Grafton Township website pettiness

Most visitors to what they believe is the website of Grafton Township might not immediately spot the problem, but here it is.

If you go to http://www.graftontownship.us/, you won't find a link to the Supervisor. On the homepage you'll see links for Assessor, Trustees, Clerk and Road District. So, does Grafton Township have a Supervisor? You'll see the Supervisor's name and phone number there, but no link to a webpage.

To find the Supervisor's page, you must "search" (ex., on Google) for "Grafton Township Supervisor". Then you'll find www.graftontownship.us/supervisor/supervisor.html

"Why?" you ask. It's all part of the petty game being played out (until the money runs out) between the Trustees and the Supervisor.

The Supervisor has her own website at http://www.graftontownship.net/ Be sure to distinguish .net from .us

I wonder whether any registered voter in Grafton Township has lambasted the originators (instigators?) of http://www.graftontownship.us/ for intentionally omitting the webpage for the Supervisor and questioned the unnecessary expense of maintaining two Township websites, neither of which acknowledges the other.

Township government - worth the cost?

Read this letter to the editor of the Northwest Herald, which was printed in today's edition.

To the Editor:

Township government. Is it worth the cost?

Yes, when the supervisor is allowed to do the job we elected them to do, they perform many benefits for the taxpayer. But when you have a situation such as we have in Grafton Township that seems to grow bigger and uglier each month, it defeats the purpose of township government.

I have attended many meetings and witnessed the insults the Fearsome Four trustees have directed toward the supervisor, but even worse are insults made directly to some in the taxpayer audience, who elected them but have the audacity to question some of their motives.

I know this for a fact as I was told to shut up or leave when I questioned some motives. Also, to show the disdain he has for the audience, one of the trustees actually sits with his back to us at every meeting. How professional. Do we need to reward this kind of behavior with our tax money? If at one meeting they would do something beneficial for taxpayers instead of doing their best to defeat the supervisor ... yes it does give you pause to really consider abolishing township government.

Loretta Wuich

Huntley

Does a Grafton Township trustee actually do that? Now, I'm not questioning Ms. Wuich, because I believe her and that he does. But why would the electors (the voters) tolerate that? Why wouldn't ever member of the audience take his/her three minutes to chastise and browbeat that elected person and either persuade him to attend meetings in a respectful manner or resign?

It's too bad that elected officials cannot be recalled in Illinois.

Maybe somebody should take a dunce cap to the next meeting and gently roll that trustee's chair over to a corner (without touching him, of course, since he'd likely holler "Battery!" and summon the nearest Huntley cop), and then put the cap on top of his head (again, of course, without touching him).

Where does one buy a dunce cap in Huntley?

And who is trustee who sits with his back to the audience? And who is his employer or what is his line of work?

Screw loose by sheriff's department?

Is there a screw loose by the McHenry County Sheriff's Department? (To enlarge the photo, click on the image; then click on the Back button on your browser to come back here.)

If you've driven south on Seminary past the front of the government center at 2200 N. Seminary Ave., Woodstock, you might think so.

Woodstock has been lucky during recent severe weather alerts, and this sign continues to hang by one lonely bolt. Because this sign is on a State highway, IDOT has been notified of the need for repair.

Buy your gas in Wisconsin

Went out for a little motorcycle ride this afternoon and found myself in Walworth, Wisc., wishing for a larger gas tank on my bike.

Why are we getting ripped off for $3.899 in Woodstock (except at the Shell station on Route 47 ($3.749))? Are taxes the whole difference?

See that $3.599 for regular? A full $0.30/gal. lower than in Woodstock.

Wisconsin is starting to look pretty good....

1. Lower gas prices
2. Concealed carry (probably coming tomorrow; the gov said he'd sign "after July 4th".)
3. Open carry

Any other reasons?

Beth Bentley - 58th week; elephant in the room?

Beth Bentley, missing (then-) 41-year-old wife and mother from Woodstock, has now been missing for 58 weeks,

What's the elephant in the room here that nobody wants to talk about? Is there a killer loose in Woodstock? Are there people in Woodstock who know what happened to Beth?

Is there anyone - except the Woodstock Police Department - who still thinks this is "just" a missing-person case? Don't all the inconsistencies in stories and rumors in this case move it out of that classification?

There is a rumor about a $7,000 cash, plus purchase of a motorcycle, blackmail pay-off before Beth vanished. Any truth to that?
Have rumors of (let's say) "indiscretions" (and the results thereof) been totally investigated?
Jenn herself told me that she was Beth's alibi frequently. For ... ??? When? For what little outings?
Beth supposedly rented a car for what turned out to be the week-end that she vanished. Why?
For how many people, and how much money, was Beth the "ATM"?
Did Beth use any drugs recreationally?
If she did, who was her supplier?
Why have all Beth's friends "gone silent"? Taken down their Facebook pages?
Why aren't these "friends" clamoring for action to find Beth?
Who removed all the party pictures from Beth's Facebook account?
How many of Beth's so-called "friends" in the many party pictures at Gus's Roadhouse (now known as Offsides) have any connections to drugs in Woodstock or parts south (Mt. Vernon?), in Illinois?
Did Beth's cell phone really "ping" in McHenry County late Sunday night, May 23, 2010?
Was Scott Bentley's law office really broken into on Sunday night, May 23, 2010, and computers or computer files stolen? Did Jeremy sleep at the office a few nights after that? If so, why doesn't the McHenry (Ill.) Police Department have any report of the break-in?
Why did disposing of her possessions begin soon after she disappeared?
Why did rumors (only rumors?) surface about a single woman's moving into the Bentley family home within months after Beth vanished?
Why did Beth's older sons move out?

Why are so many people pussy-footing around rumors and issues? Rumors should be investigated and confirmed or squashed. Rumors are ugly. But what if they are leads?

Have people been threatened with harm, if they talk? That might certainly cause people to clam up. And maybe some haven't just been threatened. Are the police "connecting the dots"?

Why hasn't the Woodstock Police Department held even one (that's o-n-e - - (1)) press conference in this case? Why won't they explain exactly why they slapped the word "endangered" (missing woman) on this case but won't say "in what way, endangered"?

Had Beth been threatened? Would she need prescribed medications beyond any she might have taken with her for the week-end? Was she pregnant and in need of medical care?

With family not coming forward and raising a stink, why won't the Woodstock City Council step in on behalf of its missing resident and lift the investigation out of the quicksand?

To tow or not to tow ...

That should be the question!

Should police automatically tow the vehicle of a driver who is stopped in Woodstock, when an officer recognizes the driver as the subject of a warrant just issued that day?

Let's assume the warrant is for a non-violent offense, a misdemeanor, and not related to DUI. Let's say the vehicle is not owned by the driver but is in his legal possession.

Let's say the owner or another responsible party, a licensed driver, could come quickly to the location of the stop and drive the car home.

Instead, what happens is that the Woodstock P.D. drums up a little business for one of the tow companies on its approved list and calls them to tow the vehicle. The cost to the owner of the vehicle? $95.00!

Now, let's say the owner and the driver don't have the $95 for the tow bill. What happens? The vehicle sits in the impound yard of the tow company, racking up daily storage fees of $40. That's $40.00 every day, until the car can be retrieved. If the owner had to wait two weeks until the next paycheck, that would be $560 ($40 x 14) just in storage charges! Some people might never see their car again!

Or suppose the owner wanted the car towed by his own choice of tow service. Would the police allow that?

If the stop is made in a safe place or the car can be moved a short distance, what's wrong with locking it up and leaving it there? Assuming telephone contact with the owner and the owner's statement that he will respond immediately to pick up the keys and move the vehicle.

I can already hear the screams from the P.D. "We can't do that." "We've never done that." We'd be liable..." "What if the car is there overnight? There is a law in Woodstock against overnight street parking."

Yeah, right. And the fine for parking on the street overnight is $5.00. Or is it $10 now?

Here's a radical idea. Tell the driver to drive over to the police station and park the car in the front lot. And that, if he fails to do so, he'll be charged with failing to obey orders of a police officer.

I'll bet a lot of warrants in Woodstock could be served by contacting the wanted person and telling him to come to the P.D. Go ahead and give the officer a "gold star" for that arrest, too. After all, he "got his man."

Must have been a wild ride

This morning a Union Pacific (UP) maintenance truck left the tracks west of Cary and tumbled down an embankment toward U.S. 14. From the looks of the scrape marks on the embankment and the damage to the driver's-side door (visible after the truck was rolled onto its wheels), the truck left the tracks as it headed toward Cary from the Crystal Lake area, nosed over on its left side and top, missed a couple of good-sized trees, and came to rest on its roof.

Police and rescue personnel had already departed, and only Whitey's Tow Service and several UP trucks were there. The only words from a UP foreman were, "It must have been a wild ride." He was about to head to the hospital to check on the driver.

After the driver of the Whitey's tow truck in the picture righted the pick-up truck by rolling it onto its wheels, it was to be loaded onto a rollback tow truck to be hauled from the scene. The location was about 100 yards west of the intersection of U.S. 14 and Cary-Algonquin Road. The UP truck did not roll onto the State highway. To enlarge the image, click on the picture; then click on the Back button on your browser to come back here.

If UP maintenance truck drivers haven't been wearing their seatbelts, I imagine they will after today's accident.