McHenry County Blog

A press release from Congressman Don Manzullo:

Crystal Lake Central H.S. Student Appointed to U.S. Naval Academy

Bronwyn Harper

[CRYSTAL LAKE] Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced that Bronwyn Anne Harper of Crystal Lake, Illinois, has received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

Bronwyn will graduate from Crystal Lake Central High School in 2013.  At Central, Bronwyn is a member of

• the National Honor Society,
• the Student Council,
• the school newspaper, and
• the math team.

She is also a Senior Mentor and a member of the McHenry County Youth Orchestra.

In addition, Bronwyn is a member of the Varsity Cross Country and Track teams. She competed at conference and regional meets each year from 2009 to 2012 and she competed at sectional and state meets from 2009 to 2010 and 2012.

Bronwyn is the daughter of Frank and Priscilla Harper of Crystal Lake.

Huntley High School

Sitting in a doctor’s office, I picked up the Monday Northwest Herald and read the profile of Michael Gyetvan.

Reporter Di Benedetto selected Gyetvan because of the extraordinary number of hours of college credit he has earned since graduating from Huntley High School.

What caught my attention, however, was that he was considered a troublemaker in high school.

Read why:

Di Benedetto: Did you get in trouble while in high school? Where did that label come from?

Gyetvan: I actually went to the library, and they didn’t allow that. That was the best way for me to study, and they won’t let you go during an advisory period. I kept going, and they kept calling my parents, so they were actually distracting me from learning and studying. I wanted to show them that I was not the problem.

This reminds me of a first impression when I got to Oberlin College in the fall of 1960.

I realized students really wanted to learn.

How different from Crystal Lake Community High School, I thought.

When I was over  at my state legislators’ offices Wednesday, I was complaining passionately about the way the Crystal lake City Council wasted money on changing the streetscape of part Route 14.

That’s a term I first ran into in Algonquin.  Some planner used it.

The Virgina Street Tax Increment Financing District was explained at a Crystal Lake Kiwanis meeting before it was passed, but I missed the meeting.

Wish I hadn’t.

I might have picked up some advance notice of the profligate spending the new TIF District would bring.

I have previously published examples of waste on Route 14.

I showed you the old and the new “decorative” street lights.

Pam Althoff pointed me to a thrid monument to the Crystal Lake City Council near the Crystal Lake Motel.

Before they were uniform.

Now there’s a mishmash.

The City Council folks won’t stand for that, I surmised.  They will take more commercial property off the tax rolls of the school, park, Conservation, township, junior college and county tax districts.  They’ll form another TIF and borrow money to make the area from Pizza Hut to the Vulcan Lake TIF look “pretty,” too.

Then, I saw the cemetery monument on Virginia Street near the Pizza Hut.

But that wasn’t all.

I found another one at the northern end of the TIF District, across from Kwik Kopy.

While complaining how I, a resident of Lakewood and Althoff, a resident of McHenry, and everyone else in McHenry County would be forced to pay for Crystal Lake extravagant spending, she told me there were more than two pillars.

“What!?” I exclaimed, inquired.

She said there was another one just down the street from her office.

When I drove home, I saw it, right before the Crystal Lake Motel.

I can’t help but wonder what they cost.

There other similar monuments in Crystal Lake.

They are in front of Crystal Lake Central High School.

The Class of 1924 gave twin pillars in front of Crystal Lake Community High School.

They, however, were not financed with tax dollars over a 23-year period.

The CLCHS Class of 1924 paid for them.

They were a graduation gift to the Crystal Lake Community High School.

My first integrated school was Middletown High School in New York state.

My father had moved the Chinchilla Breeders and Marketers Association from Salt Lake City when he convinced the members that they had to sell fur from the soft little animals and, to do so, it would be useful to be near the fur market in New York City.

Middletown was about as far from NYC as Crystal Lake is from Chicago, but the rail service on what he called the Erie and Lackadasical Railroad was abysmal.  It took about an hour and a half to go the 50 miles.

The Middletown High School I attended from 1956-58 had morphed into Twin Towers Junior High. I did notice that my Class of 1960 had planted a granite stone at the base of the flag pole.

Entering my freshman year at the high school with no acquaintances except Boy Scouts from my Methodist Church troop, I ended up sitting with those not in a clique.

One was (I guess I would have called him) a “Negro” in 1956.  We hit it off enough that I invited him to come over to our home.

When we moved to Crystal Lake in 1958, again there were no blacks.

No minorities I can remember at Crystal Lake Community High School.

After getting elected to student council in the spring of 1959, I was put in a gym class with seniors because student council met when juniors had gym.

There was one conversation I remember in which two seniors were talking about what would happen when the first black kid entered Crystal Lake Community High School.  He used the “N” word and it had something to do with being locked in a gym locker.

The college I attended was Oberlin in Ohio.  The school brags about being the first to admit women and blacks.

While I was there from 1960-64, black students were just like anyone else.

I noticed a startling change when I returned from the University of Michigan to Oberlin for Homecoming that fall.

Blacks were all sitting at the same table in the Rathskeller.

They were not the spring before.

A step backwards from my viewpoint.

The campus was fully integrated when I graduated.  It seems to have gone in the other direction after that  summer of “Black Power.”

And that brings me back to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

One of the demonstrations during mid-year 1964 was just south of Talbot County in Cambridge, Maryland, in Dorchester County across the Choptank River.  H. Rap Brown got arrested there and, even in the midst of non-stop studying, I noticed.

I also noticed that the resistance to integration did not occur in my home county to the north. That pleased me.

While my mother’s family owned land, my father’s did not.

Roy Skinner was a carpenter and handyman of many skills, if his tools (including a cove molding device) in the basement are any indication, but often a farmer.

One of the family’s tenant farms (in high school) was next to my mother’s.

The closest high school to the family farm was in Sudlersville, where both my mother and father attended high school.

When my father was undergoing lung cancer treatment in Washington, we drove over to the Eastern Shore.

Somewhere on White Marsh Road my father saw a lynching in the late 1020's.

As we went past one road at a bend in the highway between Centerville and Church Hill with a run down building that appeared to have been a store on the west side of the intersection, Dad told me he used to live down it.  Is is south of Clanahan Shop (I think) Road.  Dad said he knew Mr. Clanahan for whom it was named after.

I see from the map that it is called White Marsh Road.

He told of walking down the dirt road with his father.  I gathered he was over ten but not in high school yet.  That would have put it in the late 1920′s, since he was born in 1916.

“What’s that?” he asked, as he saw a crowd of men up ahead.

“Don’t look at them.  Just keep on walking,” his father said.

It was a lynching.

The road on which my father lived had both whites and blacks.

When I contacted Maryland state officials they said no lynchings had taken place in Maryland since 1900.  I suggested that a lynching in Queen Anne’s County in the late 1920′s would not have made the  Queen Anne’s County Record.

It’s not exactly something the powers-that-be would want recorded.

But my father had died, so I couldn’t produce the eye witness and the lynching trackers in Maryland apparently didn’t believe me.

More tomorrow.

A press release from the Crystal Lake Police Department:

Crystal Lake Cental High School

“On Thursday, March 3rd, 2011, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Central High School Officials were notified of a stabbing that occurred within the school.

“At that time a sixteen year old male student reported that he had been stabbed in the right shoulder by another student with a pair of metal scissors.

“The victim further indicated that this incident occurred during a Science class and that it was witnessed by other students within the classroom.

“The subsequent investigation revealed that several witnesses observed the incident and confirmed the victim’s story.

“Witnesses identified the alleged offender by name, who was also a sixteen year old male student.

“Immediately following the incident the student reported to the school nurse and was treated for a small puncture wound to his back.

“The injury did not require him to be transported to a medical facility at that time and the student was released to a parent.

“With the incident coming to the attention of school officials and police at the end of the school day, the investigation continued to Friday (March 4th, 2011).

“The case was reviewed by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office who authorized one count of Aggravated Battery (Class 3 Felony).

“In the early afternoon this date police went to the Lakewood home of the alleged offender. Once the offender realized that police were at his residence, he fled on foot which initiated a foot pursuit with police. He was subsequently taken into custody without incident.

“The Juvenile was arrested and is being detained at the Kane County Juvenile Detention Center until he can appear before a Juvenile Judge on Monday, March 7th, 2010 @ 9:00 a.m. at the McHenry County Court House.”

The Prairie Ridge High School cafeteria was filled with Pack 158 Cub Scouts this Sunday. They could eat anything they wanted and no one would know.

The last time I was in a high school cafeteria was when the Cub Scouts were having their annual Blue and Gold Awards Ceremonies.

Before that, it was either the time when

• there was a District 155 candidates’ night after which the superintendent said, “Why didn’t you come to speak to me about running?” or
• at the meeting my father called that led to the formation of McHenry County College.

But it’s time to visit District 155 cafeterias again.

Somethings happening that you might find of interest.

Let me first remind you of First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to get kids to eat more vegetables and less food that turns into fat.

Maybe that has something to do with this and maybe it doesn’t.

District 155 is tracking what kids eat for lunch.  Staff, too.

For those who pay for their lunch with money on a student identification card, not only the amount subtracted is recorded, but what they have purchased is saved in a computerized fashion.

What about those who pay with real money?

Their food purchases will also be tracked, because the student ID card must be scanned in order to buy lunch.

Eventually, District 155 will allow parents to find out what their teens are chowing down on.

District 155′s Jeff Puma explained the program:

The information you’re looking for is related to the new point-of-sale system, which is currently being implemented at our schools. This will allow parents to load money onto student IDs rather than sending cash with their children. This is a more secure option for our families because we can cancel an ID card and recover unused funds, but it is unlikely that cash would be returned if it is lost.

With regard to your specific questions, the system does record what is purchased by all individuals–students, staff, and guests. First and foremost, this allows the cafeteria staff to monitor inventory in order to optimize the purchasing process. It also allows the user–and in the case of a student, his/her parents–to budget more effectively by tracking purchases, if they choose to do so.

He also pointed me to what District 155 has on its web site about the change:

District 155 Introduces Point-of-Sale Lunch Purchases

System To Allow Cafeteria Purchases With Student IDs
District 155 will begin a point-of-sale payment system in the coming weeks. The system will allow students to use their student identification cards to purchase meals in school cafeterias without the need for cash. Parents will have the option to add credit onto the ID cards using the district’s Family Access website or by bringing cash or a check to the school’s designated account replenish area.

Point-of-sale purchases will be available in September once system testing is complete. At that time, parents will be able to add money to student accounts using Family Access. A tutorial and detailed instructions will be available through this website at that time.

Advantages of the point-of-sale system include:

• Allows parents to see their student’s lunch purchases.
• All account information can be viewed and managed through Family Access.
• Provides a secure alternative to cash:
  • Student’s ID will work like a debit card.
  • Reduces the need to send cash with your student each day.
  • If a student loses his/her ID, the fund balance will be transferred to a new card.
• Auto-replenish option allows for automatic reloading when your child’s balance becomes low.
• Streamlines free and reduced lunch application process.

Spring at Crystal Lake Central High School

I remember how old my parents were when they went to their 50th class reunion at Sudlersville High School on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

They were dressed up. I remember that from the pictures I can’t find.

So, this is the year of my 50th year reunion at Crystal Lake Community High School (now Crystal Lake Central High School).

I remember walking the halls when I was there being impressed with all the class photos. When I went back after returning from Oberlin College and the University of Michigan, I couldn’t find one for the Class of 1960. They seemed to stop right when I had graduated.

So, I inquired of District 155 Public Information Officer Jeff Puma. Here is his reply,

“I went over to Central to check into this for you. The school has original class pictures from 1928-1958 and from 1991-present. My understanding is that the class pictures between 1959-1990 were either stolen, ruined while in storage or not created depending on the year.

“Several classes have recreated their class picture as part of their reunions. This includes the classes of 1959, 1963, 1974 and 1975. These classes had the individual pictures of senior class members professionally scanned from the yearbook and then placed on a poster. If you are interested in doing something like this with your classmates, I can try to put you in touch with one of the other classes that did this for details of what company they used to create the hi-res scans. We can also provide the uniform dimensions and other information regarding the creation of the poster and frame.”

I’m hoping that my class will follow the example of our classmates from the Class of 1959.

When my Crystal Lake Community High School Class of 1960 held its tenth reunion, I was on the committee. We put together a questionnaire and one question this then-late twenty-something guy came up with was

“What do you want on your tombstone?”

Now, with classmates of this 67-year old dying, it doesn’t seem so amusing, but you know how young people think they are immortal.

My line was

“The Taxman Cometh.”

I was McHenry County Treasurer at the time.

Today, the Taxman came(th).

Property tax bills arrived in the mailbox from McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew.

Thanks to a property tax appeal by attorney Jim Bishop (you’ll see his ad to the left every once in a while), our real estate bill decreased from $8,831.72 to $7,642.80, a 13 1/2% cut.

The bill offers a dollar comparison, but, unfortunately, there is no rate comparison.

Click to enlarge either part of the tax bill shown.

OK. so why bother you with how much we are going to save this year?

The reason is so you can protect yourself next year.

Those of use who got lower real estate assessments in 2009 than we had in 2008 (remember, the tax cycle is always one year behind) got a lower tax bill.

If you aren’t one of the people who did not appeal and get a lower real estate assessments, it means you will pay a higher percentage of the total tax bill than last year.

Those who got reductions will pay a smaller percentage.

So, to protect yourself next year, you need to appeal your real estate tax assessment. You can do it yourself—just find 3-5 properties that are worth what yours is, but are assessed lower, fill out the form, submit it and argue it before the McHenry County Board of Review—or you can hire an attorney like Jim Bishop at 815-455-0244.

was the headline in the Daily Herald October 27, 2008.

The story reported on a Lake Barrington field house that–at 175,000 square feet–would be the largest in the state.

Trivia question:

When the Crystal Lake Community High School Field House was completed, where was the only one larger in Illinois located? (See bottom of article for the answer.)

The article said that Tom Laue of Barrington “spearheaded the complex’s development.”

Pretty much name your sport. Except for bowling, if it has a ball, there’s an indoor space to play it at the Lake Barrington Field House. There’s also a walking track and meeting/party rooms.

There’s one interesting line on the front page of its web site:

 More information can be obtained from the Fox News story, which you can link to from the Field House web site, and this one from NBC.

= = = = =
The answer to the trivia question is the University of Illinois.