New electric bike shop in downtown Wheaton on a roll
Jeff Alvis, the owner of the Pedego dealership in Wheaton, takes a spin on an electric bike as a potential buyer, Bob Patterson of Glen Ellyn, rides a Latch, which folds in half for easy transportation. Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer
The Pedego electric bike shop in downtown Wheaton carries the City Commuter, a model that has a place to strap on a saddle bag. Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer
They re just so much fun to ride, said Jeff Alvis, who owns an electric bike shop in downtown Wheaton. Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer
By Burt Constable
His voice catches and his eyes water as Ryan Mains tells this story from his days as a combat medic in Iraq. Hearing him tell it makes me gasp and forces me to dab my eyes. Reading it might not be much easier, but it is essential to who Mains is today.
I can still see it clear as day, as if it is happening this morning, says the soft-spoken 41-year-old husband and dad, as he sits at the kitchen table in the family home in Huntley.
A combat medic with the 3rd Infantry Division pushing into Baghdad at the start of the war with Iraq in the spring of 2003, Mains had near-misses with mortars and sniper bullets, and he had the grim task of realizing when to stop treatment and zip a comrade into a body bag. With the city under U.S. control, Mains was part of a team providing emergency care to the residents when he got the call about a traffic accident.
Updated 2/24/2021 7:32 AM
A cooperatively owned grocery store is planning to open a brick-and-mortar location next year in downtown Lombard.
Prairie Food Co-op has signed a 10-year lease for a 10,000-square-foot building at 109 S. Main St. Indiana-based Holladay Properties will begin construction of the building this spring, and the store is expected to open in July 2022.
As a cooperative business, we are literally owned by the community, said Kathy Nash, Prairie Food Co-op board president and co-founder. Our mission is to open a grocery store that supports local farmers and producers.
Other than Sugar Beet Food Co-op in Oak Park and Chicago s Dill Pickle Food Co-op, Nash said food co-ops are rare for the area. Yet even without a building, Prairie Food Co-op already has nearly 1,200 owners throughout DuPage County.
Elmhurst 1st Ward Alderman & Elmhurst City Centre Board of Directors
The single most pressing issue facing our city is , and this is what I intend to do about it. A pressing challenge is the Covid-19 pandemic as it relates to our residents and the city s financial stability, business growth, and retention. Sales taxes, which are generated by local businesses, are the most significant revenue source (28%) of the city s general fund. General fund expenditures include departments such as police, fire, streets, and sanitation. Because of the pandemic, sales taxes in 2020 were down significantly, although not as much as predicted, and the pandemic is not over. Therefore, it will continue to have residual effects on our economy.