Looking for a gift for that special someone in your life?
If you live in Downers Grove, Village Manager Kurt Bressner might have the answer. How about 8 cubic yards of home-grown wood chips?
The pile of chips, 10 feet high and a half-mile long, is the result of trees and branches felled by the July 2 storm. The chips sit at Curtiss Street west of Belmont Road, and Bressner is seeking to rid the village of its woody legacy.
Officials have been offering residents free delivery of the chips, but there have been few takers.
”So far, we`ve received 130 requests for a load of chips,” Bressner said. ”All we need are 370 more and we`ll be in business.”
Bressner took his campaign to the village`s local cable access channel Monday during a broadcast of a Village Council`s committee of the whole meeting. The manager abandoned his traditional decorum to pitch chips.
”We`re perfectly willing-in fact, we`d be pleased-to deliver as many increments of wood chips and mulch as you like,” Bressner told local audiences. ”You can put these things in the most amazing places. Keep them for yourself or share them with friends.”
The village asks only that ”if you give someone a gift of chips, that you inform them first,” Bressner said before reciting the Village Hall telephone number (964-0300) and urging residents to ”call now.”
”That commercial will run a few more times,” he said. ”And if it doesn`t work, maybe we`ll offer prizes. Maybe hiding a diamond in the chip pile might work. At this point, we`re willing to consider it.”
