A Trillion Dollars

Last Spring I was sitting in my Laze-Boy and saw on TV we were 15 trillion dollars in debt. I thought, how much is a trillion, and how long would it take for a trillion seconds to tick by?

I’m not real sharp at math and could only calculate up to one year on my small computer. So I called my Grandson, who is a college boy who loves math.

I told him my problem, and he called me back with this:

It would take 31,688 years - YEARS - for one trillion seconds to tick by.

He also said if you spent one million dollars a day, it would take 2,737 years to spend one trillion dollars.

A trillion inches would make 28 round trips to the moon and back.

Paul Dubrovich and Grandson
Joliet, IL and Savanna, IL

Publisher’s Note: Paul added, “I know it sounds crazy, but check the math.” No thanks, Paul. I trust your Grandson. My only question is, if it would take 41,055 years to spend the amount needed to get the U.S. in debt by $15 trillion, and America is a mere 236 years old, what happened? I believe we need more mathematicians and less politicians.

Hospice of the Rock River Valley Thankful

Hospice of the Rock River Valley, a United Way Agency, thanks everyone who participated in the 10th annual Hospice of the Rock River Valley (HRRV) Golf Outing on Friday, June 22.

Thank you to the many sponsors who contributed to the HRRV golf outing.

Thanks to the many golfers and teams who participated in the outing and all the prize donors for your continued support and generosity. Thank you to Deer Valley Golf Course, the staff, and the volunteers who assisted in making the outing a great success.

All proceeds from the golf outing benefit individuals and families dealing with a terminal illness. Hospice of the Rock River Valley services are offered free of charge, therefore, community generosity is key to continuing a 30-year tradition of caring for residents of Lee, Whiteside, Bureau, Carroll and Ogle counties.

Hospice of the Rock River Valley is a United Way Agency.

Sincerely,
Karen Voss and Carolyn Spencer
Hospice of Rock River Valley

Woods Morrison City Council Notes

Whiteside County Board room was the setting for the Morrison City Council meeting on June 25, 2012. All aldermen were in attendance except Dave Rose and Ron Kallemeyn - excused. No one signed up for public comment.

Chief Melton stated his report was emailed to aldermen earlier in the week. Gary Tresenriter, Sewer and Water Department Head, stated the East End Waster main is completed. All lines are in, all valves are open and all is working well. New Well house #5 is okay. A Layne-Christiansen representative stated Well #5 is at 863 feet deep. It is deep enough and not compromising anything. Baxter and Woodman will discuss the depth change with the EPA for the IEPA permit.

Ernie Huling, Treasurer, stated there were a few transfers of funds-General Funds for self- insurance -$4,500; Water and Sewer - $16,000; Water and Sewer Vehicle Replacement - $10.000; and $9.000 transferred into Self Insurance Deductible. This is to keep these line items correct when paying bills.

Jim Dubois gave a printed report to the aldermen before the meeting on the Sports Complex. The Complex needs water, as does the entire area. I looked at the income/expense report attached to the report. It stated this fiscal year to date INCOME has been $40,518.38 with the fiscal year to date EXPENSES - $86,642.79, meaning we are in the hole for this fiscal year by $46,124.41. According to our fiscal year budget for 2012-13, we have already used 54.1% of what was budgeted—(negative-$85,115.00 is projected).

Mike Mudge, Rock River Energy, answered questions about electric aggregation. The council approved going with First Energy for 2 years. It should be a savings for each household of about 25% of their bill. After contract review with the lawyers and the council, residents should receive notices to opt out of the program…so be sure to watch for that information in order to make your decisions.

In other items for consideration: Administrator Wise would like a City Building Inspector. We had an inspector, Pete Whiting, for several years. Have things changed since we no longer have him? What do we need inspected by a “city building inspector”? Was it our building code inspector that would only okay two houses to be torn down on Lincolnway, which prevented a “drive- through drug store” from being built and used by all of our residents?

Be sure to attend the Public Meeting presented by the Leaf Disposal Ad Hoc Committee on July 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm at Odell Library Community Room. Question, answers, power point presentation and public comments welcome!

The next Morrison City Council Meeting will be July 9, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Whiteside County Board Room. Everyone Welcome! I hope everyone has a very happy, safe July 4!!! We need to be grateful for our “independence”!

Marti Wood,
A Morrison Taxpayer

Commentary – The Emerging Local Asian Immigrants

By Daniel Nardini

Everyday my wife Jade makes a Korean version of her favorite ramen soup complete with kimchi (a Korean side dish with cabbage, garlic and parsley), egg and Korean noodles. Along with her ramen soup she eats a side dish of kimchi and rice along with a freeze-dried seaweed and American beef (one of her favorite American foods).

At present, Jade is studying math at Sauk Valley Community College. It is part of the courses she is taking to improve her English skills and also to learn new things as part of living in the United States. So far she has been pulling “A’s” and “B’s” in all her classes, and she has been continually on the college’s honor roll.

Even though she may be one of the minority of Koreans in northwest Illinois, more Koreans are moving out here (especially to Dixon, Illinois, where there is a church where half the membership is Korean). Every now and then Jade meets the wife of the pastor of the Methodist Church in Chadwick, Illinois. They talk about life in Chadwick and in their respective countries of origin (the pastor and his family are Indian). As a matter of fact, at least one gas station in the area is Indian-owned, as is the grocery store in Lanark. Recently, the New China restaurant owned by a Chinese family was opened in Savanna, Illinois.

According to U.S. immigration data from 2010, Asian immigration for the first time has become the largest group of immigrants to the United States. This is very evident when my wife and I go to the Chicago area where immigrants and their families from China, India and Pakistan, the Philippines and South Korea have long established themselves and tens of thousands of businesses. Over the past 20 years, Asian immigrants have been making their way through all of Illinois, the most common immigrants being Chinese. Many of them have established Chinese restaurants.

People from the Philippines can be found as nurses and medical staff in a number of hospitals and clinics, while many doctors are Indian. Likewise, Chinese and Indian immigrants have bought homes in Mount Carroll, Lanark, Savanna and Shannon, and have become members of the local community.

Asian immigrants are characterized by their work ethic, their academic performance, and their devotion to family. These three things have helped reshape the Asian continent and have helped to raise the standard of living and bring greater modernization to these immigrants’ countries of origin.

Yet these immigrants have come to the United States believing there is more opportunity here. Although these Asian immigrants are a very small percentage of the overall population of Carroll, Jo Daviess, and Whiteside counties, their numbers continue to grow and they are making an impact far beyond their numbers. Many of these immigrants received advanced training in university in their countries of origin, and have special medical, technical and entrepreneurial skills that are as badly needed here locally as in the Chicago area or other urban centers.

Capitol Report

By Jim Sacia, State Representative, 89th District

We learned June 21, 2012 that “The Five Leaders” met for over two hours and could not come up with an answer to the state’s growing pension crisis.

What a tremendous grasp of the obvious. Must we feel that assembling the Governor, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House, and their respective minority leaders and staffs is going to resolve the hugest crisis Illinois has ever faced? The answer is simple and it’s almost an insult to every one of the 12.8 million citizens of the great state – “NO”.

There are 177 elected members of the Illinois General Assembly. You elected us – arguably we created or at least allowed the problem to explode out of control. Assemble us and let’s fix it. I wrote Speaker Madigan and Leader Cross on June 22, 2012 asking for a “meeting of the whole”; yes every one of the 118 members of the House with the hopes that the Senate would do the same. This thing truly is the 800 pound guerilla in the room and we cannot ignore the short and long term ramifications.

My good friend and former Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Joe Crawford, shared with me an interesting Old Russian Proverb, “when you are dancing with a bear you can’t quit if you get tired”. All of us want this problem to just go away. We are tired of it. Well thanks to our parents we are the baby boomers now approaching retirement and, simply put, down the road there won’t be enough money to go around. Blame it on a sagging stock market for the past four years; blame it on entitlements that government simply cannot sustain – it doesn’t matter where the blame is placed, we, the sitting members, must fix the problem. We must do it now, tired or not!

Charles Osgood reporting on the Osgood File on June 20, 2012, noted that California must cut its public pensions by ten percent to sustain itself. Illinois with its $100 billion deficit along with Rhode Island must cut theirs a staggering fifty percent to keep from totally sinking.

Daily I meet with concerned state employees and teachers telling me none of this can be done while being fair to our employees – on that we certainly agree. I’m told over and over it would be unconstitutional. That comment is usually followed with words to the effect, “we put you in office, and we can take you out”. Please understand that comment does nothing to fix the problem, and it goes nowhere with me. I’ll work as hard as I can while I’m in office to fix the problem, being as fair as I possibly can. If that gets me voted out life will go on.

I will continue my efforts with the five leaders to bring us all to Springfield at no cost to the tax payer, sit us in that elaborate beautiful chamber with the comfy chairs and nobody leaves until the bear himself is exhausted.

I will be at the Warren Village Hall, July 11, 2012 at 10:00 a.m., please join me for coffee and conversation. That same afternoon I will be at the Elizabeth Village Hall to discuss your concerns.

As always, you can reach me, Sally or Barb at 815-232-0774 or e-mail us at jimsacia@aeroinc.net. You can also visit my website at www.jimsacia.com. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.