McHenry County Blog

Take a look at the muck on the shore near the CCAPOA boat dock at Gate 9.

I don’t know whether the storms washed it up or what.

You can get a better look at the dead vegetation, by clicking on the photograph.

Labels: CCAPOA, Crystal Lake, Gate 9, Lakewood, Muck, Shoreline

Before we left on vacation, my son found what appeared to be Zebra mussels at Gate 7 Beach in Lakewood on the south side of Crystal Lake.

A naturalist friend was over for dinner and I gave her samples to verify his identification.

The day after my son’s 11th birthday, we went to the beach and I found this shovel handle (no shovel, just the handle).

I called Crystal Lake Park District Director Kirk Reimer to ask if they had been found before.

He told me that Dick Vogelman had found them on his Shore Station two years ago. Vogelman lives at Gate 7 right next to the Country Club Property Owners boat launching ramp.

So, a plausible hypothesis might be that some CCAPOA boater was in Lake Michigan and didn’t clean the mussels off his boat before launching it in Crystal Lake.

As usual, the photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.

Labels: CCAPOA, Crystal Lake, Gate 7, Lakewood, Zebra Mussels

Plenty of it.

This workman is spraying compressed air to clean the crack in Lake Avenue in Lakewood before hot tar is poured into it.

The guys were right in front of where I turn into my driveway, so I had to go around the block.

Labels: Dusting, Lake Avenue, Lakewood, Message of the Day, Spraying, Tar

Americans may have remembered that the Declaration of Independence was all about breaking away from the King of England.

But they still liked their royalty, even after July 4, 1776.

Take a look at this flower, which is in bloom by our front door above the “Welcome” sign.

It’s called “Queen of the Prairie.”

It’s a flower than my color blind eyes thought was blue for about 30 years.

Imagine my surprise when I was told it was pink.
Flower,

Labels: 275 Meridian Street, Crystal Lake, Flower, Lakewood, Message of the Day, Queen of the Prairie

Great way to be awakened right before one AM.

A wailing siren.

Channel 7 said a tornado warning had been issued for northeastern McHenry County.

The last time I learned the siren had gone off because of an electrical malfunction.

I wonder if that was the case this morning.

Then, as I falling back to sleep, two Lakewood fire trucks showed up on Lake Avenue with lights flashing through our bedroom window.

When I went out, I discovered a third down Meridian Street.

Smoking dryer, I was told.

Had a nice visit, though, before coming inside to write this. I was told there was a tornado that had hit Kirkland, which is located in three townships into DeKalb County on the Boone County border. It was in my legislative district during the 1970's. But I couldn't find anything about it on the intrnet.

Labels: Lake Avenue, Lakewood, Lakewood Fire Department, Tornado.

Two messages in a row about why I love living in Lakewood.

Look at these shadows I saw while leaving my driveway in late afternoon this week.

This is what our oak-hickory forest looks like.

Labels: Lakewood, Message of the Day, Shadows

On the way home from the McHenry County Council of Governments meeting at the Woodstock Country Club last night this is what the sunset looked like at 8:51 PM.

I wonder what it looked like earlier.

You can see why people love living in Lakewood's Country Club Additions. I can't wait to spend some warm nights on the beach.

Labels: Gate 7, Lakewood, Message of the Day, Sunset

Looking out into our back yard I saw a fox coming from the north along our neighbor's fence.

I grabbed my camera and headed for the sun porch.

He went toward the fence along Lake Avenue and leaped on top.

The traffic was pretty heavy, so back in the yard he jumped.

Where to go.

Back where he came from?

I saw him hid behind the day lilies and went out in the yard thinking, “Foxes don't attack humans, do they?”

The next thing I saw was the fox on the south side of Lake Avenue.

He was running east, carrying something in his mouth.

I certainly did not center the camera.

I just pointed and shot.

He dropped the little creature and kept running, so I went out on the road to try to get a picture of it.

By the time I got there, he had doubled back and picked it up.

The pictures of the fox on the other side of the street turned out to be on the very edge of the lower right hand side of the frame.

I've enlarged them, but they are very fuzzy.

The one on top of the fence turned out pretty good, though.

I'm told there is a family living on the Crystal Lake Country Club, as well as one near the old sewage plant east of McHenry Avenue.


All the while Keely Cat was standing at the glass porch door wondering why he couldn't come out at join the fun.

This part of Lakewood is in the watershed of the Fox River, by the way.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Fox, Lake Avenue, Lakewood

Crystal Lake blogger Ernie Hagenow headed toward the smoke when he saw it from Lippold Park.

It was in Lakewood's Brighton Oaks Subdivision.

Here's one of his photos from Genuine240’s Weblog (BETA):

If you would like to see the rest and read details of the fire, you can find that here.

Labels: Brighton Oaks, Ernie Hagenow, Genuine240’s Weblog, Lakewood, Lakewood Fire Department

It's a wonderful day to be alive.

And, what a difference a week makes.

Last Saturday was truly a miserable day!

But the rowers still held their regatta on a choppy and often wet Crystal Lake.

It was so bad, spectators needed umbrellas.

This Saturday was so different.

It was a beautiful, sunny, warm enough day.

The Tri-County Pregnancy and Parenting Center, whose Crystal Lake office is on the same street as McDonald's, held its annual Hike for Life.

It started at the Crystal Lake Park District's Main Beach.

A sign pointed the way down Dole Avenue from Mister A's at Route 14.

I noticed that a sponsor was Fuhler Real Estate.

People were registering at a big tent at the Main Beach.

And buying tee shirts.

I got several that will be featured on “Message of the Day.”

There were a lot of young people.

And families.

Kids were having their faces painted.

And, did I mention there were families?

I decided to follow the route to get some pictures of hikers.

Following the signs past the Wedgewood Garden Club plant sale at the Dole Mansion, I found a man signing up people to pray for the center.

Next there was a water guy.

He had a L-O-T of water bottles.

He was on Sunset about midway on the route.

The hikers went west on Broadway, up Sunset and came back along South Shore Drive.

There were bright vested guys to ease folks' way across our neighborhood's busy Lake Avenue.

There were 6,500 vehicles a day the last time I asked.

When I got to Gate 13, there was a table where Board Chairman Joe Edwards was trying to sign up people for the new web site.

I decided to park.

And chat.

And take some photos.

There was a family of bikers.

A big family.

I count nine in the picture.

I thought this was a hike.

But obviously other modes of locomotion are allowed.

And, you know what?

Rowers were out practicing their sport on a day I bet they wished they had been lucky enough to pick.

There was an eight-person boat with accompanying instructors in an outboard.

I also saw a two-woman skiff.

One man had a little boy whom he was walking beside, teaching him how to ride. You can see them in the distance in the photo below. And the shadows tell you that the sun way out.

Edwards told me there were about 80 signed up when he checked for me about 10.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Chicago Greater Regional Rowing Championships, Crystal Lake, Fuhler Real Estate, Hike for Life, Joe Edwards, Lakewood, Rowing, Tri-County Parenting and Pregnancy Center, Wedgewood Garden Club

Through a hard fought court suit, the Crystal Lake Park District established that it owns most of the bottom of Crystal Lake.

It seems that one of my photos of just installed boat piers may have stimulated discussion concerning park district liability, not to mention other questions about piers, rafts and buoys that rest on that park district property.

Not that the Gate 9 pier you see above is new, but the park district doesn't have an inventory of what rests on its lake bottom.

When folks noticed that more boats were at the Gate 3 pier, they thought it was new this year. Some research revealed that the Country Club Property Owners Association expanded to the east of the old pier last year.

I talked to park district Executive Director Kirk Reimer. He was concerned about liability. That seems like a reasonable concern. I doubt owners of piers, rafts and buoys have park district taxpayers protected by their insurance policies.

The park board began discussion of the subject at its last meeting and it seems likely to be on the May 15th agenda as well.

“It seems that every year there are more boats moored on the lake,” Reimer observed. “The board is looking at who's doing what.

“Right now someone could pop a marina in there.”

I'm not sure that is the case, since a commercial establishment would require zoning from Lakewood or Crystal Lake. The chance is zero that Lakewood would allow a business on a lake lot and I think the last commercial establishment on the North Shore was a bar that is now a home site.

There was a bar on the North Shore when we moved here in 1958. I came back from some early morning West End fishing and found a dead guy washed up at the Main Beach boat ramp. He apparently fell out of a row boat owned by the guy with the park district concession on the way back from the bar where the two were drinking. The concessionaire didn't realized his buddy was missing. I believe the lot now has a home on it.

In any event, regulation of the use of the lake bottom is now in play.

Reimer mentioned one of the topics could be length and size of piers.

“There needs to be some kind of a permitting process,” he told me.

This spring the park board has been publicly chaffing at its lack of vote on the Lake Management Committee. Park Board President Mike Zellman made the pitch to the Crystal Lake Council.

For a decade of so, regulation of use of the lake has been governed by an intergovernmental agreement between the Village of Lakewood and the City of Crystal Lake.

Most on the Crystal Lake City Council saw no problem with adding the park board, but the Lakewood Village Board apparently thought there was no reason to give up the power it now has to protect its South Shore constituents' rights to use their five beaches and the lake surface, where police power is exerted by the two municipalities.

Most of Crystal Lake is actually located within the boundaries Village of Lakewood, as you can see from the above map. You can see that most of the lake that can be used for water skiing or tubing is within the boundaries of Lakewood.

Lakewood now polices the lake.

This makes logistical sense since the Lakewood Village Hall is on the lake front next to West Beach.

There have been complaints, however, that the patrol issued only warning tickets last year. Surely, some of the offenses were worthy of a citation, the argument goes.

Lakewood residents foresee a 2-1 vote situation where the control is by the two other governments, the vast majority of whose residents never use the lake. They remember the multi-decade effort by park board members to ban power boats from Crystal Lake.

When it became obvious during last August's flooding that boat wakes were harming lake front property, especially on the North Shore, it was the park district that took the initiative to ask the Crystal Lake City Council and the Lakewood Village Board to issue a “no wake” rule.

Reimer pointed out that the park district got the complaints, but had no power to remedy the problem.

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CCAPOA's Gate 9 pier can be seen on top. Gate 3's pier is seen empty right after installation in 2008 and full during the flooding in August 2007. I'm told the
concrete structures in the foreground were part of the ice house operation. Below is Crystal Lake Park Board President Mike Zellman urging the Crystal Lake City Council to talk about adding the park district to the Joint Lake Management Committee. Below is a map of Crystal Lake, the lake, showing only the northernmost and eastern section right in front of the Main Beach actually being in the City of Crystal Lake. At the bottom are pictures of the Lakewood Village Hall and the patrol boat on one of the days last August when Crystal Lake was so high. All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them. The bottom picture was taken May 6, 2008, the day the temperature was over 80 degrees. The boat and skier are in front of the Main Beach Park nearer than not to the outlet.

Labels: CCAPOA, Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Park District, Gate 3, Gate 9, Kirk Reimer, Lakewood, Lakewood Village Hall, Mike Zellman, Pier, Water Skier

As I was driving out of my driveway about 8:45 yesterday morning, what did appear but a school bus accident.

It apparently was a fender bender, at least for the school bus.

The slight damaged to the bus fender can be seen below.

After school, my fourth grade son said there were classmates late for school, so, maybe kids were sitting on the bus when I took the pictures.

But I didn't see them.

I did see an ambulance, maybe two, and more Lakewood firemen and policemen than I have ever seen.

That's the first time I have seen any Lakewood Fire Department vehicles near our home, except for a test run of a fire truck right after the department was founded in January 2007.

The bus driver apparently decided she could not get down Meridian Street on the south side of Lake Avenue.

That's the part called Gate 12.

There were lawn care truck and trailers blocking too much of the street.

So, the bus driver backed up.

The bus ran into a car.

I saw no sign of the car, but she got a ticket for improper backing.

There were two ambulances before I left for my dental appointment.

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: District 47, Gate 12, Lakewood, Lakewood Fire Department, Meridian Street

Coming home, I detoured along South Shore Drive at Gate 9 in Lakewood and saw that the boat piers have been put in for the season.

It's going to have to be a lot warmer than yesterday to convince me to put our pontoon boat in our slip.

Next we came upon a truck with a new pier for Country Club Additions Property Owners Association Beach 7.

They seem to be less slippery and there go in both directions at the end. I've read there will be two benches.

There's also a pile of new sand that will end up on the bottom of Crystal Lake by mid-summer.

The raft isn't out yet. You can see its edge at the bottom of the lower photo.

Labels: CCAPOA, Country Club Additions Property Owners Association, Lakewood, Pier

The postal route we live on in Lakewood and Lakewood itself straddles the township line.

Algonquin Township is east of Meridian Street, where we live on the only hill in Country Club Additions, and Grafton Township is to the west.

Because it is so relatively cheap for public officials to mail to everyone on a postal route, we in Algonquin Township get Grafton Township newsletters and my guess is that local Grafton Township residents receive the one from Algonquin Township.

There's a pleasant picture of John Rossi, the first Republican to be township supervisor. (Before, the supervisors were from no name parties put together just for the township election.)

Rossi makes a pitch for volunteers and thanks the ones who work in the township food pantry, among other voluntary activities.

The newsletter also touts the bus transportation for seniors and mentions an intergovernmental agreement with Algonquin, Nunda and Richmond Townships.

“For example, you can now get a ride to Crystal Lake with a pick up connection at the Lake in the Hills Village Hall.”

I assume that is directed to Huntley and Lake in the Hills residents of Grafton Township.

Labels: Algonquin Township, Grafton Township, John Rossi, Lakewood, Meridian Street

Ice on Crystal Lake was looking rotten as I drove past the Main Beach, so I decided to take a closer look at what looked like open water about a third of the way down the lake.

I drove to Gate 15 and saw open water.

The edge of the retreating ice was at Gate 7 Beach at the Gate 9 side.

As I looked out, I noticed the sea gulls first.

It wasn't too many years ago when Crystal Lake did not have any seagulls.

It was snowing.

Then I noticed a pier caught in the ice flow.

And, to its right, a raft.

So, instead of calling “Lost and Found,” the owners should look at the eastern edge of the lake.

Their missing equipment probably is near the Crystal Lake Park District's Main Beach by now.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Ice, Ice Flow, Lakewood, Lost and Found, Main Beach, Pier, Raft

As we drove into Lake in the Hills to return a friend of my son after a visit to Key Lime Cove water park in Gurnee, I saw a bird perched in a tree.

It was beginning to snow, as the storm worked its way south.

The bird was a very confused robin.

Think of how confused it will be when the blizzard in Lakewood moves in.

Labels: Bird, Confusion, Lake In the Hills, Lakewood, Message of the Day, Robin, Snow

This past week was “appoint losing Crystal Lake Park Board candidates to something” week.

The first I learned of was Angel Collins. She had run for the park board and come in first runner-up.

Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley then appointed her to the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission, where she proceeded to oppose Shepley's laying of hands on McHenry County College's baseball stadium.

Next, I received a newsletter from my Village of Lakewood.

It told of the appointment of John Burton, the park board candidate who was next in the election results line up after Collins, to the Lakewood Village Board.

He replaced long-time member Tom Hendricks.

I figure Burton was actually appointed earlier, because Collins was just appointed Thursday night and I got my Lakewood Newsletter arrived on Friday.

You can learn more about Burton's views in this article or this story about the Crystal Lake Park Board's candidates' night last spring.

Labels: Angel Collins, Crystal Lake Park Board, John Burton, Lakewood

Before the snow started Sunday afternoon, I drove south on Meridian Street from Broadway to get home.

Look at the incredible potholes I found in the ice on Gate 12 in Lakewood.

I'm glad the snow removal is better on the north side of Lake Avenue, where we live.

Labels: Gate 12, Lakewood, Meridian Street, Message of the Day, Pothole

We are blessed to live in an oak-hickory forest.

Driving to and from town, there are oak trees encroaching onto Lake Avenue in Lakewood.

Com Ed makes sure that most of the oak limbs from the north side get cut off.

So, for beauty, one has to look on the south side of the street.

With the blizzard like snow storms over Christmas vacation, this is how some trees looked at Gate 8.

Simply beautify.

Labels: Lake Avenue, Lakewood, Oak, Snow

After we opened out stockings Christmas Eve and took a family photo, I decided to take the tripod outside and get some pictures of the luminaries we put out each Christmas Eve.

After I took shots of the driveway from the front walk, I went down to the intersection to take a picture of the house from a distance.

There I noticed that someone had put paper bag luminaries on Meridian Street from Lake Avenue all the way down to Broadway.

Boy, did they look good.

Naturally, I decided to take pictures of them.

What you see here is the Gate 12 sign with that long block full of lights.

If not a full moon, it was one day off, so the landscape was well lit.

The photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.

Labels: Christmas Eve, Gate 12, Lakewood, Luminaries, Meridian Street

I was on the Chicago Tribune web site looking at how bad the snow storm was going to be Saturday night and stumbled on these crime statistics.

If you click on them, you can see them better.

Come to find out, my little Village of Lakewood had the least crime per 1,000 residents.

The worst was Wonder Lake with 41 per 1,000.

Right below Wonder Lake was Woodstock at 36.5/1,000.

Crystal Lake was third worst at 30 per 1,000 people.

Of the bigger towns, Lake in the Hills showed the least crime on a per capita basis—9/1,000.

Right next door in Algonquin the rate was 19.7 per thousand, more than twice as high.

Click on the chart and check out where you live.

Labels: Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Lake In the Hills, Lakewood, Wonder Lake, Woodstock

When we got out of the swim meet at McHenry West High School at about 5, I knew I was in trouble.

The snow was really coming down.

I held up traffic on the McHenry Blacktop, going 30 miles per hour or less on the way back to Crystal Lake.

I shoveled three times.

Each effort made the future snow fort bigger.

Each time out got me a bit farther down the driveway.

You can see ridge of snow in the driveway beyond the lantern.

That’s as far as I got.

And, it’s still snowing after 11 PM, although the Tribune weather map shows the clouds no longer over McHenry County.

I’m aching.

I’ve ready for a soothing hot bath.

And some more of Michael Crichton's gene manipulation novel, "Next."

Labels: Lakewood, Snow, Snow fort

I bought former Crystal Lake Mayor George Wells’ 549-page book, “It’s That Way Everywhere, George,” and have read the last couple of hundred pages. That includes his years as Crystal Lake Park District commissioner and term as mayor and thereafter.

It’s a pretty fast read, full of documentation, and certainly puts forth his point of view well.

As those of you who lived through the 1990’s might imagine, a lot of space is dedicated to Wells’ fight to gain what he says in the book was 50% of daylight hours for passive users of Crystal Lake.

Besides that fight in which Wells identifies the major antagonist as the Village of Lakewood, Wells recounts how Lakewood fought and managed to delay payment of sewer fees until after Wells left office. The fees, he reveals were settled for pennies on the dollar by his successor.

Several times Wells expresses admiration for the political skill Lakewood folks demonstrate.

Just goes to show how those in the political arena may not appreciate what their opponents accomplish, but can appreciate the skill it took.

Wells does reveal negatives about his opponents, but since the memoir is not indexed, they are difficult to find. He redacts the names of opponents in some places, but a careful reader can guess or, if they are willing to go to the Crystal Lake Police Department and ask for a specific day’s police reports, find out what one did that was beyond everyday discourse.

Wells is not happy with the “good old boy” way of doing business in McHenry County. He goes into detail of how Judge Sharon Prather kept him in a court suit brought by members of the Shoreline Property Owners Association without any justification having been filed for his inclusion. She even ordered three boxes of his lake diary to be given to the Village of Lakewood for trustees to peruse. One box was not returned.

“I think the judge is not dumb or stupid; I think she is ….”

Well, if you want to know the characterization, you’ll have to read it someplace else.

A Wells refrain is a quote attributed to former Mayor Carl Whede. “You need to learn how we operate around here,” Whede is said to have told a Mr. Van Den Buschesse.

Wells is not a fan of the Northwest Herald. After a conversation with then-Publisher Bob Shaw, Wells concluded that Shaw did not know what was happening in the newsroom run by Mark Sweetwood.

Wells is unrelenting in his criticism of Sweetwood’s management of the news, which he characterizes as “ocean-bottom quality news.”

Part 2 Saturday.

Part 3 Sunday.

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You can order the book by typing in the author’s name on this internet page.

Labels: Bob Shaw, Carl Whede, Crystal Lake, George Wells, It's That Way Everywhere George, Lakewood, Mark Sweetwood, Northwest Herald, Sharon Prather, Shoreline Property Owners Association

From freezing rain last Saturday night to lots of snow yesterday.

You can see what both look like on this evergreen in front of our home.

At least the snow will cover up the leaves that I didn’t get raked in the “warm” spell on Sunday afternoon. The ones I managed to pick up weren’t quite frozen in the garbage cans where I stuffed them, but I had to pry them out by hand after the garbage man couldn’t get them out during his first pass by out house today.

The lake wasn’t quite frozen this morning.

I saw a sea gull land in an unfrozen spot.

You enlarge the photo of the Crystal Lake taken from Gate 7 Beach in Lakewood.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Freezing Rain, Gate 7, Gull, Lakewood, Sea Gull, Snow

This picture was taken Friday, November 16th, after I took my 10-year old to school.

It was the day the maple leaves were falling in and, as you can see from these pictures, on Crystal Lake.

The most beautiful I could find were on and in front of Dr. Don Brandeau’s lakefront home at Gate 3 in Lakewood.

I took the top one from the edge of his yard, right by Crystal Lake.

There was a swath of yellow on the lake, as you can see below.

I took so many photographs, it is difficult to select which other one to post.

You may remember that despite my red-green colorblindness, I can see yellow.

It is so vivid!

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Don Brandeau, Gate 3, Lakewood, Leaves, Maple, Yellow

This sign appeared on a Randall Road trip back from Lake in the Hills at Ackman Road.

It says,


When my son and I were returning from an afternoon at Crystal Lake’s McDonald’s Saturday afternoon, there was another sign at the entrance to Lakewood saying mosquito spraying would occur that night.

None too soon, the bites on my skin tell me.

And, the spraying in Lakewood did not eliminate the mosquitoes in our back yard.

Labels: Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management, Crystal Lake, Lakewood, Mosquito Spraying

Friday afternoon while I was taking my son to a friend’s home in Lake in the Hills, I drove past the new Lou Malnati’s.

You could tell it was open by more than the sign.

There were cars in the parking lot on Ackman Road in Lakewood.

By the time I returned to take overnight supplies for a sleepover, the parking lot was packed.

Perhaps reservations are in order for this destination restaurant.

The opening appears to be about a week later than planned.

Labels: Lakewood, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, Pizza

It’s wet.

How wet?

An attempt is being made to save Bernotas Middle School’s gym floor after it got wet. The fans are blowing.

The water was 10-12 inches deep on North Shore Drive on Monday at noon—higher than when the city Public Works Department dug the ditch.

The driver of this low-slung car is a young woman. I guess young people don't know that one should drive slowly, if at all, thought deep water like this.

The public works guys were trying to build a dike out of sand banks and plastic on the north side of North Shore Drive to keep the water back.

Furnaces in craw spaces are now water damaged.

Two pumps were running full blast. One appeared to be six inches and the other 3 or 4. In addition, the ditch dug thirteen days ago actually had water running through it, even though the difference in elevation between North Shore Drive and the lake is only 1¼ to 1½ inches. It only ran like a little brook for the last ten feet or so before entering Crystal Lake.

You can see water surging through the existing storm sewer. When is enters Crystal Lake, it does so through a basement window well. The shape is quite well outlined by the bulging water.

The recharge area behind the Main Beach parking lot is as full as people can remember. (Carl Nelson, who recently died in his 90’s, told me cattails used to grow there.)

There is a rain warning attached to the entrance booth at the Main Beach from the McHenry County Health Department warning the water may be unsafe for swimming.

The Crystal Lake Park District has removed the grating that was installed across the outlet to Cress Creek at the behest of the Crystal Lake Anglers Club.

It seemed to be working fine when I looked at it before removal, but the flow was faster after it was taken down.

Water is surging through the pipe under Lake Avenue.

The warning signs to stay away are appropriate.

The Village of Lakewood has pumps going 24-hours a day at Broadway and Riverside to keep water from flowing back into its old storm sewer system from Cress Creek.

One man I talked to on Broadway had seven pumps running in an attempt to get rid of knee-deep water in his basement.

There is standing water on some lawns on my street of Meridian between Broadway and Lake Avenue. (I am so thankful our home is built on a small rise. Good choice of location, Dad.)

The Crystal Lake Country Club entrance road seems to have been covered with water yesterday morning. Its sidewalk to the tennis courts is under a couple of inches of water.

West Beach was down to 8 feet of sand.

Naoki Kamijima Park, located across from the Country Store where this ever-so-friendly man was murdered and west of the Lakewood Village Hall is under water.

The stream entering Crystal Lake on the northwest side of the lake has never been higher, according to a woman who grew up next to it. One of the boat piers on the east side of the stream is under water.

Lippold Park is not a suitable location for the CABA baseball tournament. The outfields of several diamonds have water near the fences.

The bike trail is under three feet of water at one point, I was told.

One outhouse is surrounded by water. Thank goodness a concrete box surrounds it underground and the sewage is separately contained.

It appears Mother Nature is saying, “Give me back my wetlands.”

A substantial part of the commercial lot on the west side Route 14 across the street from where Woodstock Street ends and north of the property McHenry County has purchased for its new animal control shelter is inundated. I think its owner is one that sued successfully to exceed the Crystal Lake Watershed Ordinance’s 20% building/ parking lot limitation.

You can see it is for sale.

The clouds still threaten.

And both the Crystal Lake and McHenry County College water engineers see no problem with increasing the rate of flow to Crystal Lake.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Cress Creek, Crystal Lake, Lakewood, Lippold Park, Naoki Kamijima Park, North Shore Drive, Nortth Shore

The electric line for the Georgetown at Turnberry subdivision pond aeration device was cut by McHenry County road contractor Rockford Blacktop.

It happened during the Ackman Road extension and Lakewood Road widening.

The repair bill was $6,445.

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler told the Northwest Herald in an article by Jim Butts says the line was built illegally on the public way.

Because of a large electrical device, the 100-person subdivision president John Young told the reporter, “A caveman could see there’s electricity connected, to paraphrase a GEICO commercial.”

Yet no one asked before the dug.

This reminds me of how my household had to eat the damage to our home when Lake Avenue was reconstructed.

We had the equivalent of continuous earthquakes as strong as one registering 4 on the Richter Scale. Our dished were shaking in the cabinets. The glass on the chandelier was shaking.

The result was that our brick patio sunk and the chimney bricks were loosened.

But it was apparently our fault.

My parents shouldn’t bought our home, which is on a small, apparently too unstable gravel hill in 1960.

The Village of Lakewood accepted no responsibility. I was told to go to the contractor.

I complained to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the source of the money.

I got the same answer I received when I went to the contractor.

I was pointed to the contractor’s insurance company.

You can’t prove the pounding of the compactor caused the problem. That was the answer from the insurance company.

I doubt they ever pay out anything.

So, the Georgetown at Turnberry folks can expect the royal runaround.

And, it will cost each household a bit over $60.

That’s not much, but it’s enough to go out to dinner at Lakewood’s first restaurant, Lou Malnati's Pizzera, when it opens on August 27th or shortly thereafter.

Oh, yes.

Rockford Blacktop is a very politically connected firm in Winnebago County.

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The intersection is Lakewood and Ackman Roads. It is taken looking north shortly after it was opened in mid-summer.

Ken Koehler is the man in the photograph.

Picture of Lou Malnati's Pizzera in Lakewood was taken on August 16, 2007.

Labels: Georgetown of Turnberry, Ken Koehler, Lakewood, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, Rockford Blacktop

The McHenry County Health Department was warning of potential unsafe swimming conditions because of the heavy rains Monday night.

If swimmers saw the 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper sign, a "HEAVY RAIN ADVISORY," they didn’t seem to be heeding the warning at Lakewood’s Gate 7 Beach.

As I was walking to the beach, a neighbor told me about it or I probably would have missed the sign.

And, certainly people coming from the east would have seen nothing.

That’s because the Health Department folks attached it with tape not strong enough to keep the wind from blowing it down.

Having just been through two nights of hearing how Crystal Lake’s purity has been constant over the last twenty years and knowing that there are no longer any septic tanks serving homes around Crystal Lake, I had no problem letting my son and a friend go swimming.