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New Locations for Civic Center, As Roof Tiles Tumble Down

That plan would locate two new buildings on the south side of Emerson Street between Ashland and Darrow avenues.

One would house the City's offices and City Council chambers, the other would provide parking plus ground floor retail space, and possibly some residential units.

The initial sketch plans developed by FitzGerald Associates Architects also show a bicycle path along the old rail corridor that diagonally bisects the site.

Nearly two dozen community leaders, property owners and developers active on the City's west side voiced unanimous support for this plan at a community meeting on Dec. 21. Backers, led by developers Walter Kihm and Ron Fleckman of Cyrus Homes, have been meeting individually with aldermen to explain the concept during the past few weeks.

The proposed site, which encompasses about 160,000 square feet, is owned by Leon Robinson and once housed parking areas and repair shops for the bus service he operated.

It is bordered by a Commonwealth Edison power substation, which makes it a difficult location for the conventional residential developments proposed for the site in the City's draft west-side plan. The Evanston Plan Commission is scheduled to continue its review of that plantonight.

Property Mr. Robinson owns just north of the proposed Civic Center site is included in a proposed Cyrus Homes development of 139 units of mixed-income housing that has just begun to work its way through the City's development review process. That project also includes the former Bishop Freeman industrial site on Foster Street.

Renovate the existing building
Meanwhile the Friends of the Civic Center organization has launched a new website, http://www.friendsoftheciviccenter.org, and continues to circulate petitions seeking to place an advisory referendum on the April ballot that would call on the City Council to keep the Civic Center where it has been for more than 30 years, in the former Marywood Academy building at 2100 Ridge Ave.

The group hopes to have collected more than 2,000 petition signatures by later this month.

While aldermen have not been able to reach agreement on a new site for the Civic Center, one thing they did agree on a year ago is that they did not want to stay in the existing building, claiming that it would cost too much to repair.

However, that argument may have lost some force recently with the decision by City Manager Julia Carroll to eliminate the job of Facilities Director Max Rubin, who had strongly argued against staying in the building.

In addition, Ms. Carroll, in the context of the City's overall capital needs, said last week, "Maintenance is much cheaper than complete reconstruction of City facilities.”

Some advocates of retaining the existing building have suggested that its site, at 287,000 square feet, is large enough to include new residential construction on air-rights over the parking lot that could finance needed repairs to the building.

Old Rotary building
With the recent decision by the Methodist Pension Board to start the approval process for a new headquarters building on its property at the southwest corner of Ridge Avenue and Davis Street, it is possible the former Rotary International Headquarters on the northwest corner of the intersection may be on the market in the not-too-distant future.

The pension board, which acquired the Rotary building after the Rotarians moved to the former American Hospital Supply headquarters at Sherman Avenue and Grove Street, has been short on parking space in its two mid-century buildings, but it has had an excess of office space as its staff has dwindled in recent years.

The proposed new building would solve the parking problem and let the pension board consolidate its offices in a single building.

Pension board officials insist they have not made a final decision to rebuild on the existing site and say they are still also considering relocating elsewhere in the Chicago suburbs. And it is not known whether the City has discussed acquiring the former Rotary building from the Methodists.

The old Rotary building is a three-story, limestone-faced structure with a total of about 75,000 square feet of space on a 78,000 square-foot lot.

But its shortage of parking would require either constructing a new building on the site - making it necessary for City workers to park in one of the downtown garages - or finding another site nearby to use for parking.

Library parking lot
The aldermen reportedly have considered building a new city hall on the parking lot behind the Evanston Public Library.

The parking lot has one great advantage - the City already owns it. But it is also, at about 32,000 square feet, by far the smallest of the sites under consideration.

The City is reportedly seeking 80,000 to 100,000 square feet of office space and wants parking for more than 200 cars. That would likely require a building at least eight stories tall to fit on the parking lot site.

The fact that the parking lot is bordered to the north and south by National Register landmarks - the
Woman's Club of Evanston and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Headquarters - makes opposition from local preservationists a strong possibility if the aldermen choose this site.

Farmers Market lot
It is known that many City employees strongly favor building a new civic center in the core downtown area. Among other reasons, they would like ready access to downtown's many lunch-time dining spots.

But another possible downtown site appears to have become snarled in town-gown disputes.

Northwestern Neighbors and other groups that have vigorously opposed any loosening of zoning restrictions on the University fear that the City would rezone other University land as part of a purchase or exchange agreement for this parcel, now used for the weekly farmers market.

Yet the University has also said it is not interested in selling the 50,000-square-foot property. If the City tried to seize the land by eminent domain, that would almost certainly trigger a multi-year court fight with the school.

In addition, some residents of the Research Park area who oppose planned new residential developments there also say they fear construction of a civic center on the farmers market site would snarl traffic in the neighborhood.

Aldermen have been very tight-lipped about their deliberations, and it is not clear what other properties they may be considering or how close they may be to reaching a decision.

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Partnership of Business, Not-For-Profits Yields Community Benefits

Jake Joehl prepares fabric before it is contstructed into a baby blanket for the Infant Welfare Society. Photo Courtesy of the Center for Independant Futures

When members of the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston needed help distributing Social Capers daily planners last summer, they turned to C.I.F.

The Infant Welfare Society continued its 70-year annual fundraiser by selling the Social Capers planners, and C.I.F. set up a mail room, where its participants packed and shipped the planners, thus providing adults with disabilities the opportunity for meaningful work.

The collaboration was such a success that C.I.F. celebrated the holiday season by cutting and tying fleece baby blankets for the Infant Welfare Society.

Charlotte Sussman of Vogue Fabrics provided the fleece material at cost and donated classroom space free of charge to support the baby blanket project, enabling C.I.F. to complete the project.

Not only did C.I.F. residents have fun making the blankets, but the project also helped create a new hobby for many people, said Jacque Heavey, community life liaison at C.I.F. "We have residents who now just pop into Vogue Fabrics for a chat with Charlotte. Some decided to make fleece scarves for holiday presents and others are in the process of making their own clothing,” she added.

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City Manager's Budget Reconfigures Departments, Cuts Personnel and Increases Property Tax

Expenditures
"Evanston is a unique City, in that its recreation, libraries and parks are all City services, not separate entities,” said Ms. Carroll.

Operating expenses, most of which come from the general fund, are projected to increase only about 1.04 percent. However, funding for the police and firefighter pension funds, mandated by the state but not funded locally, was increased in this budget. The City of Evanston has been contributing the proper amount actuarially to those funds, Ms. Carroll said, but because the investments tied to those funds did not perform as well as expected, Evanston, like other communities, must kick in additional funds this year. "The pension funds must be fully funded by 2033,” said Ms. Carroll. In addition, contract wage increases and health insurance costs added to the costs of City operations.

Green revenues, ambulance costs and construction fees
In addition to property taxes, three main areas of the budget are targeted for fee increases. Ambulance fees would increase from $300 to $350 for residents and from $400 to $450 for non-residents. Ms. Carroll said these increases will garner an additional $50,000 in revenues "and allow us to seek maximum Medicare reimbursement.”

The budget also proposes a revision of fees, found in several departments, that relate to fire safety items. The increase in the fees would cover the cost of consolidating fire-safety permits and procedures in one place under the oversight of one employee.

Rather than increasing the recycling fee, as was done last year, the City would replace the recycling fee with a "sanitation service charge” of $5 per household per month. That would be an increase of $1.28 per month, or $15.36 per year, per household. This move will split the total cost of refuse and recycling between the sanitation fee, which would absorb 25 percent of the cost, and the property tax bill, which would shoulder the remaining 75 percent of the cost.

In order to encourage recycling of yard-waste, the City is considering reinstituting the yard-waste sticker program, under which only yard-waste bags with City stickers on them would be picked up by the City. The cost of the stickers would help to defray the cost of the yard waste pickups. In addition, early next spring the City will implement a pilot program of using 95-gallon recycling bins rather than the 16-gallon bins in common use. This would encourage residents to recycle materials rather than throwing them into shrinking landfills, said Ms. Carroll. These measures would help the City realize additional revues "and contribute to our efforts to be known as a ‘green City,'” said Ms. Carroll.

Layoffs, additions and reconfigurations
For the first time in several years, major layoffs have been included in the proposed budget: 27 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions would be cut, and another 9.5 added, with a net reduction to the City's workforce of 17.27 FTEs.

In this budget, the health department's clinical services would be gone and, to the extent possible, assumed by St. Francis and Evanston hospitals or other community service providers, said Ms. Carroll.

The facilities management and human relations departments would close, with most of their duties and some of their personnel taken over by the City Manager's office and the Public Works Department.

Other changes include the following:
· The department of Management and Budget will now be called the Management, Business and Information Service Department, with the responsibility for the budget transferred to the Finance Department. This reorganization will improve the City's "overall ability to provide information services throughout the City,” said Ms. Carroll.
· The Human Relations Department will be eliminated, with most services variously absorbed by the Health and Human Services, Community Development, Human Resources and Law departments.
· The City Manager's office will oversee three new positions: sustainable programs coordinator, emergency preparedness manager and youth engagement coordinator.

This is the beginning, said Ms. Carroll at a press conference on the budget on Jan. 3. Several departments have undergone review - Streets and Sanitation, Community Development, Water and Sewer - and recommended changes will continue to be made.

Asked to characterize this budget, the second she has proposed to City Council this year, Ms Carroll said, "This is the restructuring-of-the-City-to-put-us-on-the-right-track budget. We need a multi-year plan to help guide us in future budgets. We have to ask, ‘What can we do? What can the private sector do? Are we providing services that they already provide?' It's managed competition,” she said.

"I hope the Council will support this budget,” she added. "I think they understand what needs to be done if they want to put the City on the right course for the future.”

Budget Tidbits
Since her arrival in Evanston more than two years ago, City Manager Julia Carroll has placed an emphasis on the delivery of City services to the residents of Evanston. The proposed budget for 2007-08 and the restructuring it forecasts have that same focus: streamlining the delivery of unique services - those not duplicated in the private sector - to Evanstonians.

Two of the priorities are infrastructure and community safety. "Public safety is the number-one service people want to have,” said Ms. Carroll. About taking care of the City's infrastructure, she said, "Maintenance can be cost-effective. If you put off repairs too long, it costs the City much more in the long run.”

Other items in the budget as currently proposed include the following:
The two branch libraries will remain in operation for the following year.

Funding for purchased mental health and other social services will remain at the same level as last year, $829,000; although nothing was cut from the prior year's spending, the $15,000 additional requested by the Board was rejected.

A request from the Human Relations Department for $87,750 to provide year-round employment for up to 10 Evanston youth was denied.

Funding for a recreational and enrichment program for year-round activities for 4- and 5-year-olds, amounting to $65,200, was rejected.

Recycle Christmas Trees

The City will continue collecting Christmas trees for recycling through the month of January.

All trees should be placed on the parkways (the grassy area between the sidewalk and curb in front of your house), and will not be collected from alleys or private property.

The trees will be picked up on the same day of the week as the collections of refuse and recycling. Lights, decorations and plastic bags must be removed.

Budget Proposal Calls To Cut Health Department

By Chris Cascarano

The 2007-08 City Budget proposal calls for the Health Department's services to be outsourced to local healthcare providers, eliminating an equivalent of ten jobs and saving the City nearly a half-million dollars.
The proposal is one of several measures by the City to address a shortfall of up to $4 million dollars in the City's upcoming budget.

City staff said the Health Department's services are an area where partnerships with local hospitals and organizations could benefit Evanston taxpayers.

Currently the Health Department offers nine different clinics and services in the basement of the Civic Center. Available there are a children's dental and health clinic, family planning clinic, HIV and AIDS counseling and testing, immunizations, laboratory blood testing, a sexually transmitted disease clinic and a tuberculosis screening and x-ray service.

Phasing out of the Health Department would begin Mar. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.

According to the budget proposal, services provided by the Health Department would be handed over to Evanston Northwestern Hospital, St. Francis Hospital and other organizations.

"Nothing specific has been decided,” said Chris Rybicki, public relations director for St. Francis Hospital. "We have agreed to meet with the City and have expressed our willingness to do what we can,” she said.

The budget states that the two hospitals will share responsibility for providing flu shots where private providers fall short. They will also share responsibility for school physicals and immunizations for families that depend on the Health Department to meet school requirements.

Evanston's Health Department currently charges patients at fixed rates; many services are free, a majority cost less than $10 and none is above $35.

If services are moved, patients will be subject to the hospital's regular sliding-scale rates.

"Evanston Northwestern Healthcare will make their hospital clinic available to Evanston residents based on the same ability to pay as other clients,” said the proposal. The same is stated for St. Francis Hospital.

Some services would remain at the Civic Center: Vital Records (birth and death certificates), the dental clinic, Food and Environmental Health Services, infectious disease investigation, the Commission on Aging, the Mental Health Board and the Community Intervention Service.

Several services have yet to find a home.

Evanston's state-funded family case- management home-visit service, which made nearly 1200 home visits in 2006, does not have a confirmed home. Also uncertain are the destinations of Evanston's STD- and HIV-testing clinics, which each receive over 1,000 visits a year.

City Manager Julia Carroll said several organizations are interested in taking over the services.

Outsourcing the Heath Department's services would immediately reduce budget costs by $461,000. By the 2008-09 fiscal year budget costs would decrease by $863,000 permanently.

Health Department employees losing their jobs will be offered a severance package and assistance for updating their resumes, said City Manager Julia Carroll.

City officials and representatives from the hospitals met Jan. 5 for further discussion and a final decision will be made by Mar. 1, the date the state mandates budgets to be final.

Clinical services of the City's health department, located on the ground floor of the Civic Center, may be outsourced to the two hospitals and other agencies.