JUST A QUICK THOUGHT OR TWO

A few items in this past week's police blotter related to summer shenanigans of our youth (see The Cops) caught my eye and made me wonder for a moment how easily things could be done to improve the health and welfare of our young people.

We all know kids often complain "there's nothing to do" in Anytown, USA. But in La Grange, where kids lately have been "caught" red-handed skateboarding on the parking deck, taking a dip in the downtown fountain and -- OMG! -- playing night basketball under the lights in Sedgwick Park, opportunity abounds.

The village displayed a quick wit this week by promising to make safety improvements (see The Cops and The News) along 47th Street, just a month and a few days since a 30-year-old Countryside mother was killed as she pushed her baby stroller across the busy roadway at 8th Avenue.

Now, I believe, it's time for the Park District and Village Board to act swiftly to help out our kids in other ways:

First, let the kids play basketball at night in the parks, so long as there is some adult supervision. After midnight might be too late, but establish some reasonable times. Where else will they spend their summer nights, other than eating out and at the theatre but in the streets and neighborhoods with the potential to cause trouble?

Second and third, work to acquire the vacant parcel of land at the northwest corner of Harris and Ashland avenues, where a funeral home once was and what was going to be a condominium development that went under. Take a tip from other towns like, say Lombard in DuPage County, where along their St. Charles Road business district west of Main Street you will find a low-maintenance, low-cost to build splash park.

Maybe the remainder of the land can become a state-of-the-art skating park, designed in part by the kids who will later use it, and feature other park amenities taking advantage of the retirement home to the south, the senior center to the east, the elementary school to the southeast and ice cream shop across the street.

It'd be a great place for kids to spend time after school under the watchful eye of the nearby Police and Fire departments, businesses and senior population. With the barrier of the old Illinois Bell switching station next door and the intergenerational potential, it's a no-brainer.

A similar "park" could be erected in the side and back parking lot of the new recreation center on East Avenue, and would be a great selling point for that pedestrian underpass at Maple Avenue so many folks keep talking about.

I'll bet the state senator and reps serving La Grange would love to assist with legislative initiative grants, or a Kids Foundation could be formed to raise money to make it happen.

The first step, however, is to form a Youth Commission, so elected officials can begin to develop a better understanding of what kids and teens really want out of their village.

Let me know what you think.