Roscoe Village meetings could be interesting this week

The agenda of the Village of Roscoe's Tuesday, May 21 meeting includes the delicate question of the VFW's Memorial Day Parade. Because of low participation in last year’s parade, the Village suggests a shorter, more solemn procession from Leland Park, rather than a street-closing parade down Main Street. We discuss the issues more completely in a separate story. The VFW is inviting their supporters to support them at the meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Other Roscoe agenda items: the Stateline YMCA Stonebridge 1/2 Marathon & 5K on Sunday September 28, 2024 and the North Pointe Triathlon and Fit N Fun Fair on Saturday, June 8, 2024. Trustees are expected to authorize the solicitation of public bids for the 2024 Class D road patching program.

Back on the agenda: a three-year extension of the agreements [PDF] with Stateline Baseball/Stateline Fastpitch to continue renting Leland Park, Porter Park, and Swanson Park through December 31, 2027. Trustee Mike Sima wanted to hold over the vote until the board could better understand how the sports organization was using their money. Apparently Stateline Sports didn't provide many details.

Roscoe also plans to hire Place Foundry Design PLLC to provide design and owner's representative services for the construction of the Village's Bridge Street multi-use parking facility at the former site of A Little Bird Told Me. Though some hoped the decaying 100 year old building could be preserved as a cute shop, Village President Carol Gustafson commented, "Not every old building can be salvaged from modern day use. I'm sure I'm the only person who could walk up the stairs without hitting her head on the wall. If you wanted to do something inside to bring it up to modern code and make it handicap accessible, you'd have to raise the roof, gut everything to the studs, and you'd still have an impediment here."

Later, at the Committee of the Whole Meeting, trustees will discuss issuing a special event permit for the Screw City Flex Series Disc Golf event, on Sunday June 23, 2024 at Porter Park Disc Golf course, and for an event by the Rock Valley Radio Control Flying Club at Chicory Ridge Park on Saturday, August 24, 2024.

Trustees will also talk about whether it still helps residents to provide a space in Village Hall for use by the DMV Secretary of State DMV Facility. Since it opened in 2010, services and hours have become more and more limited, as the Secretary of State encourages people to do their business online. Kurlinkus says that many patrons either come to the DMV facility when it's closed, or else discover the service they want isn't available there.

Kurlinkus says, "A large percentage of the foot traffic coming into Village Hall on any given week are those looking for DMV services, and each week, quite a few of those people leave disappointed, angry or upset, often venting their frustrations at the Village staff – who help them as much as possible, but generally can only provide general information."