Shooting range - good idea; wrong location

The McHenry County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) will consider a petition on Thursday, April 19, 1:30PM, and/or on April 24, 10:00AM, for a shooting range northeast of Woodstock on Route 120 at Queen Anne Road, where the miniature golf and driving range were located.

Having an outdoor shooting range in McHenry County is a great idea. Having it along Route 120 at Queen Anne Road? A disaster waiting to happen.

If the ZBA wants public feedback, it ought to hold the hearing in the evening. The members may not need to work for a living, but the People do.

And, speaking of the ZBA, why is it so hard to find the names of the members of the ZBA on the County's website?

I finally found Minutes of the April 4th Voting meeting, and the Minutes contained these names: "Kelly, Eldredge, Gartner, Haerter, Kooistra, Scherer". This sentence appears, too: "(Dave Stone should have read 12-14-11)" What would something like that mean?

These people are appointed by the County Board, and it shouldn't be a secret who they are or how to contact them. Full names should appear in meeting Minutes, and full contact information (name, address, telephone number, e-mail address) should appear on the County's website. If it's there, it's carefully hidden.

Good luck trying to communicate your opinions to the ZBA, if you wish to address Board members individually and away from the Planning Department.

No doubt the ZBA will consider safety issues, such as distances any bullet can travel from the firing line. Will it draw a circle with a 1.0-1.5 mile radius? While all shots fired ought to be down-range, what consideration will be given to "wild" or accidental shots fired other than down-range?

What about the "noise" circle? Three miles? Five miles? How large a caliber will be permitted? .50 cal.?

An outdoor range belongs way out in the country, not adjacent to existing housing or reasonably expected housing in the future. A good location would be somewhere between Harvard and Marengo, west of Route 23. The location at Route 120 and Queen Anne Road is a terrible location for a shooting range!

Politics and elected positions

McHenry County is getting some experience with politics and elected positions, as the County Board has struggled to find a person who qualified to fill the position of Superintendent of the Regional Office of Education in McHenry County.

Leslie Schermerhorn has tossed her bonnet in the ring, and the Public Health and Human Services Committee of the Board voted 5-0 to move her bonnet up a notch to the County Board.

According to the Northwest Herald,  while "...Donna Kurtz, R-Crystal Lake, called Schermerhorn’s experience “a huge plus for our county,” she plainly asked whether she had an arrest record or “skeletons in her closet.” Schermerhorn said she did not and that she just last year had a criminal background check through Chicago Public Schools."

And I suspect that Ms. Schermerhorn does not, but the Committee and the Board need to do their own due diligence. If the Committee wonders about an arrest record or any other "skeletons", then it ought to spend a couple of hundred dollars and do a proper background check. What do they expect a candidate to say?

The Board must appoint a Republican, thanks to screwball election laws in Illinois. Schermerhorn had voted as a Democrat in past primaries, but she says she voted Republican in the last two primaries. So she is qualified on that count.

The County Board is likely to have to appoint a Republican successor to another McHenry County elected office within the next two years.

When a sheriff leaves office...

What happens when a sheriff of an Illinois county leaves office? A sheriff can leave office for any number of reasons...

... he can lose an election
... he can fall into ill health
... he can retire
... he can become disabled
... he can get fed up and quit
... he can be convicted of a serious crime and forced out of office
... he can die

From a link on the website of the Illinois Sheriffs' Association comes the following Associated Press article, dated yesterday:

"The widow of a southern Illinois sheriff who died last month will serve out the remainder of her late husband's term.
"Hardin County Board Chairman Wayne Eichorn appointed Joyce Cullison to the office on Wednesday.
"Lloyd "Smokey" Cullison of Rosiclare was 71 when he died March 6. He was elected sheriff in November 2010 and earned his nickname by dressing as Smokey the Bear while teaching kids about the dangers of playing with matches.
"His widow has been with the sheriff's department for nearly 13 years."

According to the Illinois Sheriffs' Assn. directory, Sheriff Cullison served as Sheriff from 2006-2010. Hardin County is located in far southern Illinois; the county seat is Elizabethtown, along the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky (northeast of Paducah). The county population was 4,320 in 2009, and the sheriff's department has a six-bed jail.

The Daily Register (Paducah, Ky.) reported on March 6 that "Hardin County Coroner Roger Little will take over as sheriff until the November election, according to the Hardin County Independent newspaper. The county clerk's office will accept nominations of one Democrat candidate, one Republican candidate and one Independent candidate."

Suppose the election rules are different in Hardin County than in McHenry County, where the general opinion is that a successor must be from the same party?

Pyle - back to court on May 25

Did all the media blow off the court date yesterday for Greg Pyle, out-of-favor sergeant of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department, who was charged in January with ten felonies?

Nothing in the Northwest Herald.
Nothing in the Daily Herald.
Nothing in the Chicago Tribune.
Nothing in the local blogs yesterday.

Pyle is due back in court on May 25, 9:00AM, in Judge Condon's court, Room 302.

According to court records, there is a change in Pyle's attorneys. Until yesterday, Donahue & Walsh was shown as representing Pyle. Now, court records indicate that his attorneys are Jim Ryan and John F. Donahue.

There is no Special Meeting of the Merit Commission on the County's meetings calendar, so apparently Sheriff Nygren intends to keep paying Pyle. Thanks, Keith. Yeah, sure...

But, on the meetings calendar is a Monday, April 23rd, meeting of the Management Services Committee, and it is scheduled in the Sheriff's Training Room at 8:30AM. Is that training room enough of a "public" meeting place to meet the Open Meetings Act requirement? Will courthouse security allow visitors to that meeting to enter the building with cameras?

The Open Meetings Act allows still and video recording of meetings, but the court security guards usually refuse entrance to anyone with a camera. This ought to be interesting...

Not 150MPH. Just 114MPH (on Route 47)

The original information to me about the 150MPH speed of a Huntley police officer responding to a crash was not quite correct.

On Wednesday I filed a FOIA request with the Village of Huntley, and today I received its response. I was astonished by the willingness of the Village Clerk in Huntley to provide the response well within the required period of time under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, and I appreciated the thoroughness of the reply. I compliment the Village of Huntley on its commitment to transparency, and I thank them publicly.

On January 4, 2012, Ofc. Theo Kallantzes was assigned an unmarked Dodge Charger to operate on duty. At about 3:15PM, while near Route 47 and Algonquin, he learned of an accident at Route 47 and Big Timber Road, about 4.8 miles south. He obtained permission to respond and assist. Two minutes later (actually 1 min. 59 sec.), he arrived.

As will happen, cops "talk" among themselves, and word surfaced within the Huntley Police Department of a high-speed response. A sergeant took responsibility and investigated.

How fast was Ofc. Kallantzes driving on that Wednesday afternoon?

81MPH through the intersection of Route 47 and Fourth St. (posted 35MPH)
Through a red light, without slowing or stopping, at the RR tracks just north of Main St.
87MPH through the intersection at Mill St. (posted 35MPH)
98MPH through the entrance at Diecke Park (posted 35MPH)
97MPH through the intersection with Dean St. (posted 35MPH)
106MPH through the green light at the intersection with Regency Parkway (40MPH construction zone)
114MPH through the intersection of Huntley Crossings (posted 45MPH)
98MPH through a red light at Freeman Road
Drove into oncoming traffic lane on the I-90 bridge and south of the bridge.

Had enough? What happened to Ofc. Kallantzes? He got a week off. He lost 40 hours of pay.

Did he get any tickets?

As one McHenry County resident asked me several years ago, "Can cops get tickets?"

Should the Huntley P.D. have issued some tickets to its officer? There seems to have been plenty of proof of reckless driving and reckless disregard to the public. Ex., 98MPH through a red light? Would the in-car video system have been sufficient proof in court for prosecution? Huntley PD planned to provide further training to its officer, in the hopes that there will be no repeat performance.

Next time you've got a green light, imagine a police car (or any car) running the red light and look long and hard before you enter the intersection.

Egg Harbor Cafes - Pay It Forward

Egg Harbor Cafes, located around the Chicagoland area (but not in Woodstock, McHenry, Crystal Lake, Algonquin or any location in McHenry County!) will sponsor its Pay It Forward benefit for NAMI Illinois in the month of April. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

See if you can find an Egg Harbor Cafe on your travels this month and stop in. Visit www.eggharborcafe.com for locations.

ATTN. Woodstock Economic Development. How about snagging a new restaurant for the corner of Route 47 and Lake Ave.? That would be a perfect location for a nice restaurant. Visible location, lots of room for parking. (Lousy traffic pattern, though.)

Liven things up

Get a load of this TV advertisement. What do you think would happen, if this occurred around here?

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/blogs/editors/tnt-tv-channel-advert-goes-viral-161140457.html

Let's hope the cops were clued in...