Saturday, March 15

Lincoln earns community policing award

[MARCH 15, 2003]  The Lincoln Police Department is one of only five in the state to receive an award for its community policing efforts.

The award is given by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police to recognize communities that have active programs in community policing. The other four municipalities that received the awards were much larger, and all were north of Interstate 80, Police Chief Richard Montcalm said.

Montcalm was presented with a sign announcing the honor by Lt. Col. Craig Allen, assistant deputy director of the Illinois State Police, at Tuesday evening's city council meeting.

The award is given to police departments that partner with area organizations for a better community, Montcalm said. Among the organizations the Lincoln department partners with are Abraham Lincoln Community Hospital, the schools in the area, downtown businesses, Healthy Communities Partnership, neighborhood watch groups and the department's substation at Centennial Courts.

"Community policing is the most current area in law enforcement philosophy," Montcalm said. He said he believes Lincoln police are as active in that area as departments in large cities, such as Naperville, one of those that won an award.

 

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Montcalm said the department applied for the award in October. Before announcing the winners, the association interviewed him and eight members of the community, people who represented the organizations the police department has been working with, he said. One of those interviewed was Alderman Glenn Shelton.

A certificate naming Lincoln an award winner was presented to Montcalm by Attorney General Lisa Madigan at the Illinois Chiefs of Police Conference in January, he said.

The sign given to the city reads, "The City of Lincoln has been recognized for its efforts as a community policing community by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police."

Montcalm said he hopes to get three more of the signs, so one can be posted at every entrance to Lincoln.

"This is something we have been striving for, working with the different partners. This honor belongs to the entire department. The officers do a fine job and it is great for them to be recognized," he said.

"This isn't all that we are striving for, this isn't the end. We have more things we'd like to do for the community," he added.

[Joan Crabb]


Illinois to lead business development through entrepreneurship centers

[MARCH 15, 2003]  CHICAGO -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich continued on Thursday to promote an innovative proposal to spark economic activity and create jobs in Illinois, one day after unveiling the plan to lawmakers during his first State of the State speech.

Speaking at the University of Illinois at Chicago, one of a half-dozen sites where Blagojevich plans to quickly establish new entrepreneurship centers, the governor discussed further his plans to provide training, tools and resources to Illinois entrepreneurs.

In addition to UIC, the first round of entrepreneurship centers will be located at five other locations: Rock Valley College in Rockford, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Western Illinois University in Macomb and at Southern Illinois University campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville.

The first of the centers could be operational in two months, he said, and 20 centers could be in place within two years.

“There are countless entrepreneurs across the state with good ideas who just need a chance to show what they can do,” he said, explaining the purpose of the centers.

The governor's plan to develop the entrepreneurship centers is a key element of his Illinois Opportunity Fund, the mechanism that Blagojevich envisions to attract private investment and venture capital to the state.

The centers would have the flexibility to draw on public and private sector resources, in addition to expertise available through universities and colleges, to help entrepreneurs obtain:

--recruiting services to locate operational management talent.

--legal resources including patent, trade and other intellectual property expertise.

--expert accounting and financial services.

--access to equity investors and other sources of investment capital, including participating venture capital funds in the Illinois Opportunity Fund.

People looking to expand or create businesses would also be eligible to benefit from 400 business planning and development assistance grants worth $5,000 each.

The Illinois Opportunity Fund would be a “fund of funds” that would raise almost $200 million from private sector investors. The funds will be managed by private sector experts and will invest in a diverse cross section of existing venture capital funds that commit to investing in Illinois based companies.

Illinois has largely lacked access to such investments, and such funding is especially rare in downstate communities. In 2002, Illinois received less than 1 percent of all venture investment in the United States, with less than 1 percent of that meager amount invested outside of the Chicago metropolitan area.

 

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The governor said that the Illinois Opportunity Fund “will help jump-start industries and focus on new technologies that have the potential to not only put people back to work but to create the sort of jobs that will attract young people to our state.”

The Illinois Opportunity Fund is based on a successful model piloted in Oklahoma and subsequently implemented in several states, including Iowa and Arkansas.

The state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity would be assigned to develop the program and the centers. Jack Lavin, who has been selected by the governor to head the department, joined Blagojevich at the event on Thursday.

During his State of the State address, Blagojevich pledged that the Illinois Opportunity Fund can help to ensure that “there will be no more missed business opportunities,” citing the fact that although the Web browser was developed at the University of Illinois in the early 1990s, other states benefited more from the economic activity associated with the Internet.

He referred to nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the atomic level, as an area in which Illinois is currently a national leader and a field that he said he would target for expansion.

The establishment of the entrepreneurship centers at UIC and other sites could build upon the successes already posted by the University of Illinois in serving as a valuable engine for research and development needed for high-tech businesses. More than 35 such businesses are currently under development through the university's new start-up services entity, called IllinoisVENTURES.

Through the university's current program, financing and consulting are being provided to companies that market -- among other items -- biohazard and chemical weapon detection equipment; revolutionary power sources for consumer products; and groundbreaking drugs for the treatment of cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's disease.

The university also helped bring about more than 430 new disclosures and 260 patent filings in fiscal years 2001 and 2002.

Scheduled to join Blagojevich and Lavin on Thursday morning were University of Illinois president James Stukel; UIC Chancellor Sylvia Manning; Lawrence Eppley, chairman of the university's board of trustees; and Gary Conkright, CEO, SmartSignal.

[Illinois Government News Network
press release]


New Department of Corrections
head resigns position

[MARCH 15, 2003]  CHICAGO -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich has accepted the resignation of Ernesto Velasco, the director of the Department of Corrections. Velasco sent a letter of resignation to the governor on Friday afternoon. The letter reads:

"I am writing today to request that you accept my resignation as Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections. My deep and unyielding respect for the Department of Corrections and its vital mission requires that I resign, so that the public issues surrounding my appointment do not overshadow the department's mandate.

"Keeping Illinois' correctional facilities secure, effective and efficient is an integral component of state government. We cannot allow anything to stand in the way of accomplishing those goals.

"I respectfully request that you accept my letter of resignation. I appreciate your support throughout this trying process."

"We are working actively to appoint a new director as quickly as possible," said Blagojevich.

[Illinois Government News Network
press release]

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