La Grange Today

Crystal Lake man arrested, admits sexual encounter with Brookfield youth in the village parking deck

A 23-year-old Crystal Lake man was arrested Sunday night by La Grange police and charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse after admitting that he engaged in sexual activity with a 15-year-old Brookfield boy in the parking structure behind Village Hall, according to a press release issued Tuesday by police.

Scott Madura at booking

Scott Madura was taken into custody shortly after midnight when an officer on a routine patrol of the parking deck discovered Madura and the boy inside a parked vehicle.

During his investigation, the officer learned that the two were engaged in sexual activity and that the Brookfield resident was a minor, police said.

During questioning later at the police station, police say Madura admitted the sexual nature of the encounter and told them he met the boy in an Internet chat room.

Madura was arraigned Tuesday morning at the Cook County courthouse in Bridgeview, at which time bond was set at $200,000. A preliminary hearing on the charge is scheduled for March 22 at 9:00 a.m.

The Brookfield youth was released to the custody of his parents.

Scooters, mopeds get own parking at Metra stations

Riders of scooters and mopeds now have their own parking spaces at the two Metra train stations in La Grange.

At the La Grange Rd station, permanently designated and secured parking has been established in the northwest corner of municipal lot #5, between Burlington and Calendar Aves, directly across from the station. Four striped spots have signage indicating "Moped Parking Only." A ribbon rack for securing motor-driven scooters also has been installed.

At the Stone Ave station, a temporary area for both mopeds and scooters has been established at the ribbon rack for bicycles, located on the south side of Hillgrove Ave immediately east of Brainard Ave. A permanent location has been identified on the north side of Burlington Ave, immediately west of the circular drive in front of the station. Signage and racks are expected to be in place sometime next week.

There is no charge for parking at these locations at this time, Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn said. However, parking meters are being considered as a means of recovering costs and establishing equity with rates charged to drivers of other motorized vehicles who park near the stations, he said.

Kiosks direct shoppers to downtown destinations

Visitors to downtown La Grange will have an easier time finding local businesses and parking lots with the installation last week of several new "wayfinding" kiosks and directional signs.

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The five pedestrian kiosks feature a glass-enclosed map of downtown streets, blocks and building addresses, beneath which is a directory of stores, restaurants and other businesses. Each listing is keyed to the block on which it resides, in a fashion similar to directories found in shopping malls.

The directories will frequently updated, most likely on a quarterly basis, said Angela Mesaros, assistant director of community development for the Village.

Several directional signs point motorists to the parking structure behind Village Hall and other surface lots.

Designed by Schreiber/Anderson Associates of Madison, Wisconsin, the signs also are capped by a motif of prairie grass surrounding a replica of the official Village seal.

Waiting on downtown's first wayfinding sign

For a couple weeks now, a hole dug in the pavement on the corner of S La Grange Rd and E Harris Ave has piqued the curiosity of passersby.

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Could it be the first replacement of decorative brick pavers that have become misaligned through settling and now threaten to trip pedestrians on their downtown travels? The Village Board of Trustees last Monday approved funding to address that concern.

No, said a representative of the Village's community development department. The hole will soon hold the anchor of the first of several wayfinding kiosks and directional signs that will help motorists find parking lots, and walkers find points of interest, in the central business district.

The wayfinding program was approved by Village trustees nearly a year ago.

Streets, parking lots to close for Arts & Craft Fair

The closure of two Village streets to accommodate the annual Arts & Crafts Fair, scheduled to be held July 14-15, was approved Monday night by the La Grange Board of Trustees.

The streets affected are Harris Ave, west of La Grange Rd to Ashland Ave, and Harris Ave, south of Harris Ave to the entrance of the parking lot located at Harris and Madison Aves.

Also to be closed during the fair are two Village-owned parking lots adjoining either side of the Southwest Suburban Center on Aging, located at 111 W Harris Ave.

The closures will begin at midnight Friday, July 13, and and end sometime after the fair's completion at 7:00 p.m.  Sunday, July 15.

Parking ends on downtown former IHOP site

Motorists who have been parking on the site of the former International House of Pancakes will have to find new accommodations beginning today as the parcel's owners prepare to break ground for La Grange Pointe, a mixed-use residential and commercial development planned for the site.

Village officials are urging all dislocated motorists to use the nearby municipal parking structure.

The IHOP site, at the northeast corner of La Grange Rd and Cossitt Ave, had been available to downtown parkers since the January 2005, following demolition of the restaurant, under an arrangement with the developers that helped ease the strain on parking while the municipal deck was under construction. 

Weather hampers work on deck and project plans

Unseasonably cool temperatures and heavy rainfall have delayed completion of maintenance work on the parking deck in downtown La Grange, Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn reported at tonight's town meeting.

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The upper level of the deck has been closed to parking for nearly a month as work crews apply a sealant intended to protect its concrete from erosion caused by the very kind of weather that has caused the delay.

Pilipiszyn said it was hoped that temperatures would rise above 50 degrees long enough for work to be completed, otherwise it would be necessary to postpone the work until spring of next year.

While the upper level of the deck would reopen for the winter during an extended delay, public parking now available on the site of the former International House of Pancakes might not be there when work on the deck resumes next spring if a residential/retail development planned for that lot moves forward.

The current delay also is preventing the Village from making an accurate count of evening and overnight use of the parking deck, which it needs in order to evaluate use of the deck in various scenarios being considered to accommodate permit holders in Parking Lot 2, who would be displaced if the Village proceeds with plans to sell that parcel to a developer who wants to build ten residential townhouses on the site, located on the northeast corner of Harris and 6th Aves. 

La Grange tests new directional signs for downtown

Village officials this week erected a new sign directing downtown motorists on northbound La Grange Rd to the parking structure behind Village Hall. The Board of Trustees Sept. 11 approved designs for a network of signs and kiosks intended to help visitors find their way around the central business district.

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Before you question the trustees' design tastes, you should know that the sign mounted outside the entrance to Blueberry Hill restaurant is just a representation of the approved design, not one of the actual signs that the Village hopes to have in place by the Christmas holidays.

As a rendering presented by the architect at the Sept. meeting clearly shows, the signs will hang on their own sculpted posts with a prairie-grass motif on top. The kiosks will feature glass-enclosed maps with backlighting for night-time visibility.

The sign used in the test will help Village officials evaluate its height, scale and visibility to motorists.

The downtown signs are the first stage of a community signage effort that later will include "welcome" signs at various gateways to the Village.

More short-term parking proposed for downtown

About 20 short-term parking spaces would be added in the La Grange central business district under a plan discussed Monday night by the Village Board of Trustees.

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The spots would allow up to 15 minutes of parking for shoppers making quick visits to downtown businesses, and would also provide convenient spots for delivery trucks, said Patrick Benjamin, community planning director. He cited Blueberry Hill restaurant and Starbucks as examples.

"We have a lot of folks who want to jump in, grab a cup of coffee and get out," said Benjamin.

Many of the new spots would be located at the ends of existing street parking rows, said Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn.

"This way we can evenly distribute spaces and easily communicate the concept to shoppers and residents," he said.

The proposal resulted from a study the Village conducted with input from the La Grange Business Association and various downtown merchants.

Lori Garivaltis of the Pine Merchant custom furniture gallery was among downtown business owners who spoke at Monday's meeting in support of the proposal.

She said she personally conducted "an eyeopening survey" of businesses along W Calendar Ave between La Grange Rd and Ashland Ave and found that each had different needs that could be addressed by the five new short-term parking spaces proposed for that block.

Garavaltis said she learned that security during deliveries is a concern at Fey & Co Jewelers, while making it easy for parents to drop off and pick up their children was important for the Ceramic Arts Cafe, which hosts Saturday morning parties attended by as many as 70 kids. Loading and unloading catering trucks was an issue for La Belle Catering, she said.

"We have a very dire need for a loading zone in front of our store," Garavaltis said. "We have been ticketed delivering our own product into our store. My clients, some of whom travel from as far away as Lake Forest, Batavia and Chicago have been ticketed."

She said the new spots would help promote shopping in La Grange as "a very pleasant experience."

Trustee Michael Horvath asked if enforcement of the 15-minute limit presented any problems.

Police Chief Michael Holub responded that existing temporary parking zones "are not violated very frequently. We check them regularly and we get pretty good reports from our shop owners. If somebody is there longer, they call us right away."

Pilipiszyn said a formal ordinance would be drafted for consideration by Village Trustees at their next meeting, Oct. 23.

La Grange moving ahead with housing plan for Lot 2

The Village of La Grange will begin negotiations with one of two developers who submitted proposals to build housing on Parking Lot 2, located at Harris and 6th Aves.

Brownstone Development Group last night was chosen by a consensus vote of the Village Board, meeting as an executive committee in a workshop to discuss the two developers' proposals. The other developer considered was Norwood Builders, who built Beacon Place condominiums on Ogden Ave.

Both developers had presented proposals for development of Lot 2 to the Board during its regular session Aug. 28 .

Village staff was directed to contact Brownstone and begin work on a formal proposal and preliminary site plan. That plan is likely to include development of an additional parcel, located across the street from Lot 2 on the southeast corner of the same intersection. Brownstone currently has that privately owned parcel under contract.

In deciding to go forward with the project, members of the Board expressed confidence that the residents who currently use Lot 2 for parking, and would be displaced by the new housing, could be accommodated elsewhere.

While the Board discussed a number of parking scenarios, the meeting ended with a general assumption that the Village's parking deck would figure prominently in any relocation, although it was acknowledged that overnight resident parking was not intended when the deck was approved and built.

Village staff will conduct a study of current night-time parking use in the deck after work has finished on applying a sealant to the structure. That work, which required closing portions of the deck, should be completed within the next two to three weeks.