Sandy appears to have a thriving business. She stands up for what she feels is right. If there is arguing for one side or the other; then so be it. Everyone sitting around. like drones, accomplishes nothing but the same old thing. It takes people like Sandra to shake things up and let others know someone who cares is watching and listening. Someone who can make big changes in the same old routine.

But wait Acarbuffcop, it is Sandy who is arguing that the Village leaders need to stop the bickering. You can't "shake things up" as you like to say without some bickering. So what will we get, the docile transparent Sandy or the attack bull who shakes it up Sandy.
I interrupt my own message to bring you this report: This news just in. In addition to coming out against conflicts of interest and the disclosure of such (which is required by state law), Rumors abound that Sandy's next big statement will be, "No board member or Mayor should commit any crimes". Way to go sandy! I can see the slogan: "Sandra Bury, Taking the Tough Stands"

What does this comment mean? Are you saying that a blue collar community is not 'high class?' What is your definition of high class? What do you expect OL to look like? Crestwood? Alsip? Chicago Heights? Blue Island?
Why do you think the demographics are changing? Could it be that the village has not set a vision that creates a culture where your 'high class' people want to move, live, go to school?

Weak? Ego driven? Which is it? Can't be both. The Egos on the board that have been deflated are a different story, which is why you're so Furious, Tom/Sandy.
And actually he's controlling the board meetings now, and you're Not, right?
Hmmmmm. waaa waaa

I thought the manager ran the village

And Phelan & co. Run the manager. Asked about village manager Larry Deetjen, another controversial figure, Bury said, “I just love him"
So much for your Ethics. Who You chose to align yourself with (the Thugs & Thugette) is Outrageous at best. Don't think that, what you percieve to be the "cool group" will accept you when all is said and done.
But thanx for the info, Tommy-Sandy

good question

OLG...even though I do not agree with everything she says, I would find that both terrible AND hypocrital on the mayor's part. I remember being in the meetings before he got elected and seeing him wave briefs around at the meetings and be very concerned and speaking out against the (very corrupt) old board. For him or the board to act to to stomp that out would be horrible.

I think if she's addressing an issue in the public comments portion of the meeting she'll be allowed to speak. But if she attempts to turn it into a political forum for her campaign she'll be shut down in my opinion. As far as I know Dr Bury has no political experience so she can only attack the Mayor. And board meetings are 1 place to get visibility to the people who watch Channel 4. So I'd expect her to try to get more face time there.

Agreed RG!

li'l andy
As you Well Know, "firing of Dave's law firm Tressler" is an out & out Lie!! It is not His Law Firm, Nor is he employed there! More trash outta your/Phelan's mouth.

Who is Bob Heine?? Norm chimenti??

Andy- Your talk is cheap trash. Show the proof or shut it up. Who shares this supposed wisdom with you of all people?

First I've heard of it, Andy. I had heard of another plan put forth by Mr Deetjen, which was tangled in that whole early meeting/golf trip thing a few months back.

Andy...would such a development pay property taxes? Would it be nine stories high? Is there a downside to the seniors being there?
Lastly, with just a little snark here...anyone telling anybody ANYTHING that could get back to you, his arch-nemesis, cannot REALLY be trying to 'keep' it a secret. Think about it...there must be five to ten people in a direct line between you and him before there is a 'common' thread who 'talks' to both 'sides'. So there are already a handful or more of people who must know, not including anyone else these obvious chatterboxes have let in on this 'secret'. Either it is smoke but no fire or the mayor is going to announce anyday what is happening. As long as he didn't go to Florida or Tahoe or who knows where else to 'golf' on an all expense paid trip to be shown the plan, I really hope if it is real he tells us soon, and that they pay taxes...no more TIFs.
(I actually think Southwest Hwy would be a better area for that...less traffic for seniors to contend with both in driving and noise-wise. Less glamourous there, but does a senior center scream "Vibrant downtown!"?)

Dave said it not me, Go ask his buddies at advocate. This plan is to win seniors in Oak Lawn and give cover to Advocate so they won't have to pay impact fees

The area is already a TIF isn't it? By the way, TIFs actually do spur development and nobody is building without a tif in place

metarzanyoujane, you might be right, I cannot remember if that was included in the debacle on 95th passed under the old board.
TIFs can be useful, but they are a mixed bag at best...California is going broke partially because of an overreliance on them, and has all but outlawed them now.

We've lived right near Beatty for 22 years, my best recollection is that the TIF's south border is Yourell, the diagonal to the north of the tracks. Beatty and Permacor were prosperous businesses at the time and no development was planned or necessary for those properties.

Thanks Dave W. The info is interesting.

And largely not true. All boards have closed sessions to discuss pending litigation, labor negotiations, personnel and other items that are listed as exceptions. How can attorneys with no idea of how many issues Oak Lawn has on its legal plate, comment on whether the number of meetings they've had is proper? By the way, who counted the meetings?

All boards do, but I find it a bit hard to believe that seven or so towns slightly to the north ALL have radically fewer amounts of such meetings.
They basically said that unless there is something VERY unusual, such meetings are typically held once, MAYBE twice a month, but usually not even twice a month multiple months in a row. They have not been in Oak Lawn's meetings, obviously, nor have I EVER been in any town's closed sessions, but these guys (all guys, in this case) had been village managers or attorneys or trustees/councilmen/aldermen for probably a combined hundred plus years. Granted Oak Lawn has had some issues lately, so maybe things will settle down, but out of the seven men, only two were from the same town, and one fo them had worked in other towns, as had a few of the others (the attorneys and a manager). I'm not able to say with definite fact what is going on in Oak Lawn's meetings, but I guess that is the point...lots of closed session meetings. We do not actually KNOW what is or isn't true, do we, D666? All I am saying is that I got lucky (?) and stumbled across a unique set of people who would know far more about this than I would ever find out otherwise. Of course not every town is the same, but it isn't like they are a radically different form of government than we are (I asked, to be sure, and they HAVE heard of Oak Lawn, one guy was from here) and cannot in any way extrapolate out what is considered 'normal' from 'more than normal'.
No offense.

Unkown Blogger.. Look at the actions of the Mayor not his words. It is really hard to answer questions with the vast majority of people on here who refuse to use their real names. I think if Lorraine only allowed people who use their real names there would be only 4 or 5 people posting on these stories

Just like QC does with anything Phelan Quinlan Bury Duhig it happens on both sides of the spectrum here in O.L.

li'l andy
waaa, waaa, waaa, QC does it too. What a tool you are mr big man

Such negative replies QC?DAVE ??? Did I touch a nerve??

I thought that was directed at Mr. Streit pushing the audit of the Fall On The Green fest.

She is...

Dave W,
No offense but I do think you are casting aspersions on every elected official in town and the village attorneys. They can only go into executive session for specific reasons. You are implying that they shouldn't and then go so far as to compare Oak Lawn to seven rinky dink neighbors to the north. How many towns are as big as Oak Lawn?
You top it all off by claiming "...upon what seems to be the statistical anomaly that is our town". What are you babbling about? There is not statistical anomaly when you don't provide statistics but instead provide anectodal evidence from conversations with officials of other towns without providing any numbers.
Curiosity is ok but curiosity based on conspiracy theories and wild accussatory questions are not ok and aren't proper for a high school graduate or college graduate.

Every town lists executive session on every agenda. There you have a statistic. The point is that Dave W babbles on about statistical anomalies and then doesn't provide any statistics to prove there is a statistical anomaly. Get it?
You asking for me to prove someone wrong who throws out terms and theories without the requisite evidence is ridiculous. If he wants to prove a point instead of admiring his writing, he should back up his theory that Oak lawn has too many executive sessions by showing statistics. Even then, the basis premise of his posts seems to be that there is something going on that should not be happening. He conveniently forgets that the board is split and it is very unlikely that a split board would retire to executive session in violation of the law. Actually, doesn't it make more sense that a town with no opposition voices on a board would be more likely to "hide" issues in executive session?
I don't know what Dave W's point is on these blogs other that to make himself seem smart without adding any real evidence to the discussion.

Hey D 666, I'm pretty sure the question was directed toward me. However, I like your response so I guess I don't have to say much.
The only thing I would add is that Dave W. claims he isn't making baseless assumptions but that is exactly what he is doing. He has assumed that the Village of Oak Lawn has way more closed meetings than other towns and backs it up by noting some conversations he had at some function with people who have nothing to do with Oak Lawn. He then states that Oak Lawn may be a statistical anomaly. It just doesn't make sense. I try to use words I can understand. I don't think Dave W understands what "statistic" means.

Maybe you people are right, I never said I knew what was happening in there...but THAT IS THE POINT.
These folks were all professionals for a long time at their jobs...the same jobs that are held here...they also go to and talk to a lot of other towns, some of which are like ours...instead of looking at reasons to deflect my curiosity, you could just admit that it is odd. You know why? Because IT IS. In the absence of (what would be very welcome, but) not readily available statistics, an informal polling of these people who have no axe to grind in Oak Lawn (most of them didn't even know which town I was from until later) IS NOT scientific, no, but inferring a few things from logic isn't crazy either. These questions involve hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money...and some of you are content to sit back and watch it be spent on who knows what based on decisions made behind closed doors.
The thing is; MAYBE if we hadn't had so many bad/crazy/stupid things happen with our tax dollars over the last...two, three decades, maybe if THIS board had come in and not created a different brand of shadiness from the last one, MAYBE we could allow them some slack. But we all know the numeerous 'events' that have gone on. Who knows if there are more...it is an 'unknown unknown'.
I don't have, as many on this site do, an agenda for or against any particular person. I don't WANT any of them to be guilty of anything. I only want to know what is happening to our money and our town.

District 666 Resident, metarzanyoujane, obviously you two either are or (more likely) know somebody on the board, because you are AWFULLY defensive about this, especially when others have pointed it out also.
To the point of the split board, didn't the vote on the settlement go 6-0? Kind of proving the point there, aren't you, to say that THIS board never votes together? And the attorney says they won't fight the release. They are attorneys, it doesn't really cost them anything to defend themselves and they won't even bother.
Maybe the whole board is corrupt, maybe none of them, maybe some, maybe we will all wake up and this will be a bad dream.
Maybe you two don't understand how polling works and how statistical data is drawn? Of course the 'sample size' is VERY small, but in any group under virtually any circumstance, if you were told that a small herd of say, cows, all ate in the pasture all day and only every so often wandered by the barbed wire fence and had to be patched up from a cut, you would say "Okay, so what?" THEN you are told ONE cow wanders over to the fence far more often for reasons unknown and keeps cutting itself up even though it could just stay away from the fence. THEN one might say if they were so inclined to worry about that one cow "Wow, we should keep a better eye on THAT cow, because it will cost us more money if it keeps getting cut up." Another person might then add "Weird, just that ONE cow doing that, isn't it?"
THAT is statistical anomaly.

Dave W.
Now I want to see your high school diploma. First of all, knock of the pompous attitude (other people have pointed that out). Secondly, you seem to be able to dish it out but you can't take it.
You don't get statistical anomalies by talking to five, six or seven people and providing a biased question whereby you presuppose that the board is having too many executive sessions. Furthermore, you don't take anectodal stories about closed sessions when you could easily request the minutes of every meeting in 10 different towns to create your poll. Even then, scientifically, you would not have a proper polling data because the controls are quite different (i.e. the villages have different issues and different dispute ongoing in the areas covered by the Open Meetings Act).
I'm not defensive but I don't like it when somebody takes up a lot of space to try to prove his superiority with bogus information that doesn't pass any test of reasonableness. I would like to get people like you to quit attacking elected officials with baseless queries and "curiosity". It's like asking an elected official if he has quit beating his wife. The question itself is improper. You can't hide behind the fact that they are elected officials and therefore you can say anything you want because your curious. If you want to be curious get the information and really analyze it.

metarzanyoujane,
I presupposed nothing. I asked "How often do you normally go into executive session or closed door meetings?" Please tell me how THAT is biased? See, I actually want to fiind the right answer, not have them tell me the answer I want, because I honestly didn't really know. So though it seems like a lot to me, I wanted another person's expertise on this. Which is why I did not ask you or D666...you two do not know anymore about this than I do, but you sure are AWFULLY concerned with what my findings are. Making me out to be stupid or pompous or crazy is an old trick to debase or devalue somebody when you don't have logic on your side...I get it. What you don't get is that being a bully only works with those that can be bullied. So maybe move on now. I didn't ask six or seven random people off the street who know nothing about the topic (you and D666 aren't on my speed dial). I wanted to actually learn something. So I asked what are known as EXPERTS. Crazy notion, I know, but it just might work. You do not have to like what I said, but if you do not, I suggest you talk to the people going into session all the time, not the people wondering why. You can't answer the question, so you deflect and attack the people with questions...while that is typical of those who are guilty, it is odd that somebody who isn't involved would care about these questions.
The only problem with 'getting the information' is that the people WITH it are BEHIND closed doors WITH IT.

District 666 Resident, metarzanyoujane, feel free to skip my comments if there are too many words in them for you. Is that pompous enough?
This is an open message board, people have said FAR worse things than my question, other people have had the same question for quite some time.
Nobody is telling you to play nice or like me...just skip me, maybe I'm not to everybody's liking...maybe if we met in person that would be different, maybe not...but on here, I get to use my allotted characters unti it says 'Easy there, Tolstoi...", so often times I do.
Be as offended as you want that I take up space...this is the internet, they aren't going to run out anytime soon. I'm not going to ask you or anybody else not to post, I'm not violating the terms, I keep it clean, try to speak clearly, sometimes fail, but if you are so offended, don't read the posts, or don't read mine. Nobody is putting a gun to your head to 'read me', so don't. This is a YOU problem, not a ME problem. Do me a favor, keep it that way.

I'm sorry Dave W, I didn't read what you had to say. You know skipping your comments was a great idea since the comments lack personal knowledge, intellectual curiosity, statistics, evidence, commen sense, or even common deductions. Instead, they are filled with an attitude that says to the reader, "I am so smart I need to use every word given to me to express my inane thoughts about every subject". While peppering your commentary with useless letters you also manage to provide the reader with zero insight yet an overriding belief that something is wrong with being in closed session. You should be Sandy Bury's running mate!

metarzanyoujane,
I will try to use smaller words for you.
That would be unlikely: one, she lost my vote before she never had it because of the dopey and unnecessary 're-naming' of the train station.
Not to mention that I have no 'friends' on the board, so at least my 'suspicion' is unbiased and generalized (as some others are...even if you fail to acknowledge them because it is inconvenient for you). Why the doctor is SO crazy about it even when she is friends with some of them and must know more than she lets on OR is actively pushing even her newfound friends for reasons unfathomable.
So there is a big difference there.
You obviously read the comment, else you wouldn't have mentioned that it says to skip it...so close, I know, but you couldn't resist...
You can keep hurtling insults, it doesn't make me wrong or you right, it only shows you have nothing else to contribute. Like a petulant child that stomps your feet, you have no logic on your side so instead whine for attention. Neither mature nor effective, but its your fingers...
IF by 'zero insight' you mean you simply do not agree with the PROFESSIONAL INSIGHT of multiple people in the EXACT field discussed, you are right, got me...
Lastly...
I NEVER undestand why ANYBODY is against (let alone VEHEMENTLY) openness or public knowledge...maybe since you know so much, you can explain to us what is so important that taxpayers aren't allowed to know.
Instead of attacking me for wanting to know, explain why not.

Dave W.
You are right! I started reading it but fell fast to sleep. On this latest post, I only got to the part where you start arguing with me about whether I read your post. I'm getting sleepy just thinking about you writing again. Please let us off the hook!

Dave W.
I apologize. I just made it through your whole post. It took a while Dude. I'm glad to see you are consulting professionals but I can probably save you some time on my couch by providing a snapshot profile that we like to give in the business.
If I had to guess,You are a man 40 years old or younger. You have a job you don't like. You would rather be a writer of novels or perhaps the Daily Southtown. As realistic as you are, you are contemplating a change in your profession. You believe that the other people working there are not as intellectual as you. YOu are not married and you don't have any ongoing longterm relationship at this time with any gender. You think that you are the most honest person that you know and you are suspicious of others. The suspicion arises from how you were treated as a child and you've been lied to by others. You easily graduated from high school but you didn't go any further academically. You like living in Oak Lawn but you think you could do a better job than the Mayor or Trustees. You would run but you believe that you have to kiss up to voters and others to win and you won't do that no matter what the reward. You've thought about starting your own blog but have become too much of a staple on Patch to leave.
There, I saved you from having to consult more professionals. You are welcome.

metarzanyoujane,
Can't stop yourself, can you? Unable to answer my question, you resume your personal attack to deflect why you like secrecy. Understandable, since it is a pretty unttenable position to mantain.
You got that I graduated high school.
I not only find my job rewarding, but REALLY like my coworkers and think many of them intellectually equal or superior to myself. I do not mind that because I cannot learn or grow by surrounding myself by people who are otherwise.
Saying somebody is an adult and has been lied to by others is like mentioning they have been breathing air the whole time as well...
By "providing a snapshot profile that we like to give in the business," do you have a high rate of success with such amazing insights? Are you a medium or a carnival worker? Can you guess my weight? You guess broad generalities and miss the specifics too much to be in the medical or law enforcment fields (we hope). I could have come up with a profile for me, or you, or most of the people on here with the same parameters, and I've only got watching Tv shows as my 'formal' training...
I'm sure your intellectual curiosty (such as it is) would like to know more details of my life, but for just that reason they will stay not your business...(Okay, a hint...you missed more than half, but that is all I'm saying...oh, and that you are clearly a hack job if you AREN'T the carnival worker.)
Let us know when you can explain why you like government secrecy so much, okay?
Thanks.

DAVE W, Dave W, Dave W,
Wow, you really do get angry when people question you. I'm guessing that the ladies love that about you. But I digress into the stuff you didn't want to talk about. I know, I know, you are in charge of this board big guy. I'm guessing you come in at 165 lbs. In any case, I don't like secrecy as you put it but I also don't like blowhards who attack government officials with innuendo and little else. I think of myself as the good cop protecting the others from bullies. Do you know who you are in that scenario?
By the way, way to give props to the knuckleheads you work with by saying that some are smarter than you. No kidding!

Good comment Grunty. Dr Bury seems to be attempting an anti-corruption campaign with her only focus being the Mayor. The problem is there have been allegations against Larry & Tom & Alex which she chooses to ignore. In fact she says she loves Larry. So that inconsistency could work against her. It also makes it appear she's aligned with Alex and Tom so how will that help her with the argument that the board needs to work together if she's already picked a side? But with her lack of political experience she almost has to pick a side in order to get help from the more experienced board members! It's quite a dilemma. And how will trustees who back the losing candidate fare with the winner of the mayoral election? I love politics lol!

The election has not even started!! All the candidates will have time to fully explain their platforms, including the Mayor who has said what his plans and goals are either

Hi Grunty! Thanks for your great question. I promised myself that I'd stay off the comments, but wanted to let you know that the election is in April and I will develop all of the things you are asking over the next several months. I will spend the next several months going to work - listening, learning, educating people and communicating my platform to as many people as humanly possible.

I would love to hear your ideas and I want to use my candidacy as a forum where people can get involved and make my campaign their campaign too. My motivation is to do what is best for Oak Lawn and I believe that Oak Lawn needs this kind of positive change. It’s OUR Village and they should be working for our interests.

Mr. Kadner only put one of my comments about the Village Administration in his article. I told him about my admiration for Clerk Jane Quinlan and the entire Board of Trustees too. (I guess my Deetjen comment would be more sensational perhaps?) The problem is from the top down. It is Mayor Heilmann. After studying this, it is the only conclusion one can draw. I told Mr. Kadner that everyone on that Board was someone I could work with and that they behaved as they did because they believe they are doing the right thing. They have all dug in and drawn a line in the sand.

Like the bumper sticker says, “If you want peace, work for justice.” I strongly feel that with ethics, disclosure of conflicts in a public forum, and transparency that the Village can move forward doing the people’s business for a change. The voters will decide if I’m right.

QC, be nice. No name calling.

Lorraine
I wasn't calling names. The post you took down was actually a Quote BY Sandy Bury. Please re-read it. Thanks

It is true Andy...I would like it for various reasons as well, but more than one of us have said that it would be crickets in here if that happened. Patch won't be around for a week with only five or six people posting.

Once again unknown blogger, it is easy for you to stand behind a wall of secrecy, and say" who cares" about fake names because you use one yourself!! It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with someone If they use a real name at least you know that person stands by his comments. Anyone can throw insults,profanities behind a fake name. Everyone on this site has an opinion one way or another I put my name out there because I could care less what any of you think...

There are plenty of sites that have 'subscribers' to them and people have to give up full names, other contact information, etc. and be approved, even, before joining. Everyone that posts is using a real name and often a picture (although I have no idea if they can or do verify the picture's authenticity).
So it is possible, just entirely not going to work here.

Maybe check IP addresses ???

In a technical sense I don't think there is any way. Unless they use a big government database or something similar! Which doesn't exist. Right? ;-/

Its easy, no database at all is required other then storing the IP address of the poster after the fact. The act of posting this comment forces my computer to "submit" information to patch's webserver, which in turn learns what my IP address is.

After that point, its as simple as including the last octet of the IP address in the timestamp. It is rare (althought not entirely unheard of) that the last octet would be the same as another person here, but if you went so far as to include the last 2 octet's then there is no way we would duplicate. Here is an example:

Grunty
8:55 am on Sunday, September 9, 2012; IP x.x.x.178.

I AM long-winded, but the only time anyone ever complains is on here, and mostly only people that disagree.
I always tell people that they should see the stuff I edit out...
The pompous thing is pretty hilarious...I showed this to people in my office and they just about fell over...but okay, I guess I will try to be more...humble? Not sure where I ever proclaimed myself super awesome guy or said I was a better human. I've been called stupid, long-winded, biased (although for or against what was never explained to me), all by people who hide behind fake profiles that are created solely to attack me onetime (not people that are on all the time, those attacks are a bit more legitmate at least).
I'm on other social sites (shocking, I know) and the venom on here is far more intense, even though the pool of people is smaller...maybe that is why...I post just as long if not longer there because there isn't a limit to length...never a complaint...every other place, people are more open to a full discussion, as opposed to short-attention span theater snippets.
Now I've gone and responded too long again, and probably been pompous too...sorry,
(I do wonder why people don't just skip my comments if it bothers them so...weird not to, right?)

Totally agree with you on this...never having to share early in life seems to lead to not having to care later in life.

Way to attack people without children and people who are only children with sweeping generalizations. Of Course Dave W agrees so what does that tell you.

It tells anybody that if you do not agree with THEM, you will attack them, and use any rationale to do so...keep burning your credibility, you'll end up like ivent...

20/20 how about those that want to be only child, or want to be treated as an only child.

Like hell it wasn't....lol

It looks like 20/20 was on some sort of roll where they had a bunch of things piled up and wanted to get off their chest...even as I commented on it I thought the same thing...I would have mentioned it then, but I'm working on not be 'long-winded' to help out the short-attention span people.

As in other comment sections, this one took a peculiar left turn into personal-land. Meaning people are running out of cogent points.

rusty tarzan pianoman 20/20 ya ip check 4 the hell of it

Your information is inaccurate. If you use Comcast as your ISP, you cannot get a static IP address. They provide static IP addresses to their business clients only. There is a premium charge for this service which is way more expensive than residential service.

Although comcast issues dynamic IP addresses for residential and on the low end of business class, these dynamic IP addresses do not change very often, and require either a power cycle of the customer equipment or an experation on the server side. It is not uncommon for an IP to change once in a week, but very uncommon for it to not last many months.

Cellphone address leases come from a proxy for most client connections. Although you have a dynamic IP that changes from tower to tower, your public facing IP is usually "static" but not in the classic sense of the word. The proxy is what allows you to watch a youtube video without interruption as you move from tower to tower.

The avg dynamic IP address using 1 cable router on 1 connection will generally use the same IP address in a long enough period for an article's interest to wane, making the duplicate accounts from 1 individual evident. Yes they can go to mcdonalds. Yes they can go to starbucks. The idea isn't to stop it, just to make it more annoying, and in turn discourage the use.

Many forums use this method to prevent the very issue we are discussing.

In regards to "hits" patch does not make money off of "hits" they make money off of impressions. The impressions are calculated by cookies placed on a computer. Yes, you can disable all of that as well, but 1 computer, connecting via multiple IP addresses does not normally equal greater revenue. It in fact, may mean less revenue as 1 computer uses more bandwidth to load and post to the site, without generating more impressions.

Patriots fight for their country or work for their country...they needn't necessarily be heroes.
The people that ran into those buildiings, ran around for days helping people, helped clean up afterward...none of them did it because they were thinking "Wow, I'm proud to be an American." They may very well be heroes (thinking the people running into falling, burning buildings here), but it is a confusion of words (if indeed we still speak English as a first language in Oak Lawn) to say they were patriots. Are the local police and firefighters and paramedics "PATRIOTS'" everytime they put out a blaze or pull somebody from wreckage? No more than a teacher helping a student become the next great captain of industry or statesman...or a FEMA worker piling sandbags in a flood. They may all well be heroes, but they aren't doing their jobs for love of country, or to protect our borders from hostile invasion.
Words have meaning, and when we misuse them, it dilutes the meaning of them, distracts from what we are trying to say, and confuses people about the topic or subject matter. It wasn't that re-naming the station itself was such a terrible idea, but something more in line with 'Heroes of September 11th' or honoring our emergency workers would have been more apropos, especially given our town's high profile due to the hospital.
"Patriot" is thrown around too much for want of sounding pro-American or something...it loses the power it should have. Forcing the issue lost my vote.

Those who can do, those who can't play grammar police. Patriot station is concise and understandable unlike Dave Ws rambling. Dave W proposed naming it "'Heroes of September 11th Station" or "Honoring Our Emergency Workers Station". How impractical and quite frankly, pompous. Armchair elitists alwys think they can do much better than others after the fact. These talkers never fail to remind the do-ers of their shortcomings and rarely give praise. Thank you to all of our community leaders for rollling up your sleevesgetting this done. Superb job.

Considering, Grammar Police Patriot, that you failed on grammar, at least you are consistent.
Also, proponents of the name took the trustees to task for wanting to give residents a fair chance at input. It was renaming an existing train station, not voting for medical supplies to an arctic outpost. How un-American is that, for the wants of the few to run over the rights of the many?
The monument was a great public-private work, with a lot of work by the doctor. Nobody ever said not to build/erect it. The contribution is fantastic...no doubt about it...throwing around 'patriot' only lessens its meaning to people who fit the description. Same with calling sports figures as 'role models' or 'heroes'...for playing a game.
I'm pretty sure I could NOT do as well as the Rotary folks did...but this wasn't a monument on the doctor's front doorstep. It is representative of the whole town...the name goes on every train map, Google maps, etc...to not even want discussion was elitist and presumptive to say the least.
We will agree to disagree on this, I'm sure.

Dave W you are way off base again. You say the rights of the many were trampled on by a few. How? 7 trustees elected to represent this entire village discussed and voted on the matter. Just because you do not agree with it doesn't mean your rights were trampled. How was anything related to this matter Un-American? Un-American is you on Nine Eleven Patriot Day bashing the well meaning Rotary Club for not adhering to your very strange language standards. If Nine-Eleven can be called Patriot Day why can't a train station be similiarly named given the monument? Police and fireman work for our country. They are patriots day in and day out. I don't know what type of sad person would be so callous on Nine Eleven. A very sad person indeed.

Andy, I would have been fine with First Responders...but it wasn't my monument either...I'm just a geek for English and think it misplaces what it was/is supposed to honor.
The word might mean different things to different people, but it has a defintion in a book for a reason, like all words do. Once we are going to slide away from that premise, we end up with less communication, which the opposite of what we need in this country and this world right now.
Nobody got hurt with this, but there was some resistance to the name change, bvut people were sort of bullied with the whole 'If you don't agree with me, you're anti-American, aren't you?' thing.
The monument, the thought behind it, are great, no dispute...just didn't like how it was handled...whether it was by the doctor, you, the mayor, my dad...just not right, to me and some others. Not the end of the world, and we have bigger things to move onto now, don't we?
Seems like they are going to release the 'secret' report...watch it all be about something silly and small that we can't believe was ever a secret...