Woodstock's Bike Plan

On the City's website (http://www.woodstockil.gov/) I noticed this morning that the City of Woodstock was inviting comments on the Master Bicycle Plan. I visit the City's website several times weekly, and this was the first time that this item caught my attention, so I clicked on the link to read the message behind the message. Here it is...

"CITY SOLICITS COMMENTS ON MASTER BICYCLE PLAN

"The City of Woodstock’s Transportation Commission has completed writing the City’s first Bicycle Master Plan, and the Plan is currently available for review at the Department of Public Works, the Public Library, and the City Manager’s Office in City Hall. Interested residents may review the Plan at any of these locations until October 21 at which time the Transportation Commission will consider written and/or verbal comments. Written comments on the Plan must be submitted to the Department of Public Works (326 Washington Street or via e-mail at pwdept@woodstockil.gov) by 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 14. Interested parties may also comment verbally during the Transportation Commission’s meeting at 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday, October 21 in the Council Chambers in City Hall. Please contact the Department of Public Works at 815.338.6118 if you have questions regarding the Bicycle Plan or the Transportation Commission."

Where's my calendar? What is today's date? Oh.... November 17. Guess I missed those opportunities. Did anyone else go?

By the way, the Transportation Commission will meet tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 18, 7:00PM, at City Hall. Why not show up and shock the commissioners with attendance by the public? Let them know they are not invisible and that their efforts are appreciated.

Ooops, I hate it when I check for agendas of meetings that are required to be published for public bodies. The notice of the meeting is to appear on the City's website 48 hours ahead of the meeting date. It's on the Community Calendar but not on the Transportation Commission's webpage for announcement of meetings and publication of the agenda.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing

Cal Skinner has a great story today (Nov. 16) about a lie in a statement to Daily Herald reporter Chuck Keeshan for his story last week on the detainee money program at the McHenry County Jail.

Oh, wait; it couldn't have been a lie. It must have been a misunderstanding, or maybe an error, or maybe a little static in a cell phone.

On November 9, Keeshan wrote that "Deputy Corrections Chief Patrick Firman said the change was necessary for the jail to abide by state regulations governing how it handles inmates' money." http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=335065

Today Cal Skinner wrote on www.mchenrycountyblog.com that the change instituted by the Jail is not required by the State of Illinois. Good going, Cal!!!

I've been wondering just how much money the Jail rakes in from commissary item commissions, from the $5.00 service fee on the money machine (kiosk) in the lobby and from the $5.00 service fee charged to those who transfer money into an inmate's account via the online plan. A $5.00 fee is exorbitant.

I've been thinking about a FOIA Request for the financial end of things and also copies of the contracts. You'd think that out of $90.00/day/detainee the Jail might absorb a tiny charge for money transfers into an account, but I guess the Jail is on the lookout for every possible money-making scheme that it can use.

I found it very interesting that, of all the jails and prisons in the entire State of Illinois, the McHenry County Jail is the only jail in Illinois that uses www.mycarepack.com for an internet deposit arrangement. Check out the outrageous prices for their commissary items; ex., $1.60 for a candy bar and you can't even tell what size it is.

Isn't there a truth-in-advertising law that requires a seller to reveal what size item you are selling for a certain price?

Domestic terrorism on the rise?

Is domestic terrorism on the rise in McHenry County?

Last week I didn't pay much attention to the plight of Lake in the Hills resident Al Williams, when the Northwest Herald reported on the repair of a landslip on his property. However, after reading the news on www.FirstElectricNewspaper.com about the squabble over a building permit, it's time to weigh in.

Williams apparently received a village insurance settlement for the repair work. His contractor began repair work. The Village showed up and screamed, "Foul!"

Actually, they probably screamed, "Show us the money!" ($750 worth), but it came out sounding like, "Where's your permit?" Then a "he said, she said" problem arose. The Village said the contractor needed a permit; the contractor told Williams that the Village had told him he didn't.

At an administrative hearing on Thursday, the hearing officer told Williams he needed a permit by the next day. That was news to Williams. And none of the Village's three representatives at the meeting knew of any notice to Williams about the deadline for the permit.

These days municipal employees get big bucks for designing complicated procedures for getting things done. Maybe things got a little too complicated in Lake in the Hills!

Friday the contractor tried to get a permit. Even through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources had approved the project, the Village Engineer denied the application for a permit.

All this reminded me of Woodstock back in 2002-03, when a new resident to Woodstock tried to convert a nice old home to a bed-and-breakfast. The neighbors ganged up on her, plus the city's Building Inspector made her miserable. He'd give her a punch list of items; she'd do all of them but, when he came back to check on them, he'd give her some more.

Woodstock required her to install a commercial fire-suppressant system throughout her four-bedroom home, costing her thousands of dollars that she'll never recover. Woodstock required a rear fire-escape contraption that resembles the bridge to nowhere. The final straw was a fireproof window in her nice dining room that was going to cost $5,-6,000!

That's when she said she would just board up the window!

The neighbors presented her with a list of 50 questions and demanded answers. One of the questions was, "How will the City know if you go out of business?" (Like it was any of their business.)

I helped her with the answers to some of the questions. For that one I suggested the following answer: "The ashes will be cold, and the firetrucks will be gone."

I seem to be fresh out of answers for Mr. Williams to give the Village of Lake in the Hills. Any suggestions?

Swine flu - get tested?

Suppose you think that your kids or you have H1N1, the swine flu. They (or you) have some of these symptoms (which are for the flu):

•fever *
•cough
•sore throat
•runny or stuffy nose
•body aches
•headache
•chills
•fatigue
•sometimes diarrhea and vomiting
* It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever.
(Symptoms from www.cdc.gov)

You think you might have swine flu; after all, you've been hearing about it for months. You need to go to work. If the kids have swine flu, you are supposed to keep them home for 10-14 days. How can you afford to miss work for two weeks?

Where do you take them (or go yourself) to find out if they or you have the swine flu?

Well, for all practical purposes, nowhere. Nowhere? That's right; nowhere.

So how do you find out?

There are three places to get tested for swine flu:

1. Go to a CDC control site (there is none in McHenry County, Ill.);
2. Be hospitalized. That's right; be IN the hospital; or
3. Be dead. In that case, you'll get tested, but it will no longer matter to you.

Here we are, facing a pandemic or already in one, and there is no generally-available testing?

I thought, if I had the symptoms, I could go to my doctor's office and he would take a blood sample, send it off to a lab, and tell me the next day if I needed to stay home for ten days. I wonder how many others realized before today that, for all practical purposes, you cannot get tested for swine flu!

Cheap way out

Last Friday (the 13th) the Daily Herald carried a story about a Mundelein driver who gave a false name to a police officer after he was stopped on August 20. He claimed not to have a driver's license and was hoping the cop would not learn there was a warrant out on him for failing to appear on a DUI charge.

The Mundelein resident, Edgar Sanchez-Ortega, 35, had a Mexican government identification card. These cards are often called matricula consular cards, when they are issued by a Mexico consulate to Mexican citizens who are living abroad (e.g., in the United States).

The arresting officer found a small package of cocaine during a pat-down search. An Assistant State's Attorney (not McHenry County) made a deal on a plea bargain that, if Sanchez-Ortega pled guilty to Obstruction of Justice (having given a false name to the arresting officer), then he would drop the possession-of-cocaine charge. The deal included an 18-month sentence.

The article did not make a reference to whether Sanchez-Ortega was in the U.S. legally.

Which is more important - lying to a police officer or having cocaine in your possession? Well, at least we know in Mundelein.

Peace network program Thursday, Nov. 19

The MCC Student Peace Action Network and the McHenry County Peace Coalition are sponsoring an event on Thursday, November 19, at 7:00pm at MCC in the Conference Center. The event is called "Can there be peace in Palestine/Israel after so much bloodshed?"

The program will feature journalist Ali Abunimah. Abunimah is the co-founder and editor of the Electronic Intifada, a popular website publishing news, commentary and analysis about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective. He will be selling and signing books after the program.

You can check out ei at http://electronicintifada.net/

The event is free and open to the public!

Health and police officers

An important requirement of most employment positions involving police officers is the validity of driving privileges. And a requirement of a driver's license is that the driver must be in good health. If health changes after a driver's license is issued, the person should stop driving.

One example where this requirement kicks in for any driver is vision. If a driver's sight becomes impaired, he should stop driving. We initially might tend to think that vision changes affect only the elderly, such as when a senior citizen is affected by glaucoma or macular degeneration.

Another example is when a person's general physical health is affected.

Recently an area police officer reportedly suffered a seizure while on duty and during a traffic stop. The motorist supposedly used the officer's radio to summon assistance.

The logical question is, was it the officer's first seizure? If not, to what extent was he under a doctor's care? Was he taking medication to prevent seizures? And had he reported his health condition to his police department?

A risk of seizure might automatically be a disqualifying health condition for a police officer assigned to patrol or any function in which he was expected to operate a motor vehicle or carry a firearm.

While an officer's health condition is probably considered a "personnel" matter and privileged as confidential information, departments have the obligation to give superior consideration to the safety of the public, as well as the safety of its employee officer.

What procedures do area departments have for taking officers off the streets, while they are suffering from and recovering from a serious health impairment?