All Week Long
Today, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the Cook County Bureau of Asset Management announced a new infrastructure improvement program known as Build Up Cook. Joined by Posen Mayor Frank Podbielniak and Phoenix Village President Terry Wells, President Preckwinkle announced the program at the site of a future sewer jetting project, one of several Build Up Cook pilot projects aimed at improving infrastructure throughout suburban Cook County.
“By directly investing in our communities and improving infrastructure beyond buildings owned by Cook County, we are also investing in the overall quality of life across Cook County. It is a small but important step toward a more equitable Cook County, and we are proud to support municipalities as they strengthen capacity and improve the resiliency of the communities we serve,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cook County has committed $20 million of ARPA funding toward the Build Up Cook Program, a program under the Bureau of Asset Management, the bureau charged with maintaining most county buildings and facilities. The program will use funds to lend the technical expertise of the county to assist in project management, budgeting, and planning of infrastructure improvement projects in communities across the south and west areas of Cook County. Build Up Cook will also assist municipalities in finding funding resources for future projects.
Originally published on chicagotribune.com 10/26/23
While in its infancy, a Cook County program aimed at helping suburbs address long-standing infrastructure problems has already helped south suburban Phoenix, according to the village’s mayor.
The Build Up Cook program is allocating $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to assist suburbs with infrastructure work, and has so far covered costs such as repairs to the Village Hall roof in Phoenix, a generator in Posen and water system repairs in Dixmoor.
County officials, at a news conference Wednesday in Posen, said several south suburbs are in line to take advantage of the program, the pilot phase of which got underway this year.
Originally published on news.wttw.com 10/24/23 | Photo: WTTW News
Over $280 million in medical debt affecting more than 158,000 Cook County residents has been erased as part of a countywide medical debt relief program launched last year, according to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in a Tuesday news release.
As part of the program, Cook County officials work with the national nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to purchase debt from health care providers in the county, which then allows the debts to be erased for residents who qualify based on financial hardship.
“We buy it basically at the same price that they would sell it to debt collectors,” said Preckwinkle in an interview on “Chicago Tonight” in May about the program. “We buy it, we erase the debt, send the families, individuals notices that their debt has been wiped out.”
In the latest round of medical debt relief, the county erased over $173 million of debt for more than 85,000 patients at UChicago Medicine. Each UChicago Medicine patient saw an average of about $2,000 in debt relief. Over 75% of patient households reported annual incomes below $51,000, according to officials.
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