The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 3

r1 fDfil Friday, April 27, 2001 ll The Pantagraph flu www.pantagraph.com mil i I'M i mill outs LeRoy I i I I fundi ngfor its. t- i i. Vv-'i tch a ii-i dispa By ROGER MILLER Pantagraph staff LeROY City funding for LeRoy's emergency dispatch center will end as of July 1, and Met-com's 911 service is expected to take the center's place. The city council voted 5-1 to give the LeRoy Emergency Ambulance Service, which runs the dispatch center, a lump sum of $8,000 when the new fiscal year begins on May 1. That is expected to cover personnel costs at the center until around Julyl.

The city also will pay the center's phone bills until July 1. That is projected to cost an additional $1,000. The $9,000 package will pay for a two-month transition to Blooming-ton-based Metcom, which handles 911 calls for police, fire and ambulance services throughout McLean County. When Metcom takes over, LeRoy residents will call 911 for emergency services instead of dialing the dispatch center's local number. Council members were divided on the issue.

Some said the local dispatch center was a vital service, especially given Metcom's ongoing problems with radio reception and repeated delays in the countywide addressing system needed for the upgrade to enhanced-911 service. (See related stories on Page Al). Others on the council said it was an unnecessary luxury the city can't afford, and Metcom's current 911 service works as well as LeRoy's dispatchers. Ambulance service President Phil Moss had asked the council to approve funding until the council was satisfied that E-911 was in place and working properly. Moss said E-911, which will include the caller's location, maps and background data, would reduce the chances of mistakes by dispatchers unfamiliar with LeRoy.

A motion to that effect failed by a 4-2 vote. The city of LeRoy last year gave the center about $57,000, and that was estimated to be 90 percent of the center's total budget. The center's largest expense is paying the 15 to 18 full- and part-time staff, who earn $5.50 to $7 an hour. Alderman Dave McClelland, who proposed the $9,000 package that ultimately won the day, said LeRoy taxpayers essentially were double-taxed for emergency dispatching. Like all McLean County residents, they pay $1.25 per month on their phone bills for Metcom, regardless of whether LeRoy used Metcom or not.

"I would like to see us finance the dispatch center forever and ever, but that's $60,000 a year we had to pay," he said. Alderman Ryan Miles ended up voting for the $9,000 package, but he said he regretted it. To him, the 22-year-old dispatch center provides the kind of local, personal service "where people keep an eye on each other." On the other hand, Miles said Metcom is an impersonal, county-wide service of questionable reliability. Many residents, especially senior citizens, rely on the dispatch center for both emergency and nonemergency needs. "It would have been worth it to me to fund it (the local dispatch center) no matter how much it would cost," Miles said.

"I'm not betting my life on E-911." The council also asked the LeRoy Pride Action Committee to investigate ways to provide the dispatch center's nonemergency services. The center, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; also functions as an informal information clearinghouse for the public. The PanlagraphDANA HOBACK John English bagged serviceberry saplings Wednesday with Judy Henrichs and other volunteers at the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department maintenance building. The saplings will be given Bloomington third-graders for planting on Arbor Day. Love and landscapes John English will be honored this Arbor Day for the thousands of trees he planted in McLean County English paid the entire bill to give kids seedlings of his wife's favorite kind of tree, the redbud.

Jerry Armstrong, Bloomington's assistant director of Parks and Recreation, was director of Comlara Park when it was little more than former farmland and sparse timber along Six Mile Creek. Even before Armstrong was on the job, English contacted the state to supply seedlings for the park as well as ParkLands. For two years, English used the ParkLands' newly-acquired seedling planter to plant 50,000 trees, including the evergreens that gave their name to the park's 900-acre lake. He also planted oaks, green ash and sycamores, river birch, poplars and sweet gums. "I didn't know diddly squat about trees," said Armstrong.

"What I know today is thanks to John English. He is just so unassuming. He never expects anything in return for anything. He is a man behind the scenes, and he is a heck of a contributor." Active with Friends of the Trail, he has a dream of seeing an arboretum of unusual tree species along Bloomington's west branch of Constitution Trail when it is completed. He wants magnolias, sassafras and black gum, to name a few.

Scarlet oaks would drop acorns that people could take home to plant, he said. People also could view crab-apple species to see how they might appear in their own yards. English has even grown varieties of walnut and pecan trees for the project. "I'll be planting trees as long as I survive, maybe even after that," chuckled English, who had some observations about the controversy over Illinois Power tree-trimming practices in the Twin Cities. "Obviously, you don't plant big trees under power lines," he said, adding that power company employees could do more to distinguish softwoods, which may pose a real risk to lines, from hardwoods that probably won't cause many problems.

By SCOTT RICHARDSON Pantagraph staff BLOOMINGTON When John English was just 5 years old, his mom taught him to name the species of trees as they filed past the window of the family car. "She made a game of it," English recalled. Nearly 80 years later, English is credited with planting literally thousands of trees throughout McLean County a labor of love that is being recognized statewide with a Community Service Award from the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association and the Illinois Association of Park Districts. The award will be given during Arbor and Bird Day ceremonies today at Stevenson Elementary School in Bloomington. In the 1970s, English, a retired farmer, personally planted more than 100,000 trees at Comlara Park near Hudson.

A founding board member of the Parklands Foundation, he also helped plant thousands more trees on Parklands land along the Mackinaw River in northern McLean County. As a McLean County Board member, he helped decide what varieties to plant on the grounds of the Law and Justice Center. Twenty-six years ago, English helped launch the Arbor Day tradition of giving Bloomington school children 1,000 tree seedlings, their roots wrapped in damp moss and plastic. Each year, a school is chosen to receive a larger tree of the same species. "You do that long enough, and it starts to add up," laughed English, 84.

"As a farmer, you get tired of growing nothing but corn and soybeans. You want to do something interesting with the land." Recognized as a Tree City USA for 14 years, the city of Bloomington usually covers the cost of the tree program that is overseen by the city's beautification committee. Different species are given each year. Two years ago, after the death of his wife, Florence, Real estate records may appear online hours and on weekends. That information now is available only during regular business hours at the recorder's office in the McLean County Law and Justice Center in Bloomington.

If the testing through Mid-Illinois Title Services and McLean County Title continues to be successful, the remote-access service could be offered to the public yet this year, Weber said. Users would get a password to access the system. The software provided by Fidlar Doubleday also safeguards against changes being made to the records, Weber said. Plans are for the county using its document storage fee funds to pay the Fidlar firm for each user and then seek an unspecified reimbursement. A bill to allow this method of reimbursement is pending in the Illinois legislature, Weber said.

By BOB HOLLIDAY Pantagraph staff BLOOMINGTON McLean County soon could become the third county in the state to offer remote access to real estate records through the Internet. Recorder Ruth Weber said feasibility testing, which is being done by two Bloomington title companies, should continue for another couple of weeks. "We want to make sure everything is working properly," said Weber. Sangamon and McHenry counties now offer remote access to records. The access is'expected to be a major convenience to those who regularly use real estate records.

It would allow title companies, real estate lawyers, banks and realty companies to access sales prices and ownership after business Drug testing OK helps move pension bill for guards. If ratified, about 20 percent of the agency's 14,000 employees would be randomly tested each year. Employees would be dismissed after one positive test. Currently, employees are allowed three positive tests before losing their jobs. The legislation is Senate Bill 1032.

County and Municipal Employees, would require correctional officers to submit to federal drug-testing guidelines. Senate President James "Pate" Philip, R-Wood Dale, had made approval of the drug-testing plan a condition of signing off on the broader pension-benefit bill, which will boost retirement pay By KURT ERICKSON Statehouse bureau chief SPRINGFIELD A game of political brinkmanship that left a pension plan for state Department of Corrections employees in limbo for nearly a year is nearing an end. In legislative action Thursday, the Illinois Senate endorsed a zero- tolerance drug plan for the state's prison guards. House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, predicted passage of the measure when it arrives in the lower chamber. The plan, which was hammered out between Republicans in the Illinois Senate and Council 31 of the American Federation of State, Appeals court tosses laws on late-term abortions Attorney Richard Coleson of Terre Haute, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Wisconsin's lieutenant governor and 55 lawmakers supporting the abortion ban said the action was no surprise.

"We are disappointed but it is not unexpected in light of the Supreme Court decision in Stenberg versus Carhart," Coleson said. The appeals court's opinion was not signed by an author but 10 of the 11 active judges concurred in it. Judge Kenneth Ripple did not participate. volves moving a fetus into the birth canal and extracting the brain. The only exception would be to save the life of the mother.

Although the appeals court action came as no surprise, abortion rights forces applauded it as a step forward. Linda Royabo, a spokeswoman for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, said the action brought Illinois and Wisconsin into line with what is now the law throughout the country. "These two states just didn't want to face the facts," she said. the high court's decision and sent lawsuits back to U.S. District Courts in both states.

It ordered those courts to enjoin enforcement of the anti-abortion laws. The Illinois law banning the late-term procedure was enacted in 1997, but it was blocked before it could take effect. Wisconsin followed in 1998 and its law also was immediately blocked. Both have since been on hold pending a resolution in the courts of whether they met the constitutional requirements. The laws would make it a felony for doctors to perform any procedure that in CHICAGO (AP) A federal appeals court on Thursday bowed to the U.S.

Supreme Court and ordered a ban on enforcement of Illinois and Wisconsin laws outlawing a controversial late-term abortion procedure. The action reversed an October 1999 decision in which the then sharply divided appeals court upheld 5-4 measures enacted by both state legislatures to ban the procedure critics call partial-birth abortion. The about-face had been expected since last June when the U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional a Nebraska ban on the procedure. The Supreme Court threw out the Nebraska measure, saying it lacked any exception to preserve the health of the mother and imposed an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions.

"Both of these grounds are equally applicable to the Illinois and Wisconsin statutes, the substantive portions of which do not differ in any material way from the Nebraska statute at issue," the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a six-page opinion. The appeals court thus took its cue from Hi "Hjwu ttwiuniit ram Lippmann's offers The perfect gift for graduation, Mother's Day, Weddings, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Holidays. A Lane'Cedar Chests CS prcsmls II I5! FURNITURE A INTERIORS 7 UlljjMUlM'i 207 N. Landmark Drive 454-2244 Mon.

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