Blocked Roads and Helicopters: Feedback Friday

At 1,265 "Likes," the Homewood-Flossmoor Patch Facebook is slowly inching its way toward the 1,300 mark, and there's nobody to thank but you, the loyal readers.

Overheard on Facebook

Our Facebook page was a flurry of activity Tuesday night as readers chimed in with tips about which turned out to be a search for a man who had escaped police custody earlier that day. Our readers helped fill in a lot of the details while the police were still unable to comment on the situation. Here's what some of them had to say as the story developed:

• Saw cops around idlewild and highland Ave as well as a helicopter with a spot light
• Thanks Patch for keeping us updated with whatever info you have. I also saw the helicopter circle the area with a spot light. I was thinking it started in the Heights. Wrong. :(
• My Glenwood Police Office friend said the guy got away... I did feel it was good to at least get the word out so people who had their homes open for the nice cool summer air could know to lock up! Non violent or not, your open home could make a great hide out.
• It did a lot of circling north of Flossmmor Rd. and west of Dixie.
• Are we SURE it's not ET?

As seen on Homewood-Flossmoor Patch

Our latest Minutes with the Mayor post featured Homewood's village president, Richard Hofeld, answering the question, Here's what some of our readers had to say in the comments section:

• Thinking back four or five years ago I thought the decision to block off that part [of] the street was Homewoods and not the states. If I am remembering correctly it is interesting to see the mayor blame IDOT for a "ugly situation" that the village created. With that said I may be wrong, Ryan any chance you can confirm whose decision it was.
• I no longer have my email but I contacted IDOT years ago asking about why the road was blocked, and their initial reply was they knew nothing about it.
• Shaun, it doesn't sound to me that he's blaming the state for closing it, just for the slow process of completing the task to narrow the roadway.
  I would assume, perhaps in error, that the decision to close off that section of the street was made after too many accidents (as he said) by both parties and now the work falls in the hands of our broke state of Illinois.
  Perhaps though, you are correct and a politician is just passing the buck. Unfortunately, politicians working with politicians means loads of time passes with little work accomplished sometimes.
  Maybe we should put a toll booth there ;)
• ....and if the answer is that the village decided to block it off - how does that change the current issue? It's safer and uglier and Homewood can't tear up the street to make it pretty because that's an IDOT issue. I would like to have the contact information the city has for any of their IDOT contacts so we as citizens could call and call and email and call until IDOT fixes it just to get the town off their back.
• My larger issue is that why pull the trigger on blocking off part of the street when the agreement with IDOT is not finalized....more of a situation of putting the cart before the horse and poor planning. As opposed to taking a step back and asking is everything in place to complete the process (IDOT building a curb), they rushed to block it off and now we have an eyesore. A good follow up question would be why not try to make the area look a little nicer for example instead of using those ugly orange poles put in some of the larger planters...similar to what Chicago buildings use out front.
• Closing / blocking it was a smart idea. But hey Homewood, why not sweep the area and replace the sandbags once in a while?!? It just looks plain shabby.

Thanks for your continued readership and support!

-Luke, fill-in editor.

Overheard on Facebook