Aug 17, 2007 11:47 pm US/Central
O'Hare Expansion Board-Up Mix-Up In Bensenville
Area Residents Are Fuming Over What They See As An Effort To Get Them Out Of The Neighborhood
by Jay Levine
BENSENVILLE, Ill. (CBS) ―
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City crews boarded up houses the city bought as part of the O'Hare Expansion Project. But some residents still living in Bensenville say their homes were in line to be marked and boarded-up, too, even though they are still occupied.
CBS
A board-up mix-up in Bensenville has left people there outraged with the ongoing O'Hare Airport expansion project.
One man said he was sitting at home when a crew came to his house, planning to board up the place.
His home is one of many around O'Hare where people still live, even though the city plans to expand the airport.
As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, Orchard Avenue in Bensenville was virtually deserted Friday night. Many of the homes are now owned by the City of Chicago. Most of them are vacant and being marked with red dots, then boarded up.
But, as residents report, still-occupied homes were being mistakenly marked.
"He wouldda marked my house if I hadn't walked out the front door," said homeowner Robert Thorson.
"They went out with a list they marked four to five of the wrong buildings," said Rosemarie Andolino, executive director of the O'Hare Expansion Project. "It was an unfortunate mistake. It was remedied immediately."
"It's the gang that couldn't shoot straight. They go down the street, they tag any homes even homes they don't own," said Bensenville Village Manager Jim Johnson. "What kind of people are they hiring to do this?"
Johnson doesn't quarrel with the work continuing on two new runways promised for late next year. The "Battle of Bensenville" is over land the city needs for work still years away, with Thursday's citations for destruction of property, and a threat to arrest city contractors trying to board up homes the city's bought.
"I think the idea there, is to just create chaos, to create panic," Johnson said.
Some say the city's effort to board up the hundreds of homes it already purchased in the area is an attempt to force the few hold-outs to leave.
"We have to do everything possible to minimize access to those properties so that we can prevent people from trespassing or any other criminal activity from occuring.
Andolino says there have been nine citations in recent weeks of people trespassing in those city-owned homes. Johnson calls that a smokescreen.
The new O'Hare, he says, is simply too expensive to build. The land will never be needed.
The only thing certain Friday night is that this Battle of Bensenville unlikely to be won or lost on the ground, but in the courts.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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