McHenry County Blog

Two Randall Road Intersections were featured in the Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times' front page story on “Worst Chicago Area Intersections.”

The Kane County transportation folks have tried to improve the intersection of Randall and Huntley Roads in Carpentersville by not allowing left turns except with the directional light.

That didn't keep it from being the worst intersection in the six county Chicago metropolitan area in 2006, however.

That was good enough to make the front page of last Sunday's Chicago Sun Times.

And, ranking number 8 was where the Rakow Road extension of Randall Road meets McHenry Avenue in Crystal Lake.

It is scheduled for widening to six lanes at that location.

All the other most dangerous intersections were in the suburbs but Chicago's LaSalle Street at Clark.

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The accident seen in the top two pictures is from January 16, 2008.

The "S" curve at the beginning of Rakow Road, where it connects with Randall Road, can be seen at mid-day on a May Saturday this year.

Labels: Carpentersville, Crystal Lake, Huntley Road, McHenry Avenue, Rakow Road, Randall Road

A couple of Mondays ago (March 31st), I didn't get around to reading the Chicago Tribune and, miracle of miracles, the paper did not end up in the re-cycling container before I had time to look at it.

On the front page was a story entitled,I was more interested in the map printing on the inside.

You can see the McHenry County portion here.

Red is worst.

25 or more foreclosures per 1,000 mortgageable properties in 2007, the key reads.

There are two more areas of red in the county, one appears to be in western Lake in the Hills. It may be in Huntley School District 158, as the biggest on in the county clearly is. The other is in western McHenry.

A lot of old Carpentersville also seems to be colored red.

I was just thinking.

If so many people in your school district were suffering from foreclosure, would it be the right time to put your school district in a position where another tax rate hike referendum would be almost a foregone conclusion?

Labels: Carpentersville, Huntley, Huntley School District 158, Lake In the Hills, McHenry, Mortgage Foreclosure, Tax Hike

First, she says she will.

Then, she says she won't.

It's so hard to keep up with this story, I won't even try.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roper weighed in on the issuance of a $75 ticket by Carpentersville Village Police to Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski for calling two neighbor African-American boys climbing in a tree “monkeys.”

And, instead of relinquishing her primary election earned privilege to cast a Democratic Party National Convention vote for Barack Obama, as Obama operatives desired, the Mexican-American village official is now saying it's on to Denver to cast that vote.

Obama operative Bedn Labolt now tells the Chicago Sun-Times:

“Ms. Ramirez-Slawinski is an elected delegate, and we respect her decision to represent the campaign at the convention. It is clear that the incident was a mis- understanding.”

“Misunderstanding” is certainly not a word I heard from her neighbor Damatta Stewart Tuesday night on TV.

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The article on the top right about Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski's agreeing to resign her Barack Obama delegate spot came from Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times. The story on the upper left came from Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times web site. Both can be enlarged by clicking on their images.

Labels: Barack Obama, Carpentersville, Damatta Stewart, Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, Racism

Don't call your African-American kids “monkeys” when they are climbing in trees near your home, if you want to be a delegate to the Democratic Party National Convention pledged to Barack Obama.

A simmering neighborhood fight in Carpentersville between an African American family and Hispanic Village Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski resulted in her resignation as an elected delegate pledged to Obama.

Yesterday, I thought it had the potential for more than the $75 ticket for disorderly conduct.

When approached by the Chicago Sun-Times, an Obama operative convinced the village official to relinquish her summer spot of honor. Most of Hispanic delegates will be pledged to Hillary Clinton.

Because of the flap, the Hispanic leader has announced she will not run for re-election to the village board. She has been a defender of the Latino community in the contentious fight in town.

This is the second trustee to get in trouble with the law. Illegal alien opponent Paul Humpfer was found guilty of domestic battery. His resignation as village trustee was sought at the last board meeting.

Labels: 14th Congressional District, Barack Obama, Carpentersville, Democratic Party National Convention, Domestic Violence, Hispanic, Kane County, Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, Paul Humpfer, Racism

This is too weird.

Daily Herald reporter Lenore Adkins writes about Carpentersville village trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski calling her neighbors African-American kids “monkeys” for climbing trees on Saturday, the year's first great spring day.

The neighbor complained that it was a racist remark.

The Hispanic village trustee got a $75 citation for disorderly conduct, the story says. It also reports “bad blood” between the neighbors for years.

The village board member says she will not run for re-election next spring. The article says she has been “a strong advocate for the village's illegal immigrant population.”

At the most recent village board meeting, Ramierez-Sliwinski backed a move to oust illegal alien opponent Paul Humpfer because he had been found guilty of domestic battery.

Ramirez-Sliwinski is a Barack Obama delegate to the Democratic Party National Convention.

Photo compliments of The Inside Dope.

Labels: Barack Obama, Carpentersville, Democratic Party National Convention, Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, Paul Humpfer, Racism

David Fitzgerald of the Northwest Herald wrote an article Saturday about the first meeting of the task force which will plan the details for the Fox River Toll Bridge between Routes 25 and 31 near Bolz Road south of downtown Algonquin.

No one has commented under the article.

How different from the pattern of reader participation for McHenry County College’s baseball stadium.

Here is a bridge which is going to cost people money every day of their lives and no one seems to care.

Well, there was one soul who lifted his or her voice on the anonymous call-in line of Elgin’s Daily Courier on Friday. Its editor headlined it,

"Perhaps Karen McConaughey should contact officials in Wisconsin as to how they don’t have tolls or toll bridges there.

"Illinois is just getting worse and worse. It is sucking citizens dry.

"How does our state to the north survive with free roads?

"This information should be first on the agenda for the board members and village leaders who might approve a toll bridge across the river between Carpentersville and Algonquin.

"Illinois is ridiculous with its tolls."

Myself, I don’t understand why the leaders involved are not screaming loudly to their legislators as they prepare to finance road building, education and the Chicago Transit Authority with more gambling in Illinois.

We’ll end up second only to Los Vegas in the Chicago area, but our local legislators can’t even pry out this bridge.

And, yes, I know they are working on Western Bypass funding, but that's a deal made when Illinois FIRST was passed under George Ryan.

It looks like we toll taxpayers will have still another place where our money will disappear.

Labels: Algonquin, Carpentersville, Fox River, toll bridge, Tollway

Again I have the privilege of pointing you to a funny “One Heck of a Guy” Allan Showalter story.

Entitled,

Carpentersville Outlaws Joie de Vivre - English Now Lingua Franca

In Compromise, Board Agrees To Speak Very LOUDLY and S-l-o-w-l-y To Furriners,

First, I should warn you that it contains an illustration of partially clothed men.

But the copyright has expired, so feel free to look.

Showalter refers to the Carpentersville village mothers and fathers as “philosopher-kings and philosopher-queens” in his post about the 5-2 vote to pass

“a non-binding resolution that confers upon this decision an authority and prestige equal to that of legislative actions establishing National Pickle Day, Backpack Safety Month, and Dairy Goat Awareness Month as official commemorations…”

I don’t think Pickle Packers International, Inc., located on One Pickle and Pepper Plaza down St. Charles way would approve of Showalter’s derision.

On the days he sponsored resolutions honoring the pickle, former State Rep. John Grotberg (R-St. Charles) used to promote the industry by giving away hand-sized pickle toys that made a distinctive noise when squeezed. This led to stranger sounds than heard normally on the Illinois House floor for several days thereafter.

In the 1970’s, these folks donated a big pickle that was used as a traveling award each year, given to the most bone-headed Illinois politician at the old Illinois Legislative Correspondence Association Gridiron Dinners. Actually, the award was “for getting into the biggest pickle.”

But I digress.

The inimitable Showalter, truly “one heck of a guy,” outlines the consequences of enforcement by the “Language Police.” I won’t even try to summarize how he envisions Carpentersville’s future.

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The graphic of a man calling for a recount has been unabashingly taken from Allan Showalter's article. Good knows where he found it.

Labels: Allan Showalter, Carpentersville, English-only, Heck of a Guy, Illinois House of Representatives, John Grotberg

Call me cynical, but the timing of the English-only campaign in Carpentersville—leading up to the municipal elections—has had me thinking it was primarily a way to re-elect the two village trustees leading the fight.

I can identify a “wedge” issue when I see one.

Proponents Judith Sigwalt and Paul Humpfer won election.

So, if it was a campaign tactic, it was a good one.

The village president, Bill Sarto, a political opponent, called the new board majority’s bluff a couple of weeks ago by asking for a vote on the English-only ordinance his two opponents had introduced.

They demurred.

Now, they seem to have settled for a non-binding resolution, which passed 5-2.

In Springfield, resolutions are rarely worth the paper on which they are written.

In any event, Elgin’s Courier-News had the best headline of four I saw yesterday:

Nonbinding
English-only
goes before
C’Ville board

I assume the paper went to press before the resolution passed.

The Chicago Tribune’s story seemed least accurate:

Carpentersville Oks English-only law
Language ordinance
criticized by mayor

Here’s what the Northwest Herald thought the story was all about:

C’Ville goes English only
Village Board opts for declaratory resolution over ordinance

Finally, the Daily Herald’s headings:

Carpentersville makes English official

But measure in non-binding, so village business still will be multilingual

There was something in the Elgin reporter Ben Lefebvre’s article that I have never seen before. He actually used the word “left-wing” to describe leftwingers.

How about that?

Here’s how he described the Chicago demonstrators:

about 50 members of the left-wing, Chicago-based Emergency Response Network.

I guess you can see some of them in the Tribune’s photograph.

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Click any image and it will get bigger.

Labels: Bill Sarto, Carpentersville, Emergency Response Network, English-only, Judith Sigwalt, Leftwing, Paul Humpfer

Carpentersville Trustees Judith Sigwalt and Paul Humpfer dropped their bid to pass a local ordinance cracking down on illegal aliens.

Well, the election is over.

Labels: Carpentersville, illegal aliens, Judith Sigwalt, Paul Humpfer