Geneva on the Web: Metra Scare, Salmonella Scare, Development News and a Friendly Face

Geneva is the center of the universe, or at least, it's the center of our universe.

So here's a little catchup on some of the Geneva news items that are out there this week.

• The Kane County Chronicle's Brenda Schory has an excellent update on Geneva's efforts to develop the former jail property near Settler's Hill Landfill. Schory talks to Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns and Kane County Board member Philip Lewis, R-St. Charles, about possible uses. Burns would like to see a convention center, and Lewis would like the county to hold onto the property. Interesting.
• The Chron also has a wonderful "Face Time" profile story of Bob Langeness, a friend and former colleague of mine at The Geneva Republican. You can read about Bob's rather unusual gravesite (we're not making this up) on Geneva Patch.
• In the Daily Herald, Susan Sarkauskas has a complete story on the District 304 capital improvements priority list. It adds to the information in  that ran Tuesday on Geneva Patch. Susan is a gem of a reporter. Tax watchdog Bob McQuillan gets a quote.
• On The Geneva Republican website, Frank Vaisvilas has a terrific story about Geneva commuters' concerns about a possible terrorist threat against commuter trains. The Associated Press said the threat was part of the intelligence collected during last Sunday's raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack. This, of course, follows the weird events on Friday, when aover the Geneva Metra station.
• And of course the Salmonella uncovered at the St. Charles Portillo's is today's top story on mysuburbanlife.com. Not Geneva specific, but a lot of us eat there quite often—including the Nagel family. Here's the story on  written by the amazing Nick Swedberg.

A totally non-Geneva story worthy of applause is today's installment of the Tax Watchdog series by the Daily Herald's Jake Griffin—just really good journalism. It looks like Jake's new beat is to scout and scope stories about runaway suburban taxes and government spending. On Wednesday, Jake points out an assistant principal from Schaumburg who is making a tidy $341,747 a year. Well done, Jake and the DH.

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