City of Urbana Roundup

In this Urbana roundup there was news on a fire detector program, a public meeting Urbana school parents on bullying and response, and a couple highlights from this week's City Council meeting.

The News-Gazette highlighted smoke detector safety Saturday in a couple articles combined on their website. One highlighted a tragedy stressing the life and death circumstances of ensuring your smoke detectors are functioning properly. The other highlighted an Urbana Fire Department program to help the community with smoke detectors:

Urbana Fire Marshal Phil Edwards said firefighters from each of the city’s four stations go out every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m., to check single-family, duplex and triplex residences...

Firefighters knock on doors and offer to inspect detectors and replace batteries or the whole detector if necessary. If no one is home, they leave literature telling the residents how to contact the fire department for a free smoke detector.

“We make sure to let them know it’s advisory, not punitive,” Edwards said.

Urbana’s program runs every Saturday through the end of October, but residents are free to call the fire department any time during the year if they need a new smoke detector.

“Every year, we get about 200 to install. We may have 25 left. There are times when we only have five left,” Edwards said.

More at the articles on the website here.


There was a recent public meeting of parents of children in Urbana schools concerned about the administration and bullying. From WCIA this past Saturday:

Several people talked about what they've experienced. Two USD teachers and other staff came to encourage parents to report things to the district and share their perspective. But Hernandez said that's not enough if the school district doesn't do what's expected of them.

She took her two daughters out of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. She says, "They allowed my daughter to be sexually assaulted and allowed her to be bullied and nothing has been done about it."
...
Hernandez says the principal and school staff would not show her the incident reports. WCIA reached out to the superintendent about this. He had no comment...

Employees said the administration isn't being held accountable in discipline situations and not enough is being done. Other parents talked about their concerns too but didn't want to go on camera. Even though Hernandez pulled her kids out of the school, she still demanding a change for the sake of other student's safety...

WCIA also reached out to the principal involved in this. She hasn't responded yet.

More at the full article here.


The News-Gazette had an overview of this week's Urbana City Council as well:

Urbana council OKs 2 efforts to increase homeownership, affordable housing
Aldermen voted Monday on two measures they hope will show the city's commitment to increasing homeownership and the availability of affordable housing.

In the first vote, aldermen approved ceding authority to issue $4.4 million in private activity bonds to the Illinois Assist Mortgage Credit Certificate program and the Illinois Housing Development Authority, both agencies that have past investments in Urbana and have historically provided competitive interest rates and down-payment and closing-cost assistance...

Aldermen also approved a $20,000 agreement with Rosecrance Inc. to finish a two-year rental-assistance program that helps pay for an individual's housing costs while they pursue training, education or other career opportunities. The money will allow Rosecrance to continue assisting 10 households in the city.

In other business, the city's efforts to bring a solar farm to an old landfill may take a step forward Wednesday if the project is one of the winners of the Illinois Power Agency's contract lottery for renewable-energy credits for solar farms...
The problem has been securing funding and incentives for the project, which SunPower hopes will happen Wednesday. If not, the city and company will continue to apply for other incentives and find other ways to finance the project.

More at the full article here.