Evanston will get nine new emergency call boxes thanks to an agreement with Northwestern University that the City Council approved Monday.
The university has offered to purchase and install nine blue-light phones at CTA stations and street intersections near the university campus at an estimated cost of $82,000.
The boxes will connect callers with the Evanston Police Department and the city will assume responsibility for maintaining them.
Two boxes will be located on city land outside the Davis Street CTA station with one each at the Foster, Noyes and Central street stations.
The street-corner boxes will be located at the intersections of Sherman Avenue and Elgin Road, Sherman Avenue and Hamlin Street, Maple Avenue and Simpson Street, and Orrington Avenue and Noyes Street.
Student leaders at Northwestern have been lobbying for the project for several years as a way to increase night-time security in off-campus areas.
The university has several dozen such phones on its campus and the city’s emergency preparedness manager, Max Rubin, said school officials report there have been very few prank calls.
In another campus-related decision, the aldermen voted to renew an ordinance that permits minors to attend organized charity fundraising events at downtown bars.
Thirty such events have been held since the ordinance was first approved in January 2006, and Health and Human Services Director Jay Terry says police have reported no enforcement problems.