Residents of Prospect Heights will soon see a "Closed" sign on the door of their local police station.
According to the Tribune, the northwest suburb is facing a budget deficit of $330,000. As a result, the town has made the difficult decision to close the police station to the public. In addition, City Hall will be closed on Fridays through April 2010.
City employees, including police officers, will be furloughed a total of 30 days in order to save costs.
"It's sort of unheard of to close your Police Department 24 hours a day to the public," said City Administrator Pam Arrigoni. "Surrounding communities are looking at reducing hours, too, just maybe not as drastically as we are."
Arrigoni is right. Several communities across Illinois have had to make budget cuts in response to a decrease in revenue. Oak Lawn may reduce the hours Village Hall is open, and in Naperville, over 40 municipal positions have been cut.
Officials in Prospect Heights assure citizens that police will still be on patrol and 911 service will not be affected. However, all non-emergency services that were once handled at the police station (e.g., routine police reports, payments of tickets, vehicle sticker purchases, etc.) will now be transferred to City Hall.
"The response time for all such (nonemergency) services will be delayed, and every effort will be made to accommodate all requests, but it may not always be possible," Arrigoni said in a statement Monday.
Matt Bartosik is the editor of Off the Rocks' next issue and a "between blogs" blogger.
