Boone Creek facing Green Street from next to Sullivan's parking lot.
What was the McHenry man’s name who used to clean up McHenry’s Boone Creek every year?
[A reader identifies the man as Anton Rebel.]
He used to write lots of letters to the Northwest Herald. It was he I thought of when I received the following press release from the McHenry County Defenders.
If you are free Saturday, this might be a place you could do some good.
Defenders, Sierra Club Plan “Fox River Rescue Day”
Saturday, May 15
Local environmental groups seek volunteers to clean up Boone Creek wetland
Ducks are swimming at the top of this shot toward Route 120, while garbage floats at its bottom.
MCHENRY, IL – Volunteers are invited to help clean up Boone Creek, a tributary of the Fox River located in northern McHenry County, during the annual “Fox River Rescue Day” set for Saturday, May 15. The work-day event is co-sponsored by the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County and the Sierra Club.
Here’s an opportunity to spend a spring morning outdoors, helping to clean up this riverbed wetland and working alongside other local-area stewards of the environment. Bags, gloves, and snacks will be provided. Volunteers are advised to wear appropriate clothing and footwear, since they may possibly get muddy and wet.
Someone will have to go wading to get this Reece's Pieces wrapper.
All participants must sign a liability release form, which may be found on the Defenders’ website at www.mcdef.org. Students under 18 years old should download and bring a form signed by their parent or guardian to the cleanup.
Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 15 in the parking lot of the McHenry Public Works Building, which is located directly behind the Jewel grocery store on Highway 120 in McHenry. For more information, contact the Environmental Defenders at (815) 338-0393 or e-mail to mcdef@owc.net.
The Environmental Defenders of McHenry County is a citizen-based, 501c3 not-for-profit organization, dedicated to the preservation and improvement of our natural environment. Volunteers are welcome and donations are tax-deductible as charitable contributions.
To learn more, visit www.mcdef.org or contact the Defenders’ office at 124 Cass Street in downtown Woodstock, phone (815) 338-0393. Business hours are 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.
All the millions of tax payers dollars that were spent to enhance private development projects with the construction of The Riverwalk, including a walking bridge, and no one thought of providing for the clean up of one of the most disgustingly filthy creeks in the state? I admire the people who have offered to clean up the creek, and make it look more aesthetically becoming. But, the developers who stand to benifit, and the city which spent tax payers money to make a becoming walk way along the river, really should have thought of cleaning up the creek as a part of the project.
What’s more, it’s obvious, in looking at the creek that it is being perpetually polluted, and the long term care needs to be considered. It seems to me the businesses, and the devleopers who have benifited disproportionally from the construction project, and the businesses and home owners along the creek up stream as well, should bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility for cleaning it up.