COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (CBS) ― A struggling restaurant in south suburban Country Club Hills is getting a second chance, thanks to the municipal government.
The Country Club Hills city council will pay the $7,200 overdue electric bill for the Chatham Pancake House, located at 18348 S. Pulaski Rd.
Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch tells the Chicago Tribune these are “unusual times” and local business is precious, so the community has to get creative.
Two of the eight aldermen on the city council opposed the loan, one of them complaining that the municipal government already gave pancake house owner Leslie Noel $50,000 in tax incentives to help open his business, the Tribune reported.
There may be other political problems with the electric bill bailout. CBS 2′s Susan Carlson said on Monsters & Money in the Morning that Welch’s move could set a precedent that would lead other businesses to ask for help from the city government.
“It turns out the mayor is a longtime customer of this particular restaurant, so is he playing favorites? He goes there all the time. He’s always seen there,” Carlson said. “That’s going to be the problem for him is it sets a precedent, and he’s going to get criticized for it from all the other businesses who are going to say, ‘Pay my bill.’”
The pancake house operated for more than 20 years near 87th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood, but moved to Country Club Hills in 2008, the Tribune reported.
Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.
I am a CC Hills resident and yes we pay a siginificant amount in taxes. As a homeowner I would hope our tax dollars would go to a much better cause like continiuing to fix pot holes or providing jobs for youths in the community. I have been to the Pancake house in CC HIlls and was a long time customer at the 87th street location when the restaurant was a great place to eat. The new facility in CCHills lacks the savvy that the 87th street location had, the food presentation that day was not inticing to the palate and poorly presented on the plate. There are other disparing elements regarding the current restaurant , I doubt if I will ever eat their again. I don’t think this restaurant will survive in the area, not even with the idea to extend their hours into the early am hours ( if anything this is going to draw late night undesirable’s into the area). We certainly can’t afford to pay their bills, which are probably already piling up and if you do it for one business why would’nt other establishments expect the same treatment. You deal with friends at a friends level, you deal with business’ at a business level and you run the city for the betterment of the community.