Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 1-4

4 Chicago Tribune Section 1 Friday, May 6, 2016 (f liicaua tribune CHICAGOLAND State gas tax lockbox' to get vote Nov. 8 Redistricting plan off ballot; Senate OKs school money By Monique Garcia Chicago Tribune SPRINGFIELD Voters will get a chance to weigh in on a proposed change to the Illinois Constitution that would prevent cash-strapped state government from raiding funds intended to be used on transportation projects. If the constitutional amendment is approved Nov. 8, all money raised through various transportation-related levies such as the gas tax, tolls, licenses fees and vehicle registration costs would be put into what amounts to budget "lockbox." That money could then be spent only on road construction and repair, enforcing traffic laws, paying off debt on transit projects and even costs associated with ting paid by the state. "I know there was a lot of discussion about social service programs that dominated the conversations in the House this week, so we'll have to take (the education bill) under review," Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.

Under the plan, all universities except Chicago State would split an additional $312 million, bringing them to 60 percent funding. Community colleges would get another $90 million, and an extra $46 million would be earmarked for a scholarship program for low-income students. It also includes $4 million for the Illinois Math and Science Academy, a residential school in Aurora "We've done this in the Senate, and if nothing in happens in the House, it doesn't mean a whole lot," said Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville. mcgarciatribpub.com workers injured on the job.

The change would not apply to state and local sales taxes that often are added on top of the gas tax motorists pay at the pump. The effort comes as Illinois' infrastructure wish list continues to grow, but money earmarked for transportation projects is routinely diverted to fill other budget holes. While some advocacy groups have called for a gas tax increase, raising taxes is politically unpopular during an election year. Lawmakers instead went for the more palatable option of putting an amendment on the ballot to protect those funds, which would still be useful should they sign off on a gas tax hike down the road. The Metropolitan Planning Council estimates Illinois must pour an extra $43 billion into transportation during the next 10 years to do away with a maintenance backlog and bring roads, bridges and high ways into good condition.

Illinois imposes a base tax rate of 19 cents per gallon for gasoline and 21.5 cents a gallon for diesel, though other fractions of a penny are added on to pay for costs associated with environmental cleanup and underground storage of fuel. The tax has not increased since 1991, and money raised has remained relatively flat as vehicles become increasingly fuel-efficient but construction costs go up. "This is a common-sense action to take," said sponsoring Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton. 'Tees collected by the state that are related to transportation should be used to reinvest in highways, railroads and bridges." The measure proved to be the only legislatively approved amendment voters will get a chance to weigh in on this fall.

Efforts to eliminate the lieutenant governor's office, overhaul how legislative districts are drawn and institute a graduated tax rate failed to clear the General Assembly amid political gamesmanship. A well-funded private group is attempting to gather enough signatures to get a redistricting proposal before voters this fall. In other action Thursday, the Senate approved bipartisan legislation to send another $450 million to the state's public universities and community colleges, facing layoffs after going nearly a year without state funding. But even supporters were quick to note the measure's uncertain political future in the House. The measure follows another stopgap plan passed two weeks ago to spend $600 million on higher education, which freed up only enough money to bring schools up to about 30 percent of their usual funding level.

The exception was Chicago State University, which received $20 million about 60 percent. Though that was not enough to prevent the school on the city's Far South Side from laying off 300 workers last week, some lawmakers argued it was unfair CSU received a higher percentage of funding than other schools. Hence the latest push for more money. While the bill was backed by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, the plan is at risk in the House, where Speaker Michael Madigan previously encouraged his members to hold out for legislation that includes more money for higher education. This time around, Madigan may be more focused on finding help for the state's network of social service providers, which has come unraveled without state support.

Earlier this week, a group of service providers sued the state for failing to pay over $100 million, arguing they have continued to care for the needy without get Commission to vote on O'Hare noise proposal after the city began shifting traffic from the older diagonal runways to new parallel east-west runways, which concentrate more traffic over the city's North Side and the western suburbs. The city got more than 4 million noise complaints in 2015. Under the proposal, runways picked for nighttime air travel would change week to week for example, in week one, the east-west 10L28R runway would be used, then a diagonal runway in week two, then back to east-west, with adjustments made depending on weather and other factors. The plan would be tried for a six-month test period, then reviewed and tweaked as necessary. The plan includes use of the 14R32L diagonal runway, which runs northwest to southeast and is scheduled to be decommissioned in late 2018 as part of the airport's expansion.

It is not a long-term solution aviation offi- STACEY WESCOTTCHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS Judy Wing, of Denver, and Mike Pamonicutt, of Wisconsin, and other relatives gathered Thursday in Schiller Park. Headstones in new resting place Native American family reunited with markers, to be stored at museum tjl "It's obvious who the actual winner is that would be Chicago." Palatine Councilman Tim Millar Plan would spread out wee-hour jets across NW region By Mary Wisniewski Chicago Tribune A commission of more than 50 municipalities and school districts around O'Hare International Airport will vote Friday on a proposed "Fly Quiet" plan, which proponents say will spread the pain of late-night and early morning jet noise more fairly across the region. City aviation officials will try to persuade at least two-thirds of the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission to support the plan for rotating jet traffic from about 10:30 p.m. to about 5:30 am. The new nighttime plan, which would be tested over six months, aims at alternating planes onto different runways on a week-to-week basis.

"The goal is to balance airport noise exposure," said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Owen Kilmer, who was "confident" the plan would be approved. Kilmer said the plan reflects input from the Federal Aviation Administration and municipal groups, including Fair Allocation in Runways, or FAiR, which represents city and suburban residents. The FAA must approve and implement the plan, and the city wants a clear consensus, which would be underscored by a two-thirds majority vote. Mount Prospect Mayor Arlene Juracek, the commission chairwoman, thinks a two-thirds vote is possible. "A lot of folks have been working hard, talking to their neighboring communities," Juracek said.

"We feel good we can demonstrate there is a consensus." Palatine Councilman Tim Millar, who opposes the plan, thinks the vote will be "very close." He said the plan shifts more noise onto the northwest suburbs such as Palatine, Arlington Heights and Rosemont and away from Chicago's Northwest Side. "It's obvious who the actual winner is that would be Chicago," Millar said. Residents of communities around the airport have complained for decades about jets roaring over their heads, disrupting sleep and barbecues. But complaints have increased in recent years see the headstones, but to see the relatives is emotional to me," she said. Lambrini Lulddis, a forest preserve spokeswoman, said the headstones were uncovered last fall as part of a project documenting artifacts in the district's possession.

After coming across the headstones, forest preserve employees contacted the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, which facilitated transferring the stones to the Illinois State Museum in Springfield while descendants of the Robinson family were located and could file paperwork to prove their relation, Lulddis said. "We're glad that we were able to return this property," Lukidis said. "The family has reconnected with their piece of history, but in a way it's a piece of history for all of us." Historians say Chief Robinson was a businessman who counted settlers John Baptiste Beaubien and John Kinzie as friends. Robinson, son of an Ottawa mother and a Scottish father, first married a Menominee woman and later a member of the Potawatomi tribe. Besides helping soldiers and their families escape after an Army post called Fort Dearborn, near Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River, was attacked in August 1812 by some Native Americans during the War of 1812, Robinson fed the soldiers to help them survive winter, Spreeman said.

Though technically owned by Robinson family descendants, the headstones will be stored at the Schiller Park library because of its location in the heart of the land once owned by Chief Robinson. After he saved families at Fort Dearborn, he was gifted 1,280 acres by the government. That land is now part of Schiller Park, Norridge, Norwood Park, Rosemont and Franklin Park, said June Oulund of the historical society. Melone said he and Spreeman plan to produce programs at the library using the headstones as a way to educate the public about the Robinson family. However, the headstones will not be on display at other times, he said.

kthayertribpub.com Twitter knthayer By Kate Thayer Chicago Tribune For more than a decade, Nor-ridge resident Verlyn Spreeman has sought information to learn more about his ancestors, most notably Alexander Robinson, a famed Native American chief who is said to have helped U.S. military families after the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812. Until recently, Spreeman has relied on historical documents, newspaper articles and photographs to learn about pieces of his history, including the family cemetery where Robinson also known as Che-Che-Pin-Qua, or Chief Blinking Eye is buried. But now, Spreeman and other descendants have more. Headstones that marked Robinson's grave, along with those of several family members, have been turned over to the family, decades after they were taken down and stored by the Cook County Forest Preserve District, which eventually acquired the cemetery land.

"The hair on the back of your neck goes up," Spreeman, 61, said of learning the headstones existed. "This is the end of an over 10-year journey to be able to actually touch something that's tangible. It's a very emotional day." Spreeman and others gathered Thursday at the Schiller Park Public Library to view remnants of most of the headstones that once marked the graves of Chief Robinson, who died in 1872; his second wife, Catherine Chevalier; and other family members. Archaeologist Dan Melone, who works with Spreeman tracing the Robinson family history, said there are nine to 11 people buried in the cemetery, inside what's now known as Robinson Woods, near Lawrence Avenue and East River Road in Chicago. The graves, which historians say date from the late 1800s to 1927, now are marked only with a boulder that bears the family name.

cials and municipalities will have to go back to the drawing board to come up with a new plan when the east-west 9 Center runway opens in 2020. Bensenville Village President Frank Soto, vice chair of the Suburban O'Hare Commission, which supports the plan, said a two-thirds vote is crucial to retaining local control as O'Hare expansion continues. "If we fail, the ramifications are that anything goes and we won't have any input," Soto said. FaiR supports the test plan, but with reservations. An April 29 letter from FaiR to aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans and commission members noted that the plan relies heavily on the diagonal runway 14R32L, which is going away.

A simple majority of the commission approved a proposal involving quiet plans in March, but there was no supermajority. The found headstones included one for Chief Alexander Robinson. It's unclear what happened to all the headstones, but die ones recently located and returned to the family had been in a forest preserve warehouse for several decades, Melone said. They were taken down by forest preserve employees around the 1950s, or possibly earlier, in response to a rash of vandalism that had damaged the markers, he said. They are now in 10 pieces of varying sizes and include two large chunks of Robinson's headstone, which features a floral wreath design carved into the limestone.

The marker also states Robinson was 110 years old when he died, but Melone said it's likely he was in his 80s or possibly early 90s. Mike Pamonicutt, 64, of Wisconsin, a descendant of Robinson's, attended Thursday's event with his family to see the headstones. After the presentation, Pamonicutt placed a small pile of tobacco, wrapped in an orange cloth, on Chief Robinson's headstone. He explained it's part of a Native American ritual that offers prayers to the dead. Judy Wing, 76, also related to Robinson, traveled from Denver.

Her work tracing her father's genealogy led her to the Schiller Park Historical Society. "I like to mwisniewskitribpub.com Twitter marywizchicago.