting can do that here!

On The Loose!

Original from -- www.devilstowertradingpost.com

There's a Council meeting tonight! The agenda (.pdf) looks interesting, to say the least!

Finance & Budget Committee item c looks very interesting! Our sources inside the City tell us this little gem is the brainstorm of 7th Ward Alderman Frank assWsol.

Our sources have also told us, because Ald. assWsol hasn't provided any documentation for publication on the City's website, this will be a discussion about --

"-- rebates to owners of “existing” single family homes up to a maximum of a $2,500.00 rebate based on 25% of the actual cost of the verifiable construction of flood mitigation/prevention projects performed on a single-family residence, dating back to January 1, 2008. All new construction is required to meet all appropriate building codes and is specifically excluded from this program. The goal of the program is to provide Park Ridge homeowners of existing single family residences who have had flood mitigation/prevention construction work performed on their dwelling or those adopting such improvements an opportunity to address the new issue of “100 year flooding” rainfall that has become all too “normal.” Only existing single-family homes (and town homes) will be eligible whether owner occupied or not. Landlords may apply. Projects covered by the program will include improvements for: overhead sewers; backwater valves in basements or yards; lift stations in yards; glass block basement windows in cases where a home is subject to flooding through window wells; drain tile with sump pumps; backup battery sump pumps; emergency generators for flood control systems, “French drains” which can demonstrate their effectiveness at retaining significant rainwater that causes home flooding and sump pump connections to storm sewers. The type of projects not covered include maintenance items such as normal plumbing repairs, sump pump replacements, valve replacements, sewer clean-outs and repairs. Funding for this program will be from General Fund property tax reserves."

We are indebted to our brave source for this information. And, if Ald. assWsol gets his way, the entire City budget and Park Ridge taxpayers will be even further "indebted."

The current City budget is in the red by $2million and counting.

Last year's City budget was in the red by $2.5million.

Property taxes and fees have been raised.

City staff has been asked to take salary freezes.

The City Council increased funding for community groups beyond the original budget.

And Ald. assWsol wants to enact legislation to subsidize private home improvements, retroactive to January 1, 2008, before the City's consultants and Flooding Task Force determine any definitive causes of flooding and make recommendations for courses of action.

While the 5th Ward's Benedict Alderman Robert Ryan wants to make sure there is the likelihood of adding even more residential density to the Uptown area, and more housing units to the already depressed real estate housing market.

B.O.H.I.C.A!

No PRU recap tomorrow. We'll provide a post for any reader reports of the meeting.

Happy Independence Day!

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

NatGeo Vid --

Our PRU Tech liked this and wanted to post it for everyone else who's got 45 minutes to spare.

Stay dry!

Venice Ridge? Council Recap!

According to our faithful sources, last night's City Council meeting lasted 5 1/2 hours.

The first half of the meeting was dedicated to listening to a long parade of residents detail their recent experiences with flooding, residents' concerns and ideas for addressing the problem, and marginal updates provided by city staff.

According to one of our sources, there was a disturbing pattern of people who related that they had never experienced any flooding until last September and then again this past June 19th. The most frequently asked question was, "What changed?" The PRU Crew is wondering the same thing, and hoping the learned engineers on the Flood Control Task Force, along with the consultants hired to study the problem, will answer that question.

Many people addressing the Council used the word "emergency" to convey their belief that the City must address this issue immediately. The Crew believes people have paid enough attention to know that without the problem being given "emergency" status, the likelihood of approval for spending any money to mitigate the problem is nil. We're told even Mayor Schmidtzkrieg characterized the problem as an "emergency", so we feel confident in believing the Mayor would not veto a spending ordinance approved for this matter by the Council.

One of the exasperating circumstances for residents seems to be the snail's pace at which information is being gathered, by both the consultants hired to study the issue and the Flood Task Force formed to discuss the issue to come up with recommendations, and formulation of a final plan. We hate to tell you this people, but things can only move as fast as they can move -- and then the search for money begins. And make no mistake about it, whatever plan is eventually settled on will require gobs of money. We hope a majority of residents will be prepared to pay for what it is they say they need and want.

In the meantime, people may want to keep Service Master on speed dial.

The second half of last night's Council meeting was devoted to discussions of zoning changes for commercial parcels along Northwest Highway.

The zoning for the Napleton Cadillac parking lot property was changed from a B1 zoning designation to an R3, which means residential, despite the recommendations made by the Planning and Zoning Commission. We trust the neighbors in the immediate area are pleased with this change. We also trust that nobody will be surprised if Mr. Bill Napleton becomes totally pissed off about the change and files a law suit. The Crew hasn't heard any rumors about such a thing, as we try to avoid moving in the same circles as the likes of Mr. Napleton, but we're just saying we wouldn't be surprised by such a move.

The old Audrey's property was left as-is in terms of the zoning designation, but should the owner wish to place a generator 5 feet from the sidewalk, that could now be done, as the Council voted on an amendment offered by 3rd ward Alderman Don Bachtard that allows generators to be placed as close as 5 feet from any property lot line.

We hear this change to the zoning code for the placement of generators is a particular triumph for one particular resident. We also hear this particular resident thinks his shit doesn't stink and he has the right to act obnoxiously at Council meetings -- throwing a stack of petitions at the Director of Community Development and demanding that she pass the petitions around to the Council.

We're told Mayor Schmidtzkrieg got all up in the guy's grill. Good.

As for the PRU Crew, we generally feel Ms. Davis operates at a level barely above incompetence but, nevertheless, she's still the Director of Community Development -- required to attend public meetings for the benefit of the public. Be careful, sir, at whom you throw things or we may be tempted to see to it you go home wearing whatever it is you chose to throw at a city staff member.

As for Alderman Bachtard and the other Alderidiots, your silence on the matter was duly noted.

There you have it people, an admittedly lite recap.

The Crew has decided to take the month of July off -- off meaning an irregular posting schedule, if any -- we'll see you again in August.

Special Meetings for Special People!

We're wondering if the special people on the Park Ridge City Council will be "going green" and taking public transportation to their special meeting tonight! The PRU Crew suggests the above --

We hope to be able to provide PRU readers with a recap tomorrow!