What happened to Brian Carrick?

Residents' attention to the seven-year-old disappearance and suspected murder of Brian Carrick was attracted again by the death this week of Carrick's mother, Johnsburg resident Terry Carrick, 65.

An August 20th article in the Northwest Herald reported the outcome of a trial in Judge Prather's court and also carried, in the final sentence, information to the reporter from Nichole Owens, chief of the criminal division in the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office, that the trial of Robert Render, was scheduled to start November 2. Render is, according to that article, "accused of concealing Carrick’s homicide."

A search of the Northwest Herald's website today reveals nothing about either the start or the re-scheduling of this trial. Trials are frequently, unfortunately, not held when scheduled.

Does anyone know when Render's trial will begin?

Restaurant on Calhoun closes

I was sorry to see that the Herban Fare, a new restaurant on Calhoun Street, has closed already. It was in the location where the Super Starz Lounge had been, between Dean Street and Jefferson.

Whether it was the economy, the location or the desired customer base that did it in, or a combination of those factors, the owner had a great idea. He had said he would use local produce (e.g., from the Farmers' Market) and meats from Jones Country Meats.

Woodstock residents are invited to seek out the local restaurants and support them with your eating-out dollars. And keeping that in mind, restaurateurs are invited to consider their meal sizes and menu prices. Couples and families have to be able to afford to eat out. If your prices are out of reach for the too many Woodstock families, you may just find yourselves with fewer and fewer diners, and we all know where that road leads.

No stadium on wetlands

In today's Northwest Herald there is a column by Don Peasley that includes information about the proposed baseball stadium east of Woodstock. You know the one... the one for which ground was supposed to be broken last spring, so that the stadium would be up and running for the 2010 baseball season?

Don wrote, "A major change concerning development of the proposed baseball stadium-county fairground site along Route 14 across from Wells Fargo and north of Centegra on Doty Road is necessary. McHenry County Community Foundation is scheduled to present the City Council with a proposal Dec. 1 to move the stadium south and east from the original plan. The original site, a wetland, will be preserved."

And further in the article, "Access from Route 14 under this new proposal would be a major concern."

I was concerned from the beginning with the fast track through the City Council. It seemed to me that the Council was blinded by the bright lights from the new field. They rushed the project through with 50 Conditions, which left major decision-making to paid staffers of the City, rather than before the Council.

Didn't anyone check that there were wetlands there when the proposal was pitched to the City even before it got to the Council? Wouldn't it have been reasonable to see the opinion from the governmental authority over wetlands before giving a green light for that project?

But there wasn't any delay in the gravel mining, was there? Just drive east on U.S. 14 from Woodstock and check out the new "mountains". I mean, there is a LOT of dirt being moved there.

Let's hope that the City engineers are there regularly to inspect the mining and to be certain that the depth of scraping (remember... there aren't supposed to be any gravel "pits" there) and protection of the water table are in compliance with the Conditions.

Sarah Palin and Fort Hood

Sarah Palin is going to Fort Hood on December 4, according to the Associated Press.

It's nothing but a publicity stunt, and Fort Hood should bar her at the gate. If she wants to donate money to survivors of the Fort Hood massacre, then she can do it without going there.

If you are looking for one book not to buy for a Christmas gift, make it this one!

I-90 Speed Limit

For the first time in four months, yesterday I drove on I-90 west from Elgin. I was surprised to find that the speed limit is now posted as 55MPH well past Randall Road and wondered why.

The speed limit used to be 55MPH until about 1/2-mile west of Randall Road, and then it changed to 65MPH. Now the 55MPH speed zone has been extended to about Milepost 29 1/4, which is really stupid.

Drivers pass under the Open Road Tolling,, very posh, worker overpass (what in the world did that creation cost???) and take off. Three lanes westbound crush into two lanes, with the right two lanes being for the Randall Road exit.

Speeds of 65-75MPH westbound from the Elgin cashbox are not uncommon. Lane-weaving is not uncommon, as drivers jockey for position to either continue west toward Rockford or exit at Randall Road.

What possible reason could there be for extending the 55MPH speed limit for another mile westbound from Randall Road? Did traffic engineers have any conceivable reason to believe that drivers would obey the lonely 55MPH sign?

If engineers and the Illinois State Police expect drivers to obey unreasonable speed limits, they should first post the speed limit adequately. That means enough signs and on both sides of the westbound roadway; i.e., not only on the outside shoulder, but on the inside shoulder.

Further, these speed limit signs should be "flagged" with orange flags installed atop the signs to draw a driver's attention to the speed limit signs.

And then the Illinois State Police should spend enough time there to attract attention and force drivers to slow down until the new habit is established.

PhotoRadar would be invaluable there, because it will work 24/7, rain-or-shine, and doesn't rely on an officer to run down a violator. Just mail the tickets!

Of course, a better solution would be to raise the speed limit back to 65MPH (and then enforce it with PhotoRadar).

SOS establishes emergency contact database

The Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White, has established an emergency contact database that can be used by law enforcement personnel to contact relatives or other people, should a person be unable to communicate directly.

Read the following from the Secretary of State website (www.ilsos.net).

"This database allows Illinois instruction permit, driver's license and identification card holders to enter their emergency contact information into a voluntary, secure database. Starting in August 2009, in the event of a motor vehicle crash or other emergency situation where a person is unable to communicate directly, law enforcement may access this database to help them reach the person's designated emergency contacts.

"If a person holds both an Illinois driver's license or permit and an Illinois identification card, the emergency contact information can be entered for both cards in one transaction. The information will only be associated with the record(s) selected by the participant.

"Participants can add, modify, or delete their emergency contact information at any time by visiting this web page. Any modifications or deletions will overwrite all previously entered information. Previously entered emergency contact information will not be displayed, in order to ensure the privacy and security of the information. Participants can print the page containing their emergency contact information upon completion for their records.

"Participants may select one or two persons as their emergency contacts, and are encouraged to share their participation with the emergency contacts they have chosen.

"It is the responsibility of the holder of the driver's license, instruction permit, temporary visitor's driver's license and/or identification card to enter accurate data into the required fields, as well as to update contact data should any data change after initial enrollment in the emergency contact database. The Secretary of State assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the data entered by the holder of a driver's license (including commercial driver's license), instruction permit, temporary visitor's driver's license and/or identification card and disclaims any liability for damages, costs, and/or expenses, including, without limitation, consequential damages, arising or resulting from any inaccurate data or failure to update contact data.

To register your emergency contacts, go to www.ilsos.net or www.cyberdriveillinois.com At the bottom of the homepage, click on the icon for "Emergency Contact Database".

Dem Mike Mahon runs for Sheriff

Yesterday's Northwest Herald carried an article about Mike Mahon's entry into the race for McHenry County Sheriff. Mike filed his petitions as the Democratic candidate for Sheriff and he, as I, will be on the ballot in November 2010.

Mike and his family live in Lake in the Hills. According to the article, Mike is the first Democrat to run for Sheriff since 1998. His website is at www.mikemahon.org You can read the article online at www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/11/19/r_bo_tdsrpqkyqvzp5hv1jfw/index.xml If your computer is like mine, you won't be able to find it by searching on the NWH website.

Several people have been wondering how many votes it will take to beat Keith Nygren out of his job. According to the article, in 1998 Nygren beat Arlie Page 47,904-14,619. That equates to 76.6% of the vote.

The next General Election will be a different story. I forecast that the Republic candidate in November 2010 will not get 76% of the vote and that the backlash against Republican control of the sheriff's office in McHenry County will result in a very close race.

Too much money is being wasted on lawsuits by the sheriff's department. Many of those lawsuits have occurred because of decisions made by the sheriff that are being challenged, such as unreasonable terminations and refusals to accept court and arbitrator decisions to put fired employees back to work.

It's interesting that Mahon would refer to "Nygren's reputation as a 'cell phone sheriff '." I first heard that one over a year ago.

The article said that "Nygren dismissed innuendo that he was excessively away from the sheriff's office as meaningless political grandstanding."

I say, let's see travel records (airline ticket records, political campaign expense receipts in Florida restaurants and liquor stores, etc.) and mileage logs for his Tahoe and any other County vehicles at his disposal and his personal vehicle. Maybe his secretary has a log of days when Nygren was out of the office, not directly on County business. The whole issue of time-in-the-office will be explored in detail in January.

On the gang issue, I recall that there used to be a McHenry County Anti-Gang Task Force. When I tried to get information from the sheriff's department about it 2-3 years ago, nobody knew anything about it. It was like it had never existed. I knew that people knew about it, but they weren't talking.

Yet the sheriff told the reporter that his office participated in a "longstanding" countywide task force.