letters to the editor

Updated: March 29, 2012 4:15PM

Proposed New Health and Community Center

I am a Northbrook citizen and a member and active user of our local YMCA and have been for over thirty years. My children, and now my grandchildren, are also members and users of the North Suburban YMCA. Membership dues are reasonable, affordable, and do not cost one penny more out of my real estate taxes.

The programs available to its members are extensive and over just about every imaginable exercise of physical and mental activity. It is a “family” Y — a facility for every member of the family from age 2 to 102 (our oldest member). Why is the Northbrook Park District attempting to duplicate what we already have?

Why should the citizens of Northbrook need another health and leisure center when the services it will offer are already in ample supply with Five Seasons and NSYMCA? Is this sound fiscal planning? Is this the time to expand when the village population is not?

Just say ‘no’ to a referendum that will increase taxes for everyone when the benefits received are simply not justified or needed now or in the foreseeable future.

Perhaps the Northbrook Park District and the NSYMCA should consider sharing what they already have.

Jim Otis

Northbrook

Vote yes for the District 31 referendum

I consider myself lucky, and my parents smart.

I grew up on the North Shore of Chicago and was a student in an outstanding school district, where I received a stellar education. Following college, graduate school, marriage, and moving around the country a bit, my husband and I moved back to the Northern suburbs of Chicago knowing that this area is the only place we wanted to raise our own family, giving our children the same opportunity to learn in a great school district like I did.

I attribute a great deal of my personal and professional success to my earliest educational successes in elementary, middle, and high school. I couldn’t have known it then, but my parents had given me a tremendous gift by making the choice to buy a home in an area renowned for its schools, despite the higher cost of living.

I was awarded with what I felt was the highest level of professional success in my own field when I was offered a job in the very place where my smart parents chose to raise me: on the North Shore of Chicago!

I am one of many proud, dedicated, passionate teachers in District 31. I provide students with a world-class education because I work within a district and community that values such a thing, and I do so because the people of this community moved here specifically for its excellent schools. On March 20, the fate of our tiny, but educationally mighty district, lies within the very hands of the mothers and fathers, old and young, who moved their families to Glenview and Northbrook to give their children a gift: education.

And perhaps, in my classroom today, is the student who will grow up just like I did, return to this area, and buy your home when you are ready to move on. Wouldn’t you like to ensure that all of that can happen? It is time to vote morally, and consciously, and vote yes for the community you chose, and the community you would choose again. Vote yes for the District 31 Referendum on March 20. Continue to hold up high what you’ve always valued most.

I still say my parents are smart, and I am one very lucky teacher.

Kelly Tess

6th grade teacher,
Field Middle School

District 31

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