Small Businesses and Field Houses: Feedback Friday

Welcome new and continuing readers alike to another edition of Feedback Friday, the feature that features you. We're currently standing at an ever-increasing 1,444 Facebook friends. Please, if you enjoy getting local info and being part of the conversation, let your friends know to "like" us. It would be great to hit 1,450 by the end of the month, and even better to hit it by Monday as a "welcome back" gesture for editor Ryan Fitzpatrick! As a thanks, here are some highlights of what our readers said over the past week:

Overheard on Facebook

Earlier in the week, we asked our Facebook friends what small businesses in town they just couldn't live without, and they had plenty to say:

• "Sweet Annie's. It's delicious, yes, but it's also a neighborhood hub. I never go in there without hearing some news or exchanging hellos with someone new. And I thrive on the absolute LOVE that Annie exudes and shares with everyone!"
• "Homewood Dairy Queen!!!"
• "Blueberry Hill. Such a delicious, affordable little luxury for a Sat or Sun breakfast."
• "Pooch Parlor, I tried Petco once and they had no idea what they were doing. The girls at Pooch Parlor are very nice and my dog loves them."
• "The ZONE Comics! They are so nice and helpful. They have way more stuff than I thought at first--comics, books, collectibles plus they have different events and activities. Taking a short time every couple weeks to read a comic allows me to feed my love of reading in the small amount of spare time I have nowadays."
• "Stepping stones daycare. The staff is excellent & they truly love children. My son had the best experiences there & learned so much."
• "Lassens. Sometimes you just crave good wings and would kill to get them."
• "5th Quarter. Kid friendly, great food."
• "Art 4 soul, awesome place to go for unique hostess gifts and birthday trinkets"
• "Homewood DriveIn Cleaners. Nice work, affordable, and the owner really supports local charities and is involved in the community, as each of these business owners should be."
• "Does Walts count because I'm there almost daily!?"
• "Love to eat at Grady's. Play-do keeps my kids entertained. And they make kids fish tacos for my son. They even have our fave Three Floyds beer (sometimes)."
• "Homewood Childrens Center, especially Ms. Nancy!"
• "Cilantros!!!!! Perfect way to celebrate FRIDAY'S !!!!"
• "I enjoy going into Sports Forum on Dixie. Kevin stocks a nice assortment of team and fan wear for all the local schools. He also makes great custom t-shirts for special occasions (birthdays, fundraisers, walks, sports teams, etc.) - Fair prices too!"
• "Draco Martial Arts Academy in Homewood, Master Rich and staff are fantastic!!"

Overheard on H-F Patch

Yesterday, we posted about Homewood-Flossmoor High School's Some of you thought the plans were a bit extravagant, and some of you thought they were outright unnecessary, but the reaction was pretty negative all around:

• "I love my alma mater dearly, but this is over the top and unnecessary. $25M is absurd!!
  I am not a building inspector, but why can't the existing one be repaired and upgraded? How many bids were received? Why doesn't anyone ever asks what the tax payers want? I want equity in funding. Who ever determined that the athletic department trumps the Arts, vocational training, or the chess club for that matter? I don't mind paying our sizeable property tax, but to have no say into how HF spends my money is disheartening. This is someone's vanity project."
• "Seems pretty extravagant to me, especially in this economy. A teardown, especially if the building is sound, seems very wasteful. Taxes around here are already too high and I just don't understand how this can be done without taxpayer approval. Sending all that debris to a landfill is not justifiable unless the building is structurally unsound and can't be repaired. HF area already has enough abandoned houses and foreclosures depressing the housing market more than most other desirable south/SW suburban areas. Part of that is due to the high taxes and eventually a project such as this is going to come back and bite the taxpayers, some of whom are already struggling to pay their mortgages and taxes, and many of whom are already upside down in their mortgages. Really. bad. idea. Sends a terrible message to taxpayers and is wasteful beyond belief, especially now. I'm appalled."
• "With the ridiculous property taxes we pay now, had this “extracurricular sports facility” issue come up on a referendum, it likely would have been blown out of the water. One simple question to our school board, why didn’t it?
  The upcoming voting on the $7.2 million Flossmoor Water System Improvement requested was respectfully put forth in a referendum and there sure isn't $10 million in the village's reserves to “play with.” I guess it just shows how much faith and respect the school board has for those of us paying the tab. The sad thing is it is a done deal and all the comments in the world won’t change this fact."
• "I totally agree with Linda. Once again, the glamour of sports takes precedent over education. There is mold present in numerous rooms, you don't hear about this!"
• "It's been a few years since my kids were at H-F, but there was commentary even back then of the art and industrial ed departments' budgets being significantly cut in favor of more sports funding. Would love to hear from teachers from those departments... anonymously, probably appropriately... if that really came to pass. Sports is a wonderful pastime and absolutely should be supported by the school, but NOT at the expense of any other school department, especially ones that may be preparing students for college, or future employment. Just not feeling the $25 mill thing."

Thanks again to all our friends for your continued readership and support.