If the Problem Solver doled out midyear awards, Laura Siracusa would win one for her patience, and Eveready Flood Control would take a prize for being true to its word.
Readers might remember Siracusa from the March 9 column, in which she complained that she had paid Eveready a $2,400 deposit, but the company never completed any work.
At the time, Bensenville-based Eveready promised to repay Siracusa her deposit, minus the $400 it had paid for permits.
There was, however, a catch. Eveready’s owner, Pat Regan, proposed sending the Arlington Heights resident four monthly checks of $500 until the $2,000 was paid off.
Siracusa was skeptical, but this week Siracusa received the fourth and final $500 check.
“The check cleared, so I am home free with my $2,000,” she said Thursday. “I’m just very grateful.”
Siracusa wasn’t the only one who received good news this week. In North Carolina, Allison Banducci has been waiting patiently for a much-needed certificate from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Banducci, featured in the June 27 column, graduated from Eastern Illinois University last year. After failing to find a teaching job in Illinois, the 24-year-old Schaumburg native moved to Raleigh, N.C., where teaching prospects appear better.
To apply for jobs there, she needed a temporary teaching license from North Carolina. But to get the license, she needed a certificate from the Illinois State Board of Education showing she is “highly qualified” to teach social studies.
More than a month and a half after she sent in paperwork to receive the certificate, the Illinois Board of Education still hadn’t processed her request.
When the Problem Solver called late last month, a spokeswoman for the Board of Education said the certificate had been processed and would be sent out within days. It arrived recently at Banducci’s parents house, who forwarded it to her in North Carolina.
Banducci received it Wednesday.
“I got it and I was able to send in my application for the temporary license, which I did,” she said Thursday.
Now when she applies for jobs, Banducci can say she has applied for a North Carolina license, “which makes more sense than having an Illinois license,” she said.
The Problem Solver also followed up on the saga of Terry Burns and her clogged sewer drain.
Burns, who appeared in the July 4 column, had complained to the city of Chicago for months about the drain, which during heavy rains pushed stagnant water over her parkway grass and into her driveway.
The city’s Department of Water Management cleaned out the catch basin in front of Burns’ Old Irving Park house just before the holiday, and returned this week.
“They’ve been out there every day doing something,” Burns said Thursday. “I would guess they will probably be finished today or tomorrow.”
A city spokesman said crews had to replace some of the sewer pipe.
“I don’t know anything about sewers and plumbing or anything like that, but they cleaned everything up really nice,” Burns said. “They even cleaned up some of the mud on my driveway.”
The repairs seem to be working. After Thursday morning’s rains, no water pooled in Burns’ driveway.
Other happy news:
*Betty Bohse, the subject of the June 24 column, reports she received a $676 check from the South Suburban Humane Society to help pay veterinary bills after the organization botched the spaying of her Doberman, named Phoenix, in February.
*Bob Mayne, featured in the June 29 column, is breathing a sigh of relief as well. The Elmhurst resident, who has been waiting on his Internal Revenue Service refund since March, finally received the $10,714 check Wednesday.
“I just feel good,” he said.
