The city of DeKalb is making an effort to meet the needs of residents in the northwest part of town.

Residents of the Greek Row area met with city officials Wednesday evening at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 830 N. Annie Glidden Road, to discuss their gripes about the area. Greek Row is considered to be bounded by north Annie Glidden Road, Normal Road, Ridge Drive and Greenbrier Road. The meeting, which drew about 40 residents, is the first in the city's plan to organize a Greek Row Revitalization Task Force, one that would work separately from NIU's Greek Row Task Force, which is spearheaded by the Student Association.

By looking at the results of Greek Row neighborhood surveys and by listening to residents' complaints, the task force will be able to see what problems need to be addressed.

The most common problems residents commented on were the lack of lighting, the area's seclusion and crime.

"It's important for the residents to voice their concerns," First Ward Ald. Andy Small said.

The meeting wasn't held to discuss solutions or costs, but rather to form a task force intended to tackle everyone's concerns, said Sue Guio, community service planner for DeKalb.

"The task force would be the ears and voices of the residents," Guio said.

The task force will be able to influence the government's decisions, rather than the government making decisions for them, Guio added.

The task force will do work similar to that of the Pleasant Street Task Force, which began last year. The Pleasant Street Task Force met once a week, Guio said, and in that time they got the whole community involved in an attempt to improve the neighborhood. They've improved the lighting and sidewalks on Pleasant Street, Guio said. The Greek Row Task Force should be able to have similar results, she added.

Members of NIU's Greek community absent from the meeting, and those who did attend were more concerned with the future of the old DU house. Guio said their interest in the task force should be generated as the task force moves along.

"As the process moves along, they will understand what's going on and want to get involved," Guio added.

Additional meetings will be scheduled to move the task force along.

Bambi and his friends will be looking for somewhere to hide this weekend, as today marks the start of the shotgun deer season.

Nearly 500 deer hunting licenses were handed out this year in DeKalb County, said Lt. Bill Shannon, of the department of naturalization resources. An estimated 1,200 deer will be shot before the season ends.

DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott reminds everyone to follow hunting laws.

Primarily, hunters need to stay off private property, unless they are granted permission, and also keep away from any area within 300 yards of a railroad track, Scott said.

The department of conservation will be looking out for people breaking the laws and issuing trespassing fines of up to $100, Shannon said.

Shannon reminds hunters that baiting is illegal. Baiting is the act of using apples or salt licks to entice animals into an area. Apples or salt licks can't be set up in certain areas to attract deer. If areas like this already exist, they must be removed 10 days before hunting season, Shannon said. Another law that will be enforced is the dress code. Illinois law requires that hunters wear at least 400 square inches of blaze orange while in the field, said Shannon.

Scott urges hunters to follow the laws so that everyone has a safe hunting season.

The floor is covered with opened and unopened boxes, packing peanuts, books waiting to be placed and sides of cardboard boxes that have been converted into organizers for different sections of books with tape. About 10 employees are attempting to put in the last items in the children's section.

In the music section, about 10 people are working to place thousands of CDs into holding cases. Yet in the midst of this apparent chaos, order is emerging. Isles of shelves, divided into different subjects, already are filling up with books.

"I tell people if they don't expect to sleep much then we should be fine," said John Podulka, general manager of Borders in DeKalb. "I say that with a smile, of course."

Podulka, who has worked within the Borders organization for seven years, just finished a stint at the Borders store in Geneva. He and a staff of about 40 people have been working almost 12 hours a day, six days a week since Halloween to prepare the 22,000 square foot store for its opening at 9 a.m. Saturday.

The store has received the majority of its products, Podulka said. It's a little smaller than the average Borders store, but Podulka said that his store has somewhat compensated for this by installing taller bookshelves.

The store, located in Northland Plaza at 2520 Sycamore Road, will consist of sections for books, music, videos and a cafe. About 40 people will work at the store with 10 to 15 employees consisting of NIU and Kishwaukee students. It will contain about 100,000 different book titles, some 60,000 CDs and numerous video selections.

Podulka said the store will have a soft opening, meaning that it will simply open with little fanfare, with the grand opening occurring in the spring.

"Being in a college town presents exciting opportunities with professors and students doing research," Podulka said. "I'm very excited. Every time I mention what I do, people's eyes light up and they get a smile on their face."

Borders' opening comes just before the holiday season start and at a time when the city is hoping to repair a sizable leak in the amount of DeKalb community dollars that are being spent at larger stores in Rockford and the western suburbs.

Paul Rasmussen, DeKalb director of community development, said Borders will be one of many stores coming into the community that will plug up the hole.

"The city as a whole, in almost every category, except lumber, there is leakage," he said. "Borders is just one of the first stores in stopping that leakage. It should be a pretty significant impact."

The leakage that Rasmussen refers to is the amount of consumer dollars in a given community that goes toward stores in another community. Using information from state sales tax figures, a community such as DeKalb can determine an average as to how much money should and is being spent per person in the city.

Rasmussen said the state average for money spent within a community on apparel items is about $384 per person, per year. In DeKalb, the average amount spent per person on apparel is between $74 and $75.

"Where's the other $300 going?" Rasmussen said, adding that a similar gulf exists in electronics. "It's going to Rockford and the suburbs. Books is clearly a category that we want to address."