Elgin News Digest: International Women’s Day events being held in Bartlett, Elgin; Kane health department holding webinars on trauma, substance abuse; U-46 to lease robotic GPS-guided machine to line sports fields

International Women’s Day events being held in Bartlett, Elgin

Hanover Township and the Gail Borden Public Library are holding events this week in recognition of International Women’s Day.

Hanover Township and the American Association of Retired Asians will host a panel discussion at 3 p.m. Friday, March 8, at the Senior Center, 240 S. Route 59, Bartlett.

Panelists will include Billie Roth, president of the village of Streamwood; Damyanti Gupta, first female engineer for the Ford Motor Co.; and Officer Tracey Dendinger, of the Bartlett Police Department. A question-and-answer segment will follow the discussion, according to a news release.

The first 50 attendees will receive free promotional items. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call 630-483-5600 or email info@hanover-township.org.

Women With Purpose will hold its International Women’s Day event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at the Gail Borden Public Library, 270 N. Grove Ave., Elgin.

Library Associate Natalie Vargas will speak about “Mexicans in Elgin: Those who came and those who stayed” and Dian Amar will present her new music video. The event will include music, snacks and information about mental health in Latino culture, according to a news release.

The program will be in Spanish with English translation. To register, go to gailborden.info/register, call 847-429-4597 or visit the library.

Health department holding webinars on trauma, substance abuse

The Kane County Health Department and experts from Mutual Ground of Aurora will present free webinars on public health issues via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays March 13 and 20.

The first session will focus on how domestic and sexual violence affect children and adolescents and the types of behavior and emotional distress they may exhibit as a result of trauma, according to the health department’s website.

On March 20, the discussion will cover the issue of substance use in the United States, how to identify and prevent an overdose and where to find treatment options.

For more information and to register, go to www.kanehealth.com/Pages/Health-Matters.aspx.

U-46 to lease robotic GPS-guided machine to line sports fields

The District U-46 School Board has approved an $81,700, five-year contract with Turf Tank to lease an autonomous, GPS-guided sports field painter.

The grounds department will be able to paint all district sports fields with 100% accuracy in significantly less time and using less paint, improving its ability to maintain the fields and providing more time for other work, according to information provided by the district.

Crews currently use seven gas-powered sprayers to mark up to 30 high school sports fields per week. They also line middle school fields as requested.

One unlined practice football field takes three employees about five hours each to complete initial markings; a main football field can take the same employees about 12 hours each. These same fields can be completed in three hours and five hours, respectively, with only one employee operating the Turf Tank, officials said.

The Turf Tank uses up to 45% less paint per field than the current method, saving more than $20,000 in paint costs for the first year of the lease.

The cost is $16,000 per year with a one-time $1,700 set-up fee, officials said. That includes equipment, software updates and $3,000 in paint.