Oswego is looking at adopting a debt issuance and management policy that would set funding guidelines for future projects including the move to bring in Lake Michigan water to the village.
“The village has historically followed informal debt guidelines,” Oswego Finance Director Andrea Lamberg said in a report to trustees at a recent Village Board Committee of the Whole meeting.
It is a “best practice” for municipal government to have a formal policy approved by the Village Board, she said.
The financial practice of authorizing municipal bonds and other types of debt to fund public infrastructure is a “valuable strategy” for government to “spread the cost of significant long-term assets over their useful life,” the finance director said.
“The Village Board has elected to issue debt for the connection to Lake Michigan as a water source,” Lamberg noted.
Staff reviewed best practices recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association and worked with a bond counsel as well as the village’s financial advisor to prepare a draft policy, Lamberg said.
Lamberg gave a summary of some of the highlights of the draft policy.
“The purpose of the policy is to provide comprehensive guidelines and promote sound decision-making,” she said.
Overall, the objective is to obtain financing only when necessary, according to Lamberg.
Further, debt will not be used to finance general operating expenses or fund operating deficits, and capital projects with an estimated cost of $500,000 or less will “ideally be funded with funds on hand,” according to the report.
As for repayment, “when possible, the village will repay debt using a specific revenue source other than the property tax levy and the village will use conservative revenue assumptions to ensure the identified revenue source is sufficient to cover debt service on those bonds,” Lamberg said in her report.
The debt issuance and management policy would be reviewed annually, she said.
“The data in the policy would not change the way the village approaches debt. The village is already using these criteria and has historically used these criteria,” Lamberg said.
However, “a credit rating agency could look unfavorably upon a village that does not have a formal policy adopted by the board,” Lamberg said.
Staff has forwarded the draft policy in advance of pursuing a rating with Moody’s for a bond issuance for the Lake Michigan water connection, she said.
It’s ideal to have a favorable bond rating, Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo.
“We are trying to find out, before we issue this much debt, any way we can improve our bond rating and get a good one,” Di Santo told trustees.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Raging wildfires tearing through Los Angeles County into Thursday have razed neighborhoods across the area, leaving behind a trail of destruction and even death.The latest:
For the North Central College Cardinal Marching Band, most of the weekend was spent on a bus. Forty-some hours to be exact.
The hours fell away, though, when they stepped out into the stadium.
Horns up. Cadence, go. Showtime.
Since 2019
, North Central has appeared in the NCAA Division III football championships five times. The Stagg Bowl has taken Naperville Cardinals from Ohio to Maryland to Virginia and, most recently, to Texas.
And every time, the North Central Cardinal Band has marched right alongside the team — win or lose — rallying support, regaling crowds and inspiring a sense of home, no matter how many miles they stood away from the school’s Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.
So on Sunday, when North Central clinched its third division title
at Houston’s Shell Energy Stadium, it wasn’t just the jerseyed Cardinals that relished the season-in-the-making moment. No, pride radiated from the plumed stands as well.
“There’s moments where you think, Oh, we’re just marching, we’re just the band, we’re the entertainment for half-time,” said Chris Kalinka, a sophomore band member. “But at the same point, we’ve been there for every home game. And as much as we’re not the players on the football team, we are still part of the North Central team.
“Their win feels just as much our win.”
The North Central College Cardinal Marching Band takes the field during half-time at the Stagg Bowl, where North Central beat University of Mount Union 41-25, on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Susan Chou)
One of only a handful of NCAA Division III marching bands across the country, the Cardinal Marching Band became an official program of North Central in 2013, though it had operated as a student-led, student-organized operation for a few years prior, according to band director Meghan Kats.
A North Central alum herself, Kats, who graduated in 2015, recalled the band pulling together performances going back to 2011. Today, the group has grown to about 65 members, boasting varying skill sets and varying majors but a tight-knit ensemble nonetheless, she said.
“It means the world to all of us,” she said.
The band’s season starts two weeks before the fall semester begins. They set the tone for the months ahead with a devoted “band camp,” a days-long introduction to the program designed to both break the ice for new members and get veterans back into marching form.
That’s also when the band starts a new field show, an extended performance — often centered around a theme — where members get to showcase their musical, artistic and marching prowess. During the fall, they perform the show at half-time of home football games. Aside from the Stagg Bowl, the Marching Cardinals do not travel with the team.
This year’s field show was Bruno Mars themed. Alongside choreography and rotating formations, the band played top hits from the Grammy-award winning artist, including “Uptown Funk” and “Finesse.”
The North Central College Cardinal Marching Band performs at half-time of the Stagg Bowl, the NCAA Division III national championship game, in Houston on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Susan Chou)
Introduced to band in elementary school, Kalinka stuck with music through high school. He plays the trumpet mostly but the saxophone too.
Kalinka, originally from Palos Hills, had four years of marching band already under his belt when he started his college career at North Central. However, they hardly compare to the past two seasons with the Cardinal Marching Band, he said, especially with North Central’s football ascendancy in recent years.
“Coming to North Central and having that really good football team, we get to do these incredible trips and (see them) win the championship,” he said. “It’s just a surreal experience. For only being two seasons in, it feels like I’ve already done six years worth of activities because it’s just been so exhilarating.”
Band members drove down to Houston for Sunday’s championship on a pair of buses. They were accompanied by North Central’s dance team and cheerleaders. They left at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. To drive from Naperville to Houston, it takes about 20 hours one way.
Students read, slept, chit-chatted and scrolled through Tik Tok. They made a few pitstops — St. Louis for lunch and Little Rock, Arkansas, overnight. It was peaceful, Kalinka said.
By the time they got to Texas, though, it was game time. For the band, that meant filing into a section of stands at Shell Energy Stadium set off just for them while the football team readied to square off against Ohio’s University of Mount Union. Kickoff through the fourth quarter, the band played well-practiced pep tunes in between football plays like a game of call-and-response.
The North Central College Cardinal Marching Band plays in the stands of Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas, at the NCAA Division III national championship game on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Susan Chou)
“It was pure excitement,” said Aurelia Gray, a sophomore member. She plays the sousaphone. “We were just so invested in the game and every play. … I don’t think there was a quiet moment in the stands, at least on our side.”
“It was just one of those feelings that are indescribable,” Kalinka said. And it wasn’t just from sitting in the throes of the championship game but playing a part in it.
“You know, when the team is playing, they can’t see their supporters all the time,” he said. “They can’t look while they’re playing football. They can’t look to the stands and see their parents. But they can hear the band. They can hear us playing for them and giving them the physical support they need.”
The band alone had its big moment, too. At half-time — in a stadium used to hosting professional and collegiate sporting events — the Marching Cardinals performed a portion of their field show.
While she conducted from the front, senior drum major Shannon Blonski recalled looking up at the stadium’s big screen and seeing the band hit its mark.
“Honestly, I feel like that’s the best we’ve ever played the show,” Blonski said. Calling the Cardinal Marching Band “an experience like no other,” she said she’s grateful the band has been able to join the football team “on the ride.”
The North Central College Cardinal Marching Band performs a field show during half-time of the Stagg Bowl in Houston on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. The band’s field show was Bruno Mars-themed. (Susan Chou)
For fellow senior drum major Olivia Wegner, Sunday’s performance made her past four seasons spent with the Cardinal Marching Band come full circle, she said.
“I don’t know quite the right vocabulary to describe it,” she said. “Exhilarating, fantastic, phenomenal. It was so breathtaking.”
Wegner recalled stepping off the field afterwards and finding her band director. She and Kats took a beat to soak the moment in.
“We both teared up and started crying a little bit,” Wegner said. “She said that she was proud of me, and I wasn’t really able to speak.”
Compounding it all, Wegner’s mom was in the crowd, much to her surprise.
Over the past four years, Wegner’s mom has attended “every single game that she was physically able to come to,” Wegner said. Ahead of the Cardinals’ trip to Houston, though, Wegner’s parents told her that Texas is a little bit too far of a drive.
Wegner thought that was that. But when she got off the bus Sunday, she got a text from her mom. She asked what Wegner was up to. Then, through the bus window, Wegner saw her. Her mom was there after all. Wegner sprinted off the bus.
“I gave her a big hug,” she said. “It’s emotional, at the very end of it all, when you’re standing there, hugging your mom, and it’s just all over. (You realize) that it’s time to move forward and there’ll be somebody who takes your place next year.
“I can come back and visit, you know, but there’s just something so unique about having been with such a special group of people for four years.”
Los Angeles officials on Wednesday warned against looting amid deadly wildfires
raging in the area.
“In the midst of the emergency, we’ve all seen individuals who are targeting vulnerable communities by burglarizing and looting homes,” Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said during a press conference
in the morning.
“This is simply unacceptable,” she added. “You’ll be hearing from our [Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman] shortly regarding his efforts to hold these [individuals] accountable, and I promise you, you will be held accountable. Shame on those who are preying on our residents during this time of crisis.”
Barger added later that 20 people had been arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as of Thursday.
The multiple wildfires that have been burning in the Los Angeles area in the last few days have devastated the region. On Thursday, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell said on CNN
that over 1,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged from both the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires.
“We know that there’s going to be lots of families that are going to be in great need,” she said.
Beyond the fires’ destruction, they have also resulted in a political feud
between President-elect Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newson (D).
Newsom received criticism from Trump on Wednesday over the fires blazing throughout the Los Angeles area, with the president-elect saying the California governor should have signed a declaration to pump additional water through the Golden State to avert the situation.
“People are literally fleeing,” Newsom told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview later Wednesday. “People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down.”
“This guy wanted to politicize it,” he added, talking about Trump. “I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say. I won’t.”
