City Of Naperville, The Year Ahead, Issues To Resolve

The sound of cans bouncing along the roads in Naperville, are the cans that the Naperville city council kicked down the road in 2017. The city council has adopted the general policy of not making difficult decisions until a later date, thinking that more time will make the decisions easier, and typically it doesn’t. Usually it results in another kick of the can. The good aspects about not making decisions are 1) maybe the issue will take care of itself, and 2) you can’t make a wrong decision hence less chance of resurfacing at election time.

In addition to all the postponed decisions the city council will have to address, will be all the new issues coming down the road, so the city council might find itself pressed to make those delayed decisions in a timely manner to accommodate new issues.

Some of the issues the council will have to decide are some of the same topics Watchdog will be writing about; it just sort of works that way. The council provides Watchdog with material, along with a wonderful array of video clips to embed to the postings. Nothing beats hearing the council members and city officials in their own words.

Upcoming cans (issues) to be kicked down the road by the city council include in no particular order:

• Fifth Avenue planning and development, what is it going to look like and who is going to develop it.
• Old Nichols Library, what to do with it now that it has been given landmark status.
• Moser Tower, fix it, band aid it, or demolish it
• Ogden Corridor, what can be done to foster economic development, and make it more visually appealing.
• Pet stores and puppy mills, how to accommodate pet stores while extinguishing puppy mills
• Naperville city officials conflicts of interest
• Wi-Fi park, to be or not to be, with or without names
• Harassment policy, adopting a new and better version
• Waste material facility, reduced funding may require shorter hours or closing the facility.
• Budget cost reductions and revenue streams affecting property taxes
• SECA grant allocations; fewer groups with more funding, or more groups with less funding.
• IMEA (Illinois Municipal Electric Agency) and the EPA’s position affecting the city
• Electric and water rates soaring out of control in Naperville
• Drug drop boxes, good idea but execution may not be compliant

No doubt that the Naperville city council will have a plethora of issues to talk about, and Watchdog will have an abundance of topics to write about.