Hardly a solution to district’s budget woes
I just read the article in this week’s Forest Park Review on how Proviso District 209 is attempting to “save money” (“High schools cut contracts, but savings unclear” Oct. 24). I would have probably laughed at their solution to restructure the contract of a lobbyist from a monthly salary to payment on an hourly basis, had I not spent the last two years or so reading about the continued questionable financial arrangements that District 209 has entered into.
Frankly, the whole thing sickens me.
We are expected to believe that District 209 is going to balance its budget by changing arrangements of an unnecessary employee from a monthly salary to a salary paid on an hourly basis? Have any of these people ever been salaried employees? If so, they might well have understood that salaried employees would often be better off if they were paid an hourly wage commensurate to their experience, time actually worked and duties performed.
Carrying this idea to the present situation, is it not possible that the lobbyist in question might earn even more by padding his hours than he would have earned in the first place? After all, who is going to police him?
Theresa Kelly is right. District 209 should not have a lobbyist in the first place.
A good first step for balancing the budget would be to eliminate the lobbyist and from the payroll. This step alone would not balance the budget. It would, however, represent a good faith effort by the District 209 board to clean things up.
If this were to happen, perhaps the district might find unions within it to be more cooperative with them, making sacrifices if they are seen to be truly necessary.
David Meyer
Forest Park
Native American event
The Historical Society of Forest Park, Illinois would like to take time to thank the following groups that came to Forest Park on Oct. 20 for a talk on the Native American artifacts that are in the possession of the village library.
The Mitchell Museum of the Native American in Evanston, the Smithsonian Institute of the Native American, Washington D.C., the Illinois Trailside Museum of River Forest, the Cook County Forest Preserve District, the Field Museum of Chicago, the University of Champaign Urbana, archeologist Fred Christensen, and archeologist, Edward Pace.
The society would also like to thank the following volunteers who awaited our arrival to the library. Volunteer and member Sally Taylor, volunteer and member Valda Vitton, and volunteer Richard Vitton Jr.
The talk and all day tour was set up by the Mitchell Museum that included Harms Woods, the Forest Park library, Forest Home Cemetery to view the last remaining mounds, the site of Leon and Margaret (Nashca Yodan) Bourassa’s log cabin, and the I and M Canal. The society is in discussion for another tour next year.
Rich Vitton, president
Forest Park Historical Society
Forest Park
