Pulse: Count ’em out as candidates
December 23, 2012 3:56PM
Joliet Police Chief Mike Trafton
Updated: January 25, 2013 6:07AM
Scratch Kevin Hegarty and Robert Iuffues Web b from the list of possible candidates for three at-large Joliet City Council seats in the April 9 election.
Hegarty, the city’s former communications director and a mayoral candidate in 2011, took out petitions but said last week he has decided not to run.
Webb, who regularly comments on city policy at council meetings, took out petitions but has informed the city clerk’s office that he will not run.
Alicia Morales, a more recent council gadfly on the topic of the immigration detention center, also took out petitions but has said she will not run.
The last day to turn in petitions is Wednesday.
One man’s junk ...
The city of Joliet still is working on a compromise with second-hand goods dealers who have been unhappy with a plan to put customer information on a LeadsOnline Internet service.
Police agencies use LeadsOnline to look for stolen goods.
“We’re close,” Joliet Police Chief Mike Trafton told the city council last week.
But the council agreed with a staff request to take the proposed ordinance off of its agenda indefinitely. Trafton said the city still is working with scrap dealers.
Oh, the irony!
Joliet City Councilman Larry Hug was dubbed to read the city proclamation for Smokefree Illinois Week at last week’s council meeting.
“The irony is not lost on me. I’m the only smoker on the council,” Hug said.
He got some support from Jennifer Blair, the community health educator for Will County who was there to accept the proclamation. Blair gave Hug a tap on the arm and said, “I’m an ex-smoker, so I know how you feel.”
Hug was spotted smoking outside city hall before the meeting but delivered the nine-paragraph proclamation without a cough.
The drive to Springfield
If Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, the newly elected state senator from the 49th District, gets a flat on one of her future drives to Springfield, she won’t necessarily have to call AAA.
Bertino-Tarrant, a Democrat from Shorewood, worked at the family business, Bertino’s Auto Service, while growing up. It was a gas station then, and Bertino-Tarrant pumped gas and did other work, said Glen Marcum, who manages the business and is a Joliet park commissioner.
Was she a mechanic? No, Marcum said. Could she change tires?
“She did some of that,” he said.
Something extra
Families using the Lockport Food Pantry got an unexpected bonus with their groceries Friday.
Lockport Township firefighters donated two pickup trucks worth of new toys to be distributed along with the food pickup.
Bob Okon and Brian Stanley contributed to Pulse.
