A doctor administers a flu shot. The DeKalb County Health Department emphasizes the importance of an annual flu vaccination and offers walk-in flu clinics for adults and children. Go to health.dekalbcounty.org for more information.

DeKALB COUNTY

Proposed pipeline topic of forum

 A tar sands pipeline runs through DeKalb County just west of the Northern Illinois University campus. Enbridge, the Canadian company that owns it, is considering a “twin” pipeline that would run parallel to the existing line. Learn more at a Community Forum at 7 p.m. Sept. 22, at the DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St., DeKalb.

A panel of presenters will discuss pipeline expansion plans that are expected to affect the area. Panelists will share the experiences of landowners and community members in Wisconsin, where efforts to gain easements from landowners has already begun. Landowners and community members along the route need to know what’s coming and how to be prepared. The meeting is free and open to everyone.

Save Our Illinois Land is a coalition of citizens from across the state, who are concerned about the impact of pipeline infrastructure on Illinois’ land, waterways and fellow citizens. Illinois has become a throughway of pipeline infrastructure. Members are concerned about the granting of eminent domain to a foreign company, damage to farmland and potential safety concerns.

Although the he program is being held at the DeKalb Public Library, it is neither sponsored nor endorsed by the library. Also, the library is not responsible for the information presented in the program.

Health department promotes flu shots

 The DeKalb County Health Department (DCHD)’s Get Four for Flu prevention campaign emphasizes the importance of an annual flu vaccination as the single best way to protect against influenza.

The health department offers walk-in flu clinics for adults and children 8:30 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. The clinics accept Medicare, Medicaid and most PPO health insurances. Patients should bring insurance cards, a credit card and photo id when coming for a flu shot. Medicaid will be billed or payment of $15 will be accepted for those children who qualify for the Vaccine for Children (VFC) program.

It takes about two weeks after receiving the vaccine for antibodies to build up in the body, so health officials say it is important to get the vaccine before influenza illness begins in the community.

Flu vaccine information is available at the county’s website, health.dekalbcounty.org. For current updates, call the Flu Hotline at (815) 748-2410 (English) or (815) 748-2425 (Spanish).

DeKALB

Electric supplier to issue refunds

Nearly 6,000 DeKalb residents will get refunds because their electric bills were overcharged. Refunds are expected to be issued in October.

About $87,000 will be refunded to 5,900 customers because of errors on July and August bills. An aggregation contract with Homefield Energy approved by the DeKalb City Council was supposed to lower rates by 12.9 percent beginning in July. However, the company didn’t enter the change into its system. Therefore, affected residents were billed at the old rate of 7.237 cents per kilowatt hour, rather than 6.307 cents per kilowatt hour.

The bills were issued by ComEd, but Homefield supplies the discounted electricity to certain residential and commercial customers. Homefield notified DeKalb’s Public Works Department of the error. For more information, contact the public works office at (815) 748-2040.

Course trains nurses to become instructors

Kishwaukee College is offering a nine-week Basic Nurse Assistant (BNA) Train-the Trainer course for area nursing professionals who wish to become a BNA instructor. The course is a hybrid, meaning that it is a combination of face-to-face traditional classes and online components. The class runs from Oct. 8-Dec. 10.

The BNA Train-the-Trainer course is designed for nursing professionals with a current Illinois RN license and a minimum of two years nursing experience with at least one year of experience caring for the elderly or chronically ill of any age. Completion of the Train-the-Trainer course prepares nursing professionals in Illinois to teach a Basic Nursing Assistant Training Program (BNA-TP).

Eligible students for this program must be a registered nurse in at least a year’s experience in one of the following areas: teaching theory in an accredited nurse training program or providing nursing care, including personal care and activities of daily living to older adults or for chronically ill adults. The BNA Train-the-Trainer program is a 35-contact hour program with an Alzheimer’s disease component and is approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

For more information or to register, contact Tricia Hernandez at (815) 825-9441 or at tricia.hernandez@kishwaukeecollege.edu.

Annual  DeKalb Oak Crest art, craft sale set

Local artists and crafters have reserved booths to share their talents at the DeKalb Area Retirement Center — Oak Crest’s sixth annual Art and Craft Fest, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 24.

Residents and volunteers have been working all year to make a variety of craft items: holiday decorations, knitted hats and scarves, quilted items, jewelry, baby bibs and blankets, soft toys, glass sculptures, wooden crafts, floral arrangements and other items.

A bake sale is planned by volunteers with a variety of goodies including applesauce doughnuts. A number of items will be raffled off, including a Raggedy Ann Doll and a quilt.

Lunch will be available in the Café De Feuille De Chene. Oak Crest is at 2944 Greenwood Acres Drive, DeKalb. For information, call (815) 756-8461.