McHenry County Blog

Saturday night in Spring Grove, a banquet was held to raise money to buy an ultrasound machine for 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services.

In the fight against abortion, ultrasound images of unborn babies have been found to be the most persuasive tool.

A speaker pointed out that 80-85% of mothers decide to carry their babies to term after seeing its ultrasound image.

Even more astounding is the claim that 99% of men will encourage their mates to have their baby after seeing such an image.

And the machine’s importance was emphasized on the front page of the Chicago Tribune today.

In the Elgin area, an ultrasound machine has been installed in a bus by now-retired Dr. Ronald Winters.

A component of Elgin’s Life Center, the bus is parked, with permission, near Larkin High School at the Evangelical Covenant Church and J.B.’s Pub 7 Pietro’s Pasta.

Now the city has enacted a zoning ordinance which prohibits the weekly efforts.

The Pro-life organization has sued in Federal Court, claiming violation of of First Amendment free speech and religious rights.

Councilwoman Anna Moeller seems to be most disturbed with the anti-abortion efforts.

But back to Spring Grove.

The “full cost” of the Samsung machine is $75,000 that First Way wants to put in its office in Johnsburg near and south of Angelo’s Grocery.

This is an openly Christian outreach organization.

As originator and Executive Director Connie Freund said, “I couldn’t have done this without God, without Jesus in my life.”

There are 67 people who volunteer their time in the organization that was founded in 1973, the year Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton (the “health of the mother,” very loosely defined, case) was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaker for the evening was Jill Stanek.

Stanek is the nurse who blew the whistle on Christ Hospital’s practice of allowing unsuccessfully aborted babies to die without offering medical care.  The instance that set her on her over decade-long mission was one in which a baby was left to die in a janitor’s closet.  She held the tiny infant for the forty-five minutes it took to die.

Part of her presentation was an interview with Bill O’Reilly that twice left O’Reilly speechless.  (It was one of five interviews used that year in the end-of-year wrap-up of the show.)

At the end of the interview, O’Reilly tells the names of the people who voted against the Federal statute that required hospitals to provide medical care.

Included in the short, under ten in number list was Jesse Jackson, Jr.

“I haven’t watched that video since Jesse Jackson was indicted,” Stanek observed.

“All I can say is ‘What goes around comes around.’”

Stanek described abortion as “the most despicable moral atrocity of our generation.”

She lamented the one billion abortions, “one-seventh of the world’s population,” adding, “No one who waits for God will ever be put to shame.”

And although Stanek cautioned those present at The Shores of Turtle Creek banquet hall not to depend on politicians, she did observe, “While the other side continues to abort their babies, [ours]continue to be born.”

She suggested Pro-Lifers could “win the war by attrition.”

Making part of the pitch for donations at the event, whose entire cost had already been covered by sponsors, Stanek pointed out, “We are the hands and feet…and pocketbooks” of Jesus.

She urged people attending not to leave thinking, “I missed my chance.”

The dinner was underwritten by

• Pat Griffin
• Luster Leaf Products
• Right to Life McHenry County Education Fund
• Bert and Joan Schommer
• Sports Decals, Inc.
• TW Machine Service – Tom Wiznerowicz

Table sponsors included

• David F. Bengston
• Berger Excavating
• Len and JoAnn Charlan
• Merle and Connie Freund
• ITW Foundation – Rich and Sue Podloski
• James and Kathleen Morrow
• Irene Napier
• Patriots United – Joe Edwards
• Patriots United – Brian Kelly
• Rabine Group Foundation – Gary and Cheryl Rabine
• Greg Steil
• Russell R. Steil
• In hone of Alice and Jerry Sullivan
• Joahn Vickery

$41,000 was raised.

When we went west two years ago, I insisted we at least drive by the Corn Palace.

My family had toured it over 50 years ago and it certainly was worth a look.

I had just done a year or two before before when I went with Penny Pullen to a Pro-Life referendum committee meeting at Chamberlain.

Neither time did we go inside.

Time was the factor earlier this decade.  So we just did a drive-by in Mitchell, South Dakota.

My cheapness and mid-1950′s memory of there being not much worth seeing inside was the reason during our 2009 trip.

But when I was reading the December 3, 2010, article about the Corn Palace in the Chicago Tribune, I discovered there is no entrance fee.

Attendance is down from 500,000 twenty years ago to 279,000 in 2009.

In 2010, it was up to 311,000.

So, what has the city council done?

Besides making the price right, it still has a corn museum and a gift shop, but they’re trying to make it more of a destination.

The next time we go west, it will be through S.D. and we’ll again take the highway exit from Interstate 94 at Mitchell.

And, my wife and son will go inside and look around while I take pictures, rather than their waiting for me in the car in a spot within eyesight of the Corn Palace.

And, you know I look for things political everywhere I go.

What I found in the local newspaper, the Daily Republic, was an article that, knowing George McGovern was born in Mitchell, North Dakota, might make perfect sense.

Good Samaritan Becky Handrahan was giving rides to people the way FISH of Crystal Lake did back in the 1970′s.

She was accepting tips to help pay for the gas.

The Mitchell City Council decided she needed a license like a taxi.

Read it for  yourself.

If it moves, regulate it, I guess.  Then, tax it.

There’s nothing wrong with Northwest Herald reporter Kevin Craver’s front page article about Metra’s board voting to purchase McHenry County Board Chairman’s property in Ridgefield.

It contains much of the same information in these McHenry County Blog articles (listed in reverse order of publication):

Friday, 8-14-9 Metra Votes to Purchase Ridgefield Station Site

Friday, 8-14-9 Craig Steagall Unleashes Broadside Against McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler over Metra State Land Purchase

Friday, 8-14-9 Metra Scheduled to Approve Former Flowerwood Land for Station in Ridgefield This Morning

Thursday, 8-13-9 $1.5 Million Being Paid for Ridgefield Metra Site Half-Owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler

Thursday, 8-13-9 Metra Transparency Worse than McHenry County College’s

Wednesday, 8-12-9 Ridgefield Businessman Takes on McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler over Proposed Metra Station

Friday, 8-7-9 Musings on the Proposed Ridgefield Metra Station

Wednesday, 8-5-9 Alexander Lumber’s Move to Ridgefield, Proposed Metra Station Implications

But the headline writer might make people think that Metra is “tentative” about the deal.

That appointed board is not.

If the City of Crystal Lake annexes the land and agrees to manage the parking lot, it’s a done deal.

There may be a real fight on the Crystal Lake Zoning and Planning Board and the Crystal Lake City Council, but that will probably be over whether the site makes sense from a regional planning perspective.

That is a very real question, in my opinion.

Is this the first step into turning Country Club Road north toward McConnell Road into a commercial and industrial strip?

Will Crystal Lake annex all of Downtown Ridgefield?

Will the city council decide that there is more sales tax revenue in a Walgreens or CVS than the antique shops on the triangular shaped land on the north side of the narrow part of Country Club Road that runs through Ridgefield?

Hey, the road has to be widened anyway,

That means the antique shops have to be demolished anyway, right?

Will the city use condemnation powers to take the land, as Cicero, Chicago and other cities have done in the name of economic development, or will a retail establishment agree to pay enough for the land that the present owners will willingly sell and, in return for appropriate zoning, “donate” sufficient right-of-way for a widened road?

Think massive development of that area isn’t being contemplated?

Then, consider this viewpoint, found in Marna Pyke’s Daily Herald article, by former Lake County Board Chairman, now a Metra board member, at Friday’s meeting:

“Metra Director Jim LaBelle, who represents Lake County, said he regretted there were no plans for housing next to the train station.

“‘It looks like a parking lot in the middle of the country,’ he said.”

As with the McHenry County College stadium fight, residents near the proposed Metra stop won’t carry much weight in City of Crystal Lake deliberations because they live outside the city limits. And considering the city’s unwillingness to annex the Crystal Lake Manor, which it complete surrounds, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for city officials to become interested in making current Ridgefield residents taxpaying citizens. (And, there wouldn’t be any advantage to the Ridgefield residents anyway, because there is no water and/or sewer required by the commuter parking lot.)

One argument those living outside of Crystal Lake might be able to develop is the same one used by stadium opponents–the covering of Crystal Lake’s watershed with a big asphalt parking lot.

757 parking spaces covered with an impermeable surface might move those interested in the health of the lake to action again.

And, since the biggest potential beneficiary is McHenry County College, a coalition might be built that contains both supporters and opponents of the college’s minor league baseball stadium.

Surely a station on the college’s (west) side of the railroad tracks would be more convenient and safer for students who might use the train to get to classes.

No one really knows how much use college students might make of such service. But planning for future growth at the college campus, which now is right across Ridgefield Road from the train tracks should receive serious consideration.

College officials I talked to knew of no contact about the suitability of the location from Metra since the parking lot site was selected January 5, 2009.

One told me she first learned of Metra’s selection “from reading the paper.”

The NW Herald article is posted as going up on its web site Tuesday, August 4th. I think it was printed on Wednesday, however.

So, a major question exists about why Metra kept it a secret from the public for seven months.

Why were there no public hearings on such a growth generator?

Why was this deal rushed through?

Why does the contract have a clause saying,

How complete absurd, unless there is more than meets the eye.

Why is Metra paying so much more than the $67,000 an acre McHenry County College paid just last year for 57 acres down the road?

MCC negotiated its contract on the Gilger property at the top of the real estate boom.

Now McHenry County is in the canyon of the market.

Metra will not win the transparency award for 2009.

The paperwork given Metra board members indicates that Crystal Lake officials were in the know earlier than the public.

No change of policy there.

Remember the college stadium time line?

No knowledge of it appeared in the NW Herald until the day after McHenry County Blog broke the story. Then, Mayor Aaron Shepley filled the paper’s front page with its praise.

There will also have to be vote of the McHenry County Board, but it’s about money spent for roads when 84 Lumber was built after approval by the county board.

Without a favorable vote, the deal, as approved by Metra’s board, will not go through.
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You see Devil’s Mound above on the left.

The canyon is in Idaho near Balanced Rock.

At the bottom is Balanced Rock. You can see a boy who has climbed up to it. This story reminds me of the apprehension that some might have that the rock might fall on them…or on us taxpayers.