Wold provides update on local school security in wake of Newtown shooting

“For every school event, we have scheduled officers,” Wold said. “We do have a crisis plan in place, and we revisited it.”

Wold said first thing Monday morning he attended a meeting with the superintendent and principals of Channahon Dist. 17 schools. They reviewed security policy and began implementation of one or two additions. There will also be an increased police presence at the schools this week and in the near future.

“I think our school district does a very good job at security,” Wold told the board.

Village President Joe Cook also remembered Marketti and said that he had been a good public servant for many, many years. He was also active in a number of community service organizations, he said.

“He will be missed,” Cook said.

Village Administrator Joe Pena also told the board that residents should be seeing on their upcoming electric bills the results of joining the electric aggregation.

The board, however, got what many residents would consider bad news regarding the telecommunications tax put in place last January on cell phones, land phones, Internet and e-mail services. The tax was instituted as a way to increase revenue into the cash-strapped village.

The village’s revenue from its sales tax rebate agreements with certain businesses had come to a sudden halt, coming into question with three lawsuits against the village, and the state of Illinois had begun withholding Channahon’s rebate dollars. Other revenues were down due to the recession.

The board had a choice of the percentage of the new tax, from 0 to 5 percent, and trustees set the tax at 5percent.

This week, Pena recommended the tax remain at 5 percent for 2013, but perhaps only for one more year.

“While we still have concern over sales tax dollars and rebate fund issues,” Pena wrote in a memo to the board, “we have achieved stability and appear to have begun to turn things around.”