Sycamore Fire Chief Bart Gilmore and City Manager Michael Hall explained the need for a new fire station at this week’s Rotary meeting.  Gilmore and Hall came prepared with videos and slides showing the challenges the fire service faces operating in their  66-year-old downtown building.  Fire station #1 was built in 1957 and originally housed a volunteer department handling 89 calls a year as well as the police department and city hall.  Today the department is staffed by full-time firemen and handles over 3.000 calls a year.  The building was modified for only fire service use but the aging heating and cooling systems are failing and coupled with poor air quality factors mean unhealthy working conditions exist.  Gilmore noted that power-operated bay doors have failed at times, adding critical delayed response to fire calls.  Gilmore also said there are height restrictions in the garage bays which added about $100,000 in modification costs to a new fire engine.  He said the height restrictions also preclude adding a much-needed aerial ladder truck to their fleet.

 

Gilmore and Hall said several options were reviewed but an offer of a land donation by Ideal Industries makes building a new station the best long-term plan for the City.  The land is at the southwest corner of Borden Avenue and South Prairie Drive in the South Prairie Business Park.  Gilmore says the location will better balance call assignments with Fire Station #2 on the north side of town.  He also said the approximately 6-acre site would let the fire department develop a fire safety campus including a “safety town” for children.  Hall said the City can structure finances so that an estimated $10 million in construction bonds for the new building can be paid as other bonds expire without any property tax increase. Rotarians were invited to follow developments of he fire project at www.cityofsycamore.com/newstation.

Rotary’s November student of the month is Sycamore High School senior Lili Jennings.  Jennings has a passion for the performing arts.  She has appeared in over two dozen musical and theater productions.  She started doing performances while in third grade at North Grove school.  She’s also participated in state and national vocal competitions.  She has completed two novels (both in their first-draft form) which are in the Harry Potter fantasy genre.  Jennings ranks fifth in her class and is a member of the National Honor Society.  In 2020 she qualified for the National Spelling Bee.  Her volunteer service work includes active participation in the Rotary Interact club, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) events the past two years, and physical education programs assisting students with disabilities  She is currently working on documenting her arts  background in order to apply for acceptance at performance oriented schools like the California Institute of the Arts, University of Michigan, and University of Cincinnati,  Jennings will be performing in the upcoming Sycamore High School musical “Mama Mia” and was coaxed into singing a few measure of the production’s theme song.  The musical will be staged November 10-12.  Jennings said she will be donating her $100 check from Rotary to the school’s drama club.

October 30, 1735 – The 2^nd President of the United States and one of the country’s Founding Fathers, John Adams, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts.

 

November 2, 1795 – 11^th U. S. President James K. Polk is born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

 

November 3, 1908 – Bronko Nagurski, Canadian-American college and pro-football hall of fame fullback who played for the Chicago Bears, is born in Rainy River, Ontario.

 

November 4, 1916 – United Press International wire service correspondent and later CBS-TV news anchor Walter Cronkite is born in St. Joseph, Missouri.  During his lifetime, he is widely ranked as America’s most trusted journalist.

November 1, 1776 – Mission San Juan Capistrano is founded in California becoming the historic place where swallows return each March.

 

November 2, 1947 – The first and only flight of Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” takes place in Long Beach, California.  The 200-ton plywood eight-engine plane cost $25 million to build; it flew about one-mile at an altitude of 70 feet.

 

November 3, 1948 – ‘Dewey Defeats Truman” is the banner headline on the front page of the Chicago Tribune newspaper.  Printed before polls closed, their polling projections were infamously wrong because Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election.

 

November 4, 1922 – King Tut’s tomb is discovered at Luxor, Egypt by British archeologist Howard Carter.