McHenry County Blog

This sign is at the entrance to the high-end subdivision Wedgewood.

It is located between the Crystal Lake Country Club and Huntley Road.

Some teens figured out that if the “g,” second “e” and last “d” were removed from the sign that it would read,


Now, some might suggest that it would be more socially acceptable if the words were reversed, but it is a near perfect “Message of the Day” for a day when I am running an article about the wedding of Mackenzie Walter to Carlos Garcia.

Labels: Message of the Day, Wedgewood

So, we’re coming back from McHenry on the shortest day of the year. It’s about 5:30 and traffic is not moving well at the intersection of McHenry Avenue and Route 14.

A marked police car with mars lights blazing pulls into the closed furniture store parking lot. Someone is working on putting up a stop sign in front of the plain clothed policeman.

Then, she walks across the street where I took this picture of the policewoman putting up a second stop sign to replace the traffic lights.

But, you can see electricity at the gas station across the street, the used car dealer and the mattress store.

We picked up a friend of my son’s. His Windsor Avenue home was lighted

Driving through Wedgewood, we saw a lighted cross. I took this picture of a lighted cross on a home.

I pushed the button on the garage door opener, but it didn’t open. Maybe I was too far away.

The light on the lantern by the snow fort was dark.

I pushed the button again in the driveway. Nothing happened.

Then, I noticed our house was dark.

Usually, when we lose electricity, the homes on the other side of Meridian Street are lighted. We have electricity coming from both directions and this township line street is the dividing line.

Not tonight.

All of this part of Lakewood was dark.

My wife got home and said Jewel was dark.

I picked up another 10-year old and we had three of them sitting in the dark playing or watching some battery operated game.

By the time I was back, all those candles she has purchased over the years were being put to good use.

Just as I was setting up the tripod to take a steady picture in the shadows, the electricity came back on.

Bummer. I missed a good shot.

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Click on the top photo and see if you can pick out the policewoman lowering the stop sign.

Labels: Com Ed, Cross, Crystal Lake Police, Electric Outage, Wedgewood

Prior to the April municipal elections in Crystal Lake, I saw so many Shepley for Mayor signs on vacant property, I wrote a story called,


So, I wasn’t too surprised when the site on Huntley and Bard Roads turned up in the Northwest Herald last Thursday.

Jim Butts wrote the story about how the Planning and Zoning Commission had split 3 to 3 on whether to recommend the 38 townhouse and commercial development in this heretofore residential area.

Now, one can readily see why Crystal Lake wouldn’t care about invading the area that is the entrance to Lakewood’s Turnberry. And it is next to a Crystal Lake fire station.

But some neighbors from Crystal Lake upscale Wedgewood and Harvest Run subdivisions apparently are none too happy.

Harvest Run is the subdivision that stopped Dartmoor from being extended to hook up with some road in Lakewood. It’s an east-west road from the eastern edge of Coventry that runs through Four Colonies to Huntley Road and, maybe, beyond into Harvest Run.

So these folks have experience in lobbying city council.

One must assume that residents of Wedgewood, a subdivision that many influential Crystal Lakers have moved in retirement, might be able to exercise some power as well.

Labels: Aaron Shepley, Harvest Run, Turnberry, Wedgewood

967 Wedgewood Drive in Crystal Lake is going to take massive renovation to make it livable again.

What you see is some photographs after the big mid-day fire.

Take about 3 in the afternoon, the pictures show a completely gutted second floor. There were still whiffs of smoke coming out of between the chimney and the shell of the front of the second floor over the garage. If you look closely, you can see daylight through the front wall.

It seems no one got hurt.

In front were a CL fire truck, a rescue truck, two police cars and a car from the Illinois State Fire Marshall’s Office.

You can enlarge any of these photographs by clicking on them, if you are into detail. If you want to see the plume of smoke the fire produced, click here.

The Northwest Herald reports that a propane tank explosion is suspected at the home of Dave and Laura Wutzen.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Fire Department, Fire, Illinois State Fire Marshall's Office, Wedgewood

With South Grade School letting out at noon Friday, lot’s of people saw the dark smoke from the fire south of the Wedgewood Subdivision.

At least I think it was in Four Colonies. It might have been on the south edge of Wedgewood.

My son and I drove toward the smoke on the way home, but couldn’t get close enough to see the burning house.

From the size of the smoke plume, it looks as if a family will be spending Memorial Day Weekend and a lot longer somewhere else.

Driving back to Lakewood, we saw this elegant egret (at least I think it is an egret). It was looking at the dark smoke.

On the way home, we saw a back-up Crystal Lake fire engine going to the Bard Road station to replace the engines that went to the fire.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Fire Department, Fire, Four Colonies, Smoke, Wedgewood