Dupage Policy Journal

The Village board of Clarendon Hills issues their support to the DuPage County Health Board.

“You know, I think from what [Paul Dalen, Police Chief] has said to me, you know, in private conversations, that this is a great idea, you know,” Village President Len Austin said during the meeting. “Public safety people deal with a lot in our society these days. Any support we can give them and respect for their jobs, dealing with the occurrences they have. I guess I could say that the intent is very good.”

The council uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the village’s website.

The County of Dupage Board of Health has asked several municipalities, including the Village of Clarendon Hills, to issue their support for the curation of a central receiving type facility to respond to the increase of mental health issues and incidents in the area and lessen the burden on the police, fire, and EMS first responders systems.

The council also discussed increased building permit fees in 2023.

This is the first step of many in a process of creating such a system in the area. The village president did sign the letter of support, saying that the village is in agreement with such an idea. The county has not yet asked for financial support for such an endeavour, although it is a possibility in the future if the county does not fund it by themselves.

The council will meet again at 6 p.m. on Jan. 17 at 1 North Prospect Avenue.

A committee is being formed by local municipality officials, mayors and presidents, police and fire officials, to discuss such issues and solutions. The idea is to have a facility with staff who can respond or take over a call when it is determined to be a mental health issue so that people with proper training can handle it more effectively and police and fire can maintain their emergency response bandwidth. This is a crisis that is occurring all over the state and nation and many communities are trying to find a more equitable and long-term solution like DuPage County has.