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Health Department Begins Process of                Dismantling Its Clinical Services

Budgetary decision
In an effort to balance the City's annual $2.5-4 million deficit, the City Council last February passed the budget for 2007-08 which included cutting funding for all clinical services except the Children's Dental Clinic. 

City Manager Julia Carroll said the City will save about $600,000 this year and about $1 million per year after the services are completely phased out.

In addition to the STD Clinic, HIV/AIDS testing, and the Family Planning Clinic, the City will also close the Children's Health Clinic, which provided physical exams and immunizations, and will discontinue tuberculosis (TB) screening and laboratory services such as cholesterol and blood lead screenings. Thirteen City employees will also lose their jobs and a total of 16 positions in the Department will be eliminated. 

Faced with difficult budgetary decisions, the City Council seemed to have felt that the clinical services provided by the Department of Health were either already being duplicated by not-for-profit health care providers in the community or that partnerships could be developed with these organizations to provide these services.

"It's a situation, to me, that was tailor-made for us, both the health-care institutions and the City," said Alderman Edmund Moran Jr., 6th Ward. "The high number of not-for-profit businesses in town is a financial burden for the City and getting them to shoulder some of the load is a great idea," he said.

From the time the proposed budget was announced in late December 2006 to the time it was unanimously approved by the City Council on Feb. 26, 2007, City officials said they heard little opposition from the community.

"Community activism was non-evident at Council hearings in terms of opposing these specific budget cuts," said Jay Terry, the City's Director of Health and Human Services.

Alderman Delores Holmes, 5th Ward, told the RoundTable that no one voiced opposition to the cuts during her monthly ward meetings. 

"People in the community-as long as the services were available - were okay with it," she said. 

Who will provide the services?
As far as who will take over the clinical services the City's been providing, most of which have been housed in the lower level of the Civic Center at 2100 Ridge Ave., Mr. Terry said there is a three-part plan involving the two not-for-profit hospitals in Evanston - St. Francis and Evanston Northwestern, the Cook County Department of Public Health, and other local community healthcare providers.

Hospitals
The City estimates it provides about 150 school physicals and immunizations, Mr. Terry said, and he is working on a plan with the two hospitals to share these services.

Mark Schroeder, director of community relations for Evanston Northwestern Hospital (ENH), said ENH will conduct physicals for about half of the estimated students from District 65 at their student clinic located at Evanston Township High School. Asked whether ENH plans to increase staffing, clinic hours, or funding as a result of the increase in demand for services, Mr. Schroeder said, "Whatever we need to do to take care of these increases, we will do."

Christine Rybicki, director of public relations for St. Francis Hospital, said, "We are still developing the process and how it will be communicated to parents and students."  She added that the physicals will be provided through their Community Health Center located at 7464 N. Clark St. just across the Evanston border in Chicago.  

In addition to school physicals, Mr. Schroeder said ENH is also willing to provide flu shots for the elderly, most likely at the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave, in November or December. The discussions are still ongoing, he said. 

Mr. Terry said he is involved in discussions with local Dominick's grocery stores to provide flu shots to the elderly as well. According to the proposed budget for 2007-2008, the City projected the number of flu vaccinations to be around 2200.

Cook County and State  
As for STD testing, family planning services, and TB testing, the City is working with the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH).  Discussions are ongoing with the County as far as locating a clinic, either as a permanent fixture or as a mobile clinic, for STD testing, Mr. Terry said. He added that some of the space in the lower level of the Civic Center that will be vacated due to the budget cuts might be made available to the CCDPH to handle the 1100 total STD visits the City projected for the upcoming fiscal year.

It is still unclear what role the CCDPH will have in providing the 700 TB skin tests and the 2300 family planning visits the City projected for 2007-2008.

Sandra Hill, executive director of Family Focus-Evanston - a not-for profit agency that specializes in family support programs - said the City has recommitted to helping the agency provide services.
"We still have a partnership with the Health Department to deliver services to parenting and pregnant teens," she said. 

The funding is from the State, but flows through the City, and is specifically designated for health issues such as immunizations, health education and screenings, she said. 

Mr. Terry said State funding for all of the clinical services provided by the City totaled between 25 and 30 percent, but the reimbursement varied for specific services, ranging as high as 50 to 60 percent for some services and as low as 5 to10 percent for others. He said it is unclear what will happen to the City's funding from the State, but he is working with officials in Springfield to make the funds available to not-for-profit agencies in Evanston.

Community providers
The City is looking to community agencies to provide HIV/AIDS testing and counseling. According to this year's budget proposal, the City tested/counseled 1,400 individuals in 2005-2006, with only three testing positive.

"We tend to test the ‘worrying well,'" said Mr. Terry.

ACCESS Community Health and BeHIV are two options for HIV/AIDS testing for Evanston residents. ACCESS, which has community health clinics scattered across the Chicago metropolitan area, provides HIV testing and counseling at their TPAN clinic, 5537 N. Broadway.  BeHIV provides HIV services at their Chicago location as well,1244 W. Thorndale. Both agencies are located on Chicago's north side and are accessible by public transportation from Evanston.

In addition, BeHIV executive director Eric Nelson said his agency will have space available at their Evanston location, 1740 Ridge Ave.  The agency is planning to relocate their executive director and development offices to their Chicago location, and they are in the process of determining what services are needed in Evanston, he said.

Providers' Concerns
For the most part, individuals who use the clinical services provided by the Department of Health tend to be people without health insurance, many of whom are living on low-, or fixed-incomes or are homeless. City data show that the CCDPH estimates that 10.7 percent of Evanston residents had no health insurance in 2002.

"I do sympathize with the City, but I am still concerned as a not-for-profit-someone who services the community-where these people are going to go," said Family Focus's Ms. Hill.

Kate Mahoney, executive director of PEER Services, which provides comprehensive substance abuse treatment services in Evanston, echoed Ms. Hill's concern. 

"The thing that is concerning to me is I'm not sure how well people are going to be able to access services. People see the Civic Center as a place that is familiar and that they know how to access," she said.      

Ms. Mahoney added that the Department of Health is "very committed to serving all residents of Evanston and [it] has a concern for the needs of low-income residents."

Indeed, Mr. Terry said his department is working with the hospitals, the County, and the agencies in the community to find alternatives.  He said he plans to provide literature and utilize current administrative support staff to help residents locate services. This has the potential to be a daunting task. 

Don Baker, executive director of Youth Organizations Umbrella, Y.O.U., which provides comprehensive social services to Evanston's youth, said, "Unless some very aggressive outreach is in place, the impact will be that some of the disenfranchised people in the community will not get health care."

Changing Times
In addition to maintaining the Children's Dental Clinic, which services 1900 kids per year, the City's Department of Health will continue performing regulatory functions such as restaurant inspections and the licensing of day care and long term care facilities; it will also continue to maintain vital records, conduct communicable disease investigations and enforce the Indoor Clean Air Ordinance.   

"We are becoming much more of a planning and coordinating agency," said Mr. Terry. 

Access to healthcare is a regional issue that is much broader than the confines of the City of Evanston, Mr. Terry said.

"A lot of things are changing in our community," Mr. Terry told the RoundTable. "People have the notion that there is an Evanston-only solution to these problems." 

Ald. Holmes appeared to echo this sentiment.

"People aren't accustomed to change," she said. "As long as services will be delivered, people will be okay." 

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Second Fountain Square Tower Proposed

The tower would be supported on pillars rising over the landmark Hahn Building at mid-block, and the tower would be set back nine to 10 feet from the Hahn Building's street façades and 16 feet from the north property line.

Architect Daniel Coffey said creating an open-air space under the tower and tapering the tower's sides would lessen the wind tunnel effect the 400-foot tall building might otherwise create; he suggested the new building would likely make the square less windy than it is with the existing Fountain Square building.

Assistant City Manager Judith Aiello said the developer would need to perform a wind study to determine whether the design will actually improve wind conditions in the square. The design includes a driveway just south of the Hahn Building that would provide access to the garage and a covered entry to the condo tower.

To eliminate the space required for parking ramps, the plan calls for a valet service to use elevators to move cars in and out of the garage.

About 1,500 square feet of the restaurant building would extend beyond the Sherman and Orrington avenue property lines of the Fountain Square building. The developers propose extending the sidewalks into the existing street area to handle the pedestrian traffic.

The project would include two stories of retail space in the refurbished Hahn Building, with the third floor likely to be converted to residential lofts. Above the open fourth level would rise 33 floors of condos, each floor with about 12,000 square feet of space.

Under the plan Fountain Square's bronze plaques with names of Evanstonians who died in the nation's wars would be placed on new pillars in the redesigned plaza.

The developers say the project would include slightly fewer than 1.5 parking spaces for each residential unit, but no parking for the retail space. They say the new building would have no more commercial space than what is in the two existing buildings, which have no on-site parking. They also say there is sufficient retail parking available in the nearby Sherman Plaza garage.

Mr. Coffey said he was confident that the caissons to support the tower could be inserted into the Hahn Building, while preserving its structure and said his firm has worked on several similar projects in Chicago.

Ms. Aiello said she was concerned about whether the roof area above the restaurant would actually be perceived to be public space and said, "The liability issue of having the public up there scares me."

The City's preservation coordinator, Carlos Ruiz, said he anticipates that the Preservation Commission will have concerns about whether the project meets the standards for changes to landmark buildings set by the preservation ordinance.

As with the first Fountain Square tower plan, a 49-story retail-residential complex from developers Tim Anderson and James Klutznick, the new proposal dramatically exceeds existing zoning limits for the block.

The two proposals involve different land parcels, and City Council's is the ultimate voice of approval or rejection of each proposal.

Peace Couriers Bear Anti-Torture Message

For more than three years residents of Evanston have raised signs and voices in opposition to the war in Iraq, but now some of those voices are rising in protest against what they see as a threat closer to home: an authorization of the use of torture.

Reacting to the United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, representatives from seven faith-based congregations are taking their concern to other congregations.

Calling themselves the Interfaith Peace Couriers Opposing Torture, they have modeled their organization after the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. The faith communities represented include the Unitarian Church of Evanston, Lake Street Church, Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church, Evanston Friends and the Buddhist Council of the Midwest.

"We were all moved to this action because of the principles of our faiths and wanted to speak out in one voice to oppose the use of torture and human rights abuses by our government or any government," said Mary Dudek of the Unitarian Church. "We all felt that those who use torture are essentially deciding who is human enough to have rights, and that is wrong and needs to be opposed by faith communities."

The Peace Couriers have reached out to more than a dozen congregations and collected hundreds of signatures on a petition that will be forwarded to Congress.  

Residents of Sienna Condominiums Returned Home Over the Weekend

By Joe Linstroth

On May 25 residents of the Sienna Evanston condominiums were able to move back into their homes, confirmed Steve Knipstein, a spokesperson for the developer, Roszak/ADC.

The 55 residents have been displaced from their homes since May 11, when a concrete span of the underground parking garage collapsed, forcing the evacuation of the adjoining condominium building.

The structural engineering firm STS was brought in by the developer to conduct an independent evaluation of the damage.  "The firm confirmed that the structures of the residential building and the garage were intact," said Christie Zielinski, another spokesperson for the developer.  "They will complete a more thorough report in early June."  The report is expected to include information on the cause of the collapse.

The City's Community Development director James Wolinski said that the developer had to "shore up the east portion of the parking garage to make sure the condo building wouldn't be affected," before residents were allowed to move back into the building.  Mr. Wolinski confirmed that all of the critical primary shoring has been installed in the garage. 

Another reason for the delay was that the garage collapse removed the second means of egress for the complex, a violation of standard building code.  Mr. Wolinski said his office received plans from the developer for the second exit to come out of the west end of the building.  His office has approved those plans. 

With the shoring in place and a second means of egress established, the residents were able to move back into the building after the developer reconnected the fire suppression and alarm systems and the City verified that they were operational.  

Mr. Wolinski said Roszak/ADC has received clearance to "occupy the condo building only."

Displaced residents were staying in hotels or with friends or family members.  Ms. Zielinski said that Roszak/ADC has issued LaSalle Bank gift cards in the amount of $250 to each resident. 

As far as additional reimbursement for the costs of displacement, Ms. Zielinski said the developer is handling each resident's situation-regardless of whether they own or lease the unit-on "a case-by-case basis."  Roszak/ADC is encouraging condominium owners to file a claim with their homeowner's insurance company, which, she said, is routine procedure when an owner is displaced for any period of time from their home. 

"We want to make sure our residents are going through the proper protocol," she said.

Ms. Zielinski reiterated that reimbursement for leasing residents will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

All residents have been advised to keep their receipts.  "We want to make sure everything is taken care of," she said.   

Multiple efforts by the RoundTable to contact the Hearn Company, which owns the garage, about parking alternatives were unsuccessful.

"The garage will be out of commission for an indeterminate amount of time," said Mr. Wolinski. 

No Certain Spot Yet for Yellow Line Stop

By Bill Smith

A study of ridership potential for an Evanston stop on the CTA Yellow Line shows no clear winner among the three proposed locations for a new station.

The study, presented in preliminary form at a meeting at the Levy Center on May 24, considered stations at Ridge, Asbury and Dodge avenues - all of which once had stations when the tracks were used by the old North Shore line.

The study showed that 8,800 people have work trips that start and end along the Yellow Line, but only about a third of those people actually use the train to get to work.

Stations at Oakton Street in Skokie and Dodge Avenue in Evanston would each add about 3,000 potential work-trip riders, according to the study, while stations at Asbury Avenue and at Ridge Avenue would each serve about 4,000 potential work commuters.

Chris Kopp of Cambridge Systematics, the lead consultant on the project, said how many commuters actually would ride the train would depend on several variables, including whether riders had to transfer at Howard or could ride directly to the Loop and whether the Yellow Line was extended to Old Orchard as proposed, as well as the pattern of population growth in the area.

A survey of South Evanston residents conducted last month as part of the study showed almost 41 percent favored a station at Asbury Avenue, nearly 36 percent favored one at Ridge Avenue and just over 34 percent wanted one at Dodge Avenue.

Over a third of the 500 residents responding to the survey said they use mass transit regularly, with most of those using CTA rail lines. But few now use the Yellow Line, given the lack of any stops in their neighborhood.

Residents who showed up at Thursday's meeting to discuss the study were split in their views. Most seemed to favor having at least one new station. They said using mass transit reduces pollution and would allow them to save money by using their cars less, or perhaps even getting rid of a car.

But a number of residents said they did not want a station near their homes, either because of concerns about increased noise from trains pulling in and out or a fear that crime would increase near a station. Others argued that property values tend to rise for areas that gain easy mass-transit access.

Some residents said they would favor putting a station near the shopping center at Howard Street and Hartrey Avenue. That site generates the most shopping-related trips of any destination along the Yellow Line's Evanston route. The area also is filled with commercial uses, so noise from a station would affect fewer residents.

But Mr. Kopp said the track rises steeply there for its flyover of McCormick Boulevard, and the CTA would rather have stations on relatively level track so train operators do not have to keep the brakes on while loading passengers. 

Mr. Kopp said preliminary checks of design parameters indicate it would be feasible to build stations at Ridge, Asbury or Dodge avenues. All three locations have the straight and relatively level track that CTA wants for a station site and could accommodate up to eight-car trains.

Dodge Avenue, he said, was the only location with the potential of providing commuter parking without buying additional land.

The final report from the study is expected to be posted on the City web site next month, www.cityofevanston.org.

The Ceremony Began on Time,  But the Roses Were  Already Planted

Stacking and labeling the plants for the Highland Garden Club are, left to right, Kathy Kastilahn,  club president Nancy Allred, Marcia Sadler and club president-elect Lois Heimbaugh.

As fragrant herbs and colorful blooming plants were being set up for display, white tents assembled and temporary shelves tacked together in preparation for the opening of the annual garden fair the next day, work stopped for a few moments on May 18 for the Garden Council of Evanston to honor the workers of the City's Parks division.

In a ceremony that complemented one held last month at Patriots' Park on the lakefront honoring the City's forestry workers, Virginia Beatty and Linda Lutz of the Garden Council presented the workers with a certificate of thanks and a coupon for a red geranium from the fair.

Mayor Lorraine Morton and Linda Lutz symbolically plant two new ever-blooming, low-maintenance rose bushes donated by the Garden Council of Evanston.

Ms. Beatty said, "These roses show how we can grow together. Together, we're better." 

Mayor Lorraine Morton said, "This event is also a tribute to the Garden Council of Evanston. We recognize that something is being done for all the residents of Evanston." She added, "Virginia Beatty is the backbone of this community, with her work toward preservation and for beauty."

In addition to honoring the forestry workers, the Garden Council presented the City with two rose bushes, planted in Independence Park, the site of the Garden Fair.

"They're experimental roses - low maintenance," said Doug Gaynor, director of Parks/Forestry and Recreation for the City. "They're called Knockouts. We'll watch these for a while, and if they are low-maintenance, then we can use them in other public places. The garden clubs do so much for the City," he added.

Paul D'Agostino, superintendent of the Parks/Forestry division said, "These Knockout roses were a recent winner of the All-American Rose Society. They're disease-resistant, while we have to spray the roses in the Merrick Rose Garden every 10 days." The pink, ever-blooming rose bushes are also said to be drought-tolerant.
In addition to sponsoring the annual garden fair - this was the 59th - the six garden clubs of Evanston that constitute the Garden Council maintain public plantings throughout the City, said Linda Lutz, Ecology Center director

Civic Center Update

About 50 firms have responded to a recent City request for proposals (RFP) for three options for the Civic Center, according to the ad-hoc group Friends of the Civic Center. John Kennedy, spokesperson for the group told the RoundTable over the weekend that the three main options in the RFP are renovating the existing building; renovating the existing building but modifying the footprint and building a new Civic Center on site - either ripping down the existing building or building elsewhere on the lot.

"There's a fourth option that they suggest might come into play, that being design the ‘ideal building' for construction at a yet-to-be-determined location. But even the RFP suggests that there is no site," said Mr. Kennedy.

Mr. Kennedy noted that the RFPs appear to presume that there would be money to complete any of these projects, despite City Council's having estimated a $27 million price tag for the renovations and despite the fact that the City has said its immediate priority is addressing the deficits in the fire and police pension funds.

He added, "It is our opinion that the best course of action, given the reality of no extra cash, is to punt. Find $2 million and fix the things that are broken, such as the roof, the electric, the cooling systems, etc. and look for a new financial picture seven years from now to renovate more of the building."

A few weeks earlier, the Friends of the Civic Center, a group that includes architects, engineers and professional designers, offered to hold a series of design charettes, at no expense to the City, that would result in proposals for the building.

There was no monetary cap in the RFP as to how much the City would pay for a design study, said Mr. Kennedy

Scaffold to Heaven?

St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, 806 Ridge Ave., is replacing their 100-year-old slate roof with funds raised by their "Raise the Roof" capital campaign.  Starting at the steeple and working downward, the roofing project is expected to last four months, weather permitting.