A Plainfield physical therapy group is up for a big feel-good from the small business community.  Doctors of Physical Therapy, with its newest office at Caton Farm Road and Route 59, made the cut as one of 54 finalists out of a field of hundreds of competitors for the Top Small Company Workplaces 2011 recognition from Inc. Magazine and Winning Workplaces.  This is the ninth year Winning Workplaces, an Evanston, IL-based nonprofit organization, pairs up with Inc Magazine, a New-York-based monthly magazine for the people who run growing companies, to showcase the best small workplaces in the …

An art teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School believes in the old adage “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” The Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 middle school is launching a new literary magazine that will showcase not only student creations, but works by family and friends too. It’s a new take on the traditional school literary magazine, said Jennifer Gruca, the sixth-grade language arts teacher who is heading up the project. “The poetry and writing that we see from our students is so good that we figured they must be getting it from somewhere,” Gruca said. The…

This was no morning to sleep in. Plainfield’s dreams of “Battle of the Burbs” glory snoozed to a numbing defeat when Mokena knocked it out of the championship round with a 75 percent drubbing in the 7:30 a.m. Wednesday radio showdown. Despite being proclaimed the odds-on favorite on Monday by morning radio duo Eric and Kathy in the 101.9-FM/The Mix's annual Suburban Madness Battle of the Burbs, Plainfield dropped the ball Wednesday morning. Mokena and Tinley Park will tip off in the championship round. But who cares now? We were wide awake on Monday, sweeping past Palatine by an awesome 62 to…

The results of the 2010 Plainfield crash challenge are in and the winner is… The intersection of Route 59 and Main Street! Police Chief John Konopek announced the 2010 top 10 local crash locations in a traffic safety workshop at Monday’s village board meeting.  Plainfield is a traffic kind of town, Konopek said just weeks after taking the reins of the nation’s No. 1-rated traffic safety police team. “Traffic issues are prevalent in our community,” Konopek said. “We make it a top priority.” The infamous Route 59 swept the 2010 top 10 crash location list, taking all but second and eighth place…

This might be our year, Plainfield. We’ve made the Final Four.  In a Battle of the Burbs blow-out, Plainfield blasted into the Final Four of 101.9-FM/The Mix's annual Suburban Madness Battle of the Burbs, rousting Palatine by an awesome 62 to 38 percent margin.  “Plainfield is the suburb to be reckoned with,” said radio personality Eric, of the popular Eric and Kathy morning duo, after voting around 7:30 a.m. Monday.  “They may be the Number One seed,” he proclaimed, praising Plainfield’s sophisticated network for rallying local votes.  Each spring, Eric and Kathy celebrate March Madness with…

Come on Plainfield. Cast your vote. Don’t go down On a sour note! YAAAAY! RAAAAH! Plainfield North and East High Schools need your vote in Comcast’s Battle of the Fans Madness tournament. With just two days left in the first week of voting, Plainfield North High School is poised to advance to the second round of the tournament thanks to its fourth-place standing, but Plainfield East may be slipping off the screen without a weekend rally. The two schools made the roster of 16 Chicago area schools tapped to compete in this year’s first-ever Battle of the Fans Madness Tournament after showing …

For a new kid on the block, Plainfield’s Limestone Brewing Company is making its share of nightlife news. SuburbaNites Dining and Entertainment Magazine, at Monday night’s “Best of the Burbs” party in Aurora, handed Limestone its top awards for Best Brewpub, Best Dance Club, Best Chef, and Best Mixed Drink, the latter for its Limestone Lemonade. Customers voted Limestone tops in four categories from a field of all suburban Chicago dining and entertainment venues. “Being recognized as the best brewpub in the Chicago suburbs is fantastic considering that we have only been open for just over a …

A federal appeals court has ruled that Canadian National Railway does not have to lessen the environmental impact its purchase of the EJ&E Railroad will have on the communities that its tracks cross, including Plainfield. “This is not good news for Plainfield and Will County,” Will County Board member Lee Ann Goodson, who represents Plainfield’s District 5, said in an e-mail. “As the economic recovery continues, we will slowly realize the full impact of this merger.” The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of about a dozen area towns that are part of TRAC (The Regional Answer to Canadian …

Wheatland Township officials say property values are likely to drop nearly 5 percent when this year’s upcoming quadrennial assessments are done.    But that doesn’t mean homeowners will see a lower tax bill. In fact, many Wheatland homeowners most likely will be writing an even bigger tax check, assessors say. About a third of Plainfield residents live in Wheatland Township.  When property values sink at the same time the schools and city governments need more money to keep providing the services those tax dollars pay for, taxpayers get a double whammy in the wallet.  “People think they’re …

It’s not that old of a flag, and it doesn’t get much of a chance to fly in the cramped conference room where it nests in Plainfield Township Hall.   But the Plainfield Township flag and its egret image on green does appear on the Web Site “Flags of the World” (http://flagspot.net), dedicated to vexillology, or the study of flags.  Flag aficionado Rob Raeside, director of Flags of the World, lives in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, in Canada. He gets the credit for putting a spotlight on the flag, which the township adopted in 2008.  Township officials chose the egret symbol to symbolize the rare …

A Plainfield pizza parlor has landed on a top 10 list of the best pizza places in the Chicago metro area.  Luigi’s Pizza & Pasta at 16200 S. Lincoln Highway came in seventh on the Best of Citysearch list of Chicago region pizza. Pizza fans themselves create the list by voting for their favorites on online.  “It was voted in by customers as one of the best of all the pizza in the city and all the suburbs,’ said Mike Maretick, who owns Luigi’s with partner Patricia Lamberta.  Customers have been flocking in since the listing came out a few weeks ago, he said.  “Once we get them in the door, …

Walking the dog.  Taking the kids to the park.  Getting in some yard work.  These are some of the things Plainfield people plan to do with the glorious extra hour of daylight granted Sunday by the mysterious timekeepers who plunged us into midday dark last fall.  While some of us were a little groggy after losing an hour of zzz’s, most of us were overjoyed to see the hands of the clock passing 5 p.m. without a shadow crossing the lawn.  “The biggest thing is to see the sun late at night,” said Dawn Marsaglia, of Plainfield.  “It is so great to have extra time to get outside with the kids …

Plainfield Township officials are miffed that Naperville seems to be getting the naming rights for the new river gauge Web interface for which it just paid the U.S. Geological Survey. True, the page does proclaim the site is operated in “cooperation with “Plainfield Township, (Mr. John Argoudelis, Supervisor)" in very large font.  But the page name reads, “Du Page River Near Naperville.”   Installed north of Plainfield on the 119th Street Bridge off Naperville-Plainfield Road in Wheatland Township, the new gauge measures the combined branches of the DuPage before upstream flood waters reach …

Plainfield Township trustees are on board with plans that might bring a new Interstate 55 ramp curving through the back yard of town hall near Airport Road.  But they want to make sure an interstate exit at Airport Road – otherwise known as Lockport Street east of I-55 - doesn’t dump even more traffic into infamously congested downtown Plainfield.   Township officials Wednesday night unanimously passed a resolution putting on the record two critical reservations they have about the $2.6 million interchange project presented in February at a public information meeting.   The township wants to …

You may not know it, but the second Tuesday of April is one of the most important days of the year for voters.  The night of April 12, townships across Illinois will hold their annual town meetings, as set by state statute.  During the rest of the year, trustees own the show at township board meetings.  They vote on issues, discuss political philosophies and showcase pet projects. There is a period set aside for questions and comments from the public, but no one is doing any voting except for trustees.  But that's not the case at the annual town meeting. This is the night voters get the …

It’s time to pony up for our patriotic picnic.  Plans are under way for the Plainfield Park Districts’s 4th Annual Patriotic Picnic and Fireworks, scheduled for July 3. And while they have volunteers willing to help with setup, publicity, insurance, cleanup and security, what they really need from you this year is cash.   A lot of cash, actually. At least $17,000 to fund the fireworks display.   While there is a core group of contributors who regularly steps up to fund the fireworks, officials say, they need to spread the cost around. We all appreciate the support and the use of facilities …

When it comes to township highway upkeep, at least one local trustee has a lot of reservations.  Wheatland Township Trustee Karl Karantonis wonders if, in urban realms like our Chicago hinterlands, township governments and services might be going the way of the mobile bag phone and the hi-fi stereo system.  In Wheatland Township, taxpayers fork over $64,000 a year in salary to Highway Commissioner Dayton Jarnagin, plus pay for a crew of about a half dozen, to maintain 64 miles of roads. The Naperville Township Highway Department pays its elected highway commissioner $94,000 a year to look …

It doesn’t look like Wheatland Township will be jumping on the Plainfield Township Senior Shuttle.  Wheatland Township recently signed on to rent a Pace bus for $100 a month, township Supervisor Todd Morse said. The township will foot the bill for drivers, maintenance and gas.  In February, Plainfiled Township Supervisor John Argoudelis rolled out a plan to extend senior shuttle service to all village of Plainfield residents – including a large number who live in Wheatland Township and the handful in Na-Au-Say Township, which is in Kendall County. Argoudelis was hoping Wheatland and the …

Hollywood celebrities weren’t the only ones walking the red carpet Sunday. The line of Plainfield readers waiting for glamour shots snaked around the Plainfield Public Library, part of an Academy Awards party celebrating the end of the library's six-week "Bright Lights, Big Read" reading program. Nearly 1,166 readers participated.  Chris Garbin, a third-grader at Grand Prairie Elementary School, was one of them and looking to get some press because of it.  “I’m in an interview with the news right now,” he informed a playmate, who had the audacity to interrupt him as he spoke to a reporter. …

Matt Starr had done everything he could to make his first College and Financial Aid Expo a hit, but he still could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the line of people stretching all the way around the corner and down the hall at Plainfield Central High School.   Starr, the young Plainfield Township tax collector who took over as chairman of the township's youth committee this year, doesn’t have to look back very far to remember how overwhelming getting into college can be.  “Having recently gone through the college decision-making process, I knew what people were looking for,” Starr said…