Marquette Park Security Moves Ahead
The renewal process for Marquette Park Special Service Area 14 is moving ahead, with a formal application sent this week to the Chicago Department of Planning and Development after area residents discussed the pros and cons of the SSA at two community meetings held last week at Lithuanian Human Services, 2711 W. 71st St.
Kimberly Bares, a consultant assisting with the renewal, said city officials will likely request that another community meeting be held during the summer, before the City Council Finance Committee holds a hearing on the renewal, probably in October.
A mandated 60-day waiting period will follow to allow objectors to circulate petitions, and the full City Council will then vote on the measure in December.
Since its creation in 1993, the SSA has been funding private security for a mile-square neighborhood overlapping Marquette Manor and Chicago Lawn.
For the past 15 years, the non-profit Lithuanian Human Services has been administering it as sole service provider, overseen by a volunteer panel of commissioners who live and work in the area.
And since 2006, a company called Illinois Homeland Security Services has been supplementing Chicago police protection with patrols by armed security guards, many of whom are off-duty police.
Currently, six people sit on the security commission, and one more has applied for the seventh available seat. But a sunset provision in the city ordinance that created the SSA is kicking in at the end of the year, so as happens periodically, all the commissioners must reapply and be reappointed if the SSA gets re-established.
Bares sees no need to change the boundaries of the SSA, which takes in the area between Bell and Kedzie avenues from 67th to 75th streets. But she warned that because SSA 14 is so unusual, being the only one of more than 30 SSAs in the city that serves a residential area, it may not get renewed in exactly its present form.
City officials were invited but did not attend the public meetings last week. However, Department of Planning spokesman Pete Scales and others have said recently that for liability and other reasons, they would like to see SSA 14 become more like the others, which focus on providing services to commercial areas.
Key to keeping the SSA in place is support from the aldermen whose wards include the district, and Aldermen Toni Foulkes (15th) and Lona Lane (18th) voiced their support for the renewal at the May 8 meeting.
“The only thing I am looking for is 24-hour security around the clock. And we need the money to come in on time so we can pay for it. We also want cameras,” said Lane. “We’re all on the same page.
Yesterday (May 15) was the deadline for sending the application to the Department of Planning and Development.
On Tuesday, Inga Dunno, program administrator of the SSA for Lithuanian Human Services, said she had already received a formal letter of support from Foulkes and was expecting to get one from Lane to include with the application.
“Whatever the people want. That is what I am for,” said Foulkes after the meeting.
The only change being proposed for the SSA would be a slight increase in the tax levy, from .24 percent to .30 percent, which would still be well below the .41 ceiling that was set in 1993.
Residential property owners are now paying about $119 a year for the private security, and that could rise about $12.
Although city officials have suggested using the added funds for things such as street-cleaning and promotion of local businesses, those ideas do not seem to have community support.
According to surveys filled out by residents and submitted to LHS, Dunno said most people are “generally in favor of the security” as it stands now.
A few people who spoke at the meeting last week advocated abolishing it altogether, but most said they liked the security and would be in favor of improving it, but not adding anything but more security cameras.
“(Additional programs) wouldn’t really work here,” said LHS president Joe Polikaitis. “Our purpose is to keep this neighborhood viable.
“Safety comes first. Maybe after we get cameras installed, and we don’t need as much security, we can focus on other things.”
“We do need something in this area,” said Shirley Godley, who has lived on the 2600 block of Lithuanian Plaza Court (69th Street) for 17 years.
However, she said that she has been complaining to both Chicago Lawn (8th) District police and the private security for years about a notorious “drug house” across the street from her home, and nothing has been done to shut it down.
Chicago Lawn (8th) District Cmdr. John Kupczyk attended both meetings, and discussed how large the district is.
He said the 8th District has the most calls for service in the city, but he encouraged people to keep calling 911.
It was suggested that people seeking more police should call and write letters to their local aldermen and state representatives.
“I don’t believe we should have the SSA,” said Lois Day Walker. “The city should be providing all these services with the taxes we pay already.
“We should be down at City Hall demanding more police.”
One man said “people are concerned about creating a slush fund” if taxes are increased and the district just looks for ways to spend it.
“The good thing about SSAs is that they are locally driven,” said Bares, noting that local people on the commission will be making the decisions with community input.
“We need the security. The rest of this is all just window-dressing,” said longtime resident Gene Brizgys, indicating a list provided of all the possible services that an SSA could provide.
Joe Kulys, another longtime area resident, had kind words for Lane this week after suggesting in the past that she was not fully behind the SSA.
“She came to the meeting. She understands our concerns. We’re very thankful for her concern, and I applaud Ald. Toni Foulkes, who also helped us,” said Kulys.
“We need security. The rest is just window-dressing,” said Brizgys.
LHS president Joe Polikaitis, said there is not much support for changing the parameters of the SSA to focus on commercial entities.