Letter to the Editor: Board Member Urges Residents to Help Save Juvenile Detention Center

On Tuesday, November 8 the DuPage County Board was anything but transparent in government.  Instead the taxpayers and those members, who did vote to keep the Youth Detention Center opened, were robbed.  I feel that I did my job.  I toured both facilities and sat down with the staff of both places.  This is something that I feel that those who were leading the charge to close the facility did not do.  There were numerous supporters of the Youth detention center that addressed the board, including judges, States Attorneys office, law enforcement officers, juvenile home staff and residents of DuPage County.  Out of a county of over 1 million people, there was not one person who testified on the opposing side giving any reason to close the facility and send these kids to Kane County.

Everything that had to do with this vote did not sit well with me, especially the way that we received the “so called” contract that looked more like an intergovernmental agreement, at 7:30pm on the Friday evening before the vote.  I feel that the dysfunctional process of Springfield was let into the chambers of our board room.  This was a process of looking at a budget merely as a spreadsheet and not looking at it and judging each line item on its merits.  I find it hard to believe that those who voted to close our facility based their opinion on what they heard and what was presented to them on Tuesday night.

At a meeting held on Tuesday, Nov. 15, school district #94 informed us that if we vote to send these kids to Kane County, the school district and its taxpayers would have to absorb a $200,000 payout due to contracts on the center until June 2012.

I highly recommend that you go to the County website, www.dupageco.org and watch the meetings and judge for yourself.  If you do support keeping the Juvenile Detention Center, I urge you to contact your board members that voted to send this to Kane County and voice your opinion.  All board members emails and phone numbers are on the county website.

Thank you for the article on this important issue for our youth.

Special thanks to Joe Birkett and all who have voiced their concerns in public comment.

Dirk Enger

DuPage County Board District 6