Sheriff’s Office grateful to Lake Villa mall owner
By Frank Abderholden fabderholden@stmedianetwork.com February 22, 2012 8:06PM
Karen Vass of Glenview with Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran. Vass is the first civilian to receive the Meritorious Award from the Lake County Sheriff's Department. | Thomas Delany Jr.~ Sun-Times Media
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Updated: April 23, 2012 1:51AM
For the first time, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office has given a civilian a Meritorious Award for commitment to public safety.
Karen Vass was recognized Wednesday for donating office space and furniture in 2006 to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Vass donated the space at Lake Tower Crossing in Lake Villa near Lakes High School. The site has been utilized as a highway patrol substation and served as a meeting place for several Sheriff’s Office operations.
Vass is a former dispatcher for the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and Illinois State Police District 15. Her father, Carl Christensen, was a developer in DeKalb County who always told her “you always have to give back something to the community.”
The mother of four who has lived in Glenview for more than 20 years decided that when she built the strip mall she would donate some office space. She went first to Lakes High, but officials there said they didn’t need the space.
She went to the Sheriff’s Office, run by then Sheriff Gary Del Re, and he initially thought it was a joke. When she went to the subcontractors, Air Con Refrigeration and Heating, Colette and Ano Plumbing, Carey and Gelden Electric Co., and Amoroso Construction Co., they all pitched in to give the Sheriff’s Office a lunch room, meeting rooms,and bathroom facilities. It is now used by traffic patrol and investigations.
“We’ve had all kinds of reasons to use this over a period of time,” said Sheriff Mark Curran. “It’s very strange from the sense that rarely do you see people that give that generously without any strings attached,” he said.
If you are thinking she must have received a write-off on taxes, the answer is “no.”
“I did ask the county at one point and they said ‘no,’” she said.
“This is a surprise and very humbling,” Vass said when she received the award at the Waukegan Yacht Club where the sheriff took her to lunch Wednesday.
She said it did work out for the development as well because there was no graffiti, garbage dumping — basically no crime — even though there is a 24-hour fitness center in the mall. “They really appreciate the officers’ presence,” she said.
Curran said the facility is clearly the nicest space the Sheriff’s Office has when you compare it to the main substation in Libertyville off Winchester Road, or the downtown Waukegan offices, which are much older.
“We’re truly humbled and truly grateful,” Curran said to Vass in presenting the first Sheriff’s Meritorious Citizen Service Award.
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