Ish,
You live in a very safe area. Boulder is like that too.
chicagotribune.com
By William Recktenwald
Tribune Staff Writer
April 21, 1998
The village of Tolono, Ill., has six churches, five taverns, four police officers, three schools, two cafes, one stoplight and no crime.
Only 12 Illinois municipalities reported no serious crime last year. No murders, no rapes, no serious assaults, no robberies, burglaries, car thefts or property thefts more than $300. Tolono, a bedroom community of 2,605 residents in Champaign County, 150 miles south of Chicago, is the largest of the 12.
"We are a quiet town but growing,'' said Cecil McCormick, mayor for 18 years. "Most of our residents work in Champaign or Urbana or are retired. This is a nice place to live and a good place to raise a family.''
Tolono was founded in the 1850s. One of several towns along the newly built Illinois Central, it became a rail crossroads when the Norfolk and Southern built its line running east and west through the village.
After his election as president, Abraham Lincoln gave his last speech in Illinois in the village before heading to Washington in 1861.
Until Interstate Highway 57 opened in November 1965, Tolono had a busy stream of car and truck traffic passing through on U.S. Highway 45. Today, there is little traffic on U.S. 45, said Police Chief Tom Powell, who is in his 32nd year on the village police force.
"We get some calls about dogs or cats, but even our domestic arguments are way down,'' Powell said. "We are proud of the kind of town that we have,'' he added. "Somebody might take a bike, but then we find it an hour later parked at the IGA.''
Each of the four village police officers has a squad car that he can keep at his home when off duty. "Any stranger coming into town will see a squad car,'' Powell said. "If a door-to-door salesman comes here, we get called.''
Librarian Janet Sutherland pointed out that the town just opened a new library and "only last year, (we) got our first stoplight.''
The only municipality in the Chicago area that reported no serious crime was north suburban Golf, a village of 449, between Skokie and Glenview.
Other Illinois municipalities with no reported index crimes and their populations are: Homer (1,178), Alexis (888), St. Francisville (868), Tonica (715), LaMoille (689), Ogden (647), Cherry (538), Sidell (547), Norwood (513) and Old Shawneetown (376).
Police also compute total crimes in each of Illinois' 102 counties and report the rate of index crimes based on population. Cook County ranked highest with 7,122 crimes per 100,000 residents, followed by Peoria County with 6,774 and St. Clair County, near East St. Louis, with 6,266. The counties with the lowest crime rates are all rural: Putnam County in central Illinois, 734; Brown County in west central Illinois, 750; and Hardin County in southeastern Illinois, 927. |
