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Young people's dance and Family Recreation Day The Markham Boot Camp together with the Chrysalis Community Center is holding its teen dance at the Markham Community Center,15652 Homan Avenue, on Saturday, August 25th at 6pm. The dance is for young people ages 12-18 years of age. Admission is free. These same organizations will hold a Family Recreation Day on Sunday, August 26, starting at 2pm, also at the Markham Community Center. There will be sports competitions, prizes, ID Fingerprinting, a dunk tank (with some likely candidates!!), and you can bring $10 and get a chair massage. Admission to the event is free, and the event ends at 6pm. Bring your family for a fun day! Markham Boot Camp draws interest from Cicero and Texas Representatives from law enforcement agencies in Cicero, Illinois and Texas have contacted the Markham Boot Camp for assistance in setting up their own programs. Officer Terry Durkin stated that both were looking at starting similar programs in their own jurisdictions. They stated that this non-residential program that guides young people in how to deal with issues in their lives, instead of taking them out of those situations, was what they most wanted to pursue. Markham Park District's Patriots *Markham Park District's Patriots youth football and cheerleading team will hold its inaugural season kickoff, White Party Fashion Extravaganza and Auction, from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Odyssey Country Club, 5 Athena Ct., Tinley Park. There will be a fashion show, buffet dinner, silent auction, a raffle with men's and women's jewelry, a disc jockey and a cash bar. Tickets are $50. Call 708-590-9943 or 708-466-0556. Markham cop has issued 10,000 traffic tickets August 19, 2007 By William Lee, special to The Star There's a good reason why Samuel Harris' fellow cops have nicknamed him Superman. The Markham traffic officer is the fastest pen in the Southland. Harris has issued 10,000 tickets in the past five years. He estimates that 80 percent of them have gone to speeders. And he's got the ticket books to prove it. On any given day, the Alsip resident can be found near a Markham intersection, radar gun in hand, ready to strike. Harris' astounding assault on speeders has given Markham the second-highest percentage of drivers ticketed per stop in the Southland, according to a recent analysis of Chicago-area communities. So prolific is Harris at writing tickets that three separate court calls usually are needed at the Cook County courthouse in Markham to handle all of his cases. Harris recalled handling 724 traffic cases at the courthouse in one day last year. "He's found his niche and really loves the work, and you love to see that," Police Chief Paschal Crawford said. Harris' enthusiasm for his job is enough to make a speed demon squirm. "A traffic unit has always been my dream," said Harris, who grew up in Chicago's Chatham community and is a former narcotics officer and detective in Markham. "I do it for the sheer joy. I love traffic enforcement." Markham was seeing an increase in speeding and traffic accidents, leading the police department to create a two-man traffic unit about a year ago, Crawford said. "We could actually see where people would drive through (neighboring) communities and drive the speed limit, but as soon as they came here, they would drive 15 to 20 miles above the limit," the chief said. Harris said his aggressive ticketing may mean thousands of dollars to Markham's treasury, but the veteran officer emphasized that safety is his only concern. "Warnings really don't work," he said, adding that most of the speeders he stops are repeat offenders. "People are more interested in getting out of the ticket than changing their driving behavior." Burned into his mind are the many fatal traffic accidents that he has seen during his 14-year police career. "A fatal accident is the most tragic thing you'll ever see, (but) you could do something about it," Harris said. Motor vehicle crashes kill more than 43,000 people annually nationwide. "A lot of good people die in car accidents," he said. Crawford is quick to defend his officer against any suggestion he's too quick to pull out his ticket book. "He does the job based on what he sees on the radar," Crawford said. "It's not just about numbers. It's legitimately on what he's observed, and I feel he's fair." Police Blotter Published: 04:00 AM Aug 20,2007 Bruce Hrascinski II, 25, 3709 Rosemanor Terrace, Markham, was charged with drunken driving, operating an uninsured vehicle and disobeying a traffic control signal after a traffic stop July 29 at U.S. 30 and LaGrange Road, Frankfort, police said. |
The Markham Journal