Glenview Park District officials are fielding criticism from East Coast animal advocates who oppose the district’s plans to breed animals at Wagner Farm, which initially drew controversy after officials recommended sending Bart the Bull to slaughter.
The Park Board is expected to decide March 21 whether elderly Bart and several cows past their prime will go to auction. Meanwhile, the district has formed a committee to decide on the care and breeding of animals at Wagner Farm, which is intended to replicate a 1920s family-style working farm.
Glenview resident Debby Rubenstein questions whether the district should be breeding.
“Why start this now, to create more animals when there already are too many animals abused because of overpopulation?” she said.
Chiming in are the Farm Sanctuary of New York and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals of Norfolk, Va., groups that have been sending the Park District letters of disapproval.
Glenview officials believe they have plenty of people representing the animals’ best interests. Committee members include a large-animal veterinarian, a farmer, a humane society member, an agricultural extension service agent and a Lincoln Park Zoo representative.
Enlightened: It took less than 20 minutes Tuesday for Glenview Village Board members to agree that streetlights for major roads at the Glen redevelopment are too bright and to approve spending $78,000 to buy softer light bulbs and add shields to the more than 500 streetlights.
Complaints to the village started coming in as soon as lights were installed last fall along Patriot Road and Chestnut Avenue. Bruce Rybarczyk, speaking for his Glen neighbors, told the board the lights are more appropriate for a night game at Wrigley Field or for a high-security prison.
Transit study: Improvements or new stops along the Skokie Swift line could be ahead.
The Skokie Village Board has hired the firm of Parsons Brinkerhoff/DLK to undertake a $180,000 feasibility study, largely paid for by a $120,000 grant from the Regional Transportation Authority. The study, expected to take a year, will examine issues such as rights of way, ridership projections and power needs.
Based on the results, the Skokie Swift could expand by adding a downtown Skokie stop, extending the line into the village’s east side industrial district, or running north to Old Orchard Road.
No free rides: A police officer who arrested underage drinkers at a Glencoe party rattled the volunteers who run a weekend program, Safe Ride, that provides free, confidential rides to classmates who are impaired.
New Trier Township High School students take calls from teens who are intoxicated or pushing curfew and offer them rides home. The program is not affiliated with the school.
One December night, a Glencoe police officer stopped a Safe Ride car that was driving slowly on the wrong side of the road as its driver searched for an address. When students told the officer where they were heading, he recognized the address as a source of past troubles and zipped on over.
Students are now worried that the program is not so “safe” after all, though organizers describe the incident as unusual.
Police largely support the program, but say it has its down side.
“It puts the department in a dangerous position if we know underage drinking is taking a place and we don’t take any action,” said Glencoe Deputy Chief Mike Volling.
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