Main Street will be closed on Tuesday December 20th from 7 am to 3 pm from Sherman Street to IL 176.
The area affected.
The roadways will be closed due to the continuing water main installation along IL 176.
Both of these closures are pending any significant weather event which would delay the contractor from working.
The following press release has been emailed by the Crystal Lake Police Department:
Police Department Response during snowstorm
During the existing snow event, the Crystal Lake Police Department as well as all City staff will be exceptionally busy.
Calls for service as always will be prioritized, with emergency situations receiving first attention.
Non-emergency matters will be handled as officers and staff members are available.
To assist in ensuring the safety of citizens, and emergency responders, the Crystal Lake Police Department encourages residents to refrain from operating motor vehicles during the active snow storm, unless it is imperative to travel.
Clearing the edge of Congress Parkway near the Post Office.
The Department has activated an Emergency Traffic Crash Reporting Plan.
While the plan is in effect, motorists involved in non-injury traffic crashes occurring within the City, in which vehicles are drivable, should exchange all pertinent information with the operator of the other vehicle, to include;
Again, this is for non-injury crashes when both vehicles are drivable. Drivers are asked to then respond to Crystal Lake Police Headquarters at 100 W. Woodstock Street for the purpose of filing the report, within 48 hours of the crash.
If there is an injury involved or at least one vehicle is not able to be driven from the scene, please contact 9-1-1 for emergency personnel to respond.
If a driver should be involved in a crash involving private property (such as mailboxes, small trees, fences etc), or an unattended motor vehicle, you are required by law to leave your information for the property owner. The emergency plan does not exempt you from this responsibility.
The resolution that Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield initiated at the election night meeting two weeks ago was passed unanimously Tuesday night.
The most startling information that I discovered listening to the discussion on the matter was Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller’s revelation that county staffers did not realize that the watershed of Crystal Lake extends beyond the city boundaries.
Mayor Aaron Shepley verbalized that opponents of the watershed ordinance’s requirements “may disagree with the parameters of the boundaries of the watershed” being based on the drilling of “four wells.”
City Director of Public Works commented Eric Lecuyer said, ”I think the boundaries are clear with regard to the watershed.”
WATER is what the warning sign said Monday on Crystal Lake’s College Street near Uteg.
Saturday the corner was flooded at 7:30 AM.
Impassible at 9.
This is the corner that the Crystal Lake Public Works Department spent a lot of effort to prevent regular flooding.
That flooding was right where you see the United Parcel Truck above.
I don’t know when the sign went up, but it wasn’t needed yesterday.
You can see above what it looked like at College and Uteg this morning at 7:30.
This is the intersection that the Crystal Lake Public Works Department spent a lot of time trying to fix in 2008. Here you see city employees scoping out the problem.
I took some photos of the construction project, but didn’t get around to posting them.
When Pete Castillo and I got back from our Emmaus Reunion Group at Andy’s Family Restaurant,at 9 o’clock, the water at the intersection was so deep that I turned around in the middle of College to avoid the flooding.
Pete, who has some experience laying sewer pipe, thought that the new drainage pipe was too small.
The flooding does not seem to have been appreciably improved.
Here is a street where the sewer pipe is large enough to solve what was a chronic flooding problem. It is Lake Avenue near Country Club Drive next to the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach.
As we were about to leave for Knox Pool for McHenry Marlin Swim Team practice, our electricity went out.
No problem shortly before 1 AM when the tornado warning siren blared, but no lights at 7:30 AM with very little wind.
Go figure.
We saw lots of limbs down on South Shore Drive in Lakewood. Up to three inchers, I would estimate.
Two blocks away on Broadway Street, this tent had been blown down one door east of the creek.
As we drove down Dole Avenue, WBBM Radio reported that Route 176 was closed near Walkup. Of course, we were taking Walkup.
Fortunately, the Walkup part of the intersection was open, but the lanes east were not.
My trusty assistant photographer could not get the long lens to focus, so we can’t show you anything at 7:40 AM, but the view from the Williams intersection as we were returning to Crystal Lake about 9:30. I can’t tell whether both lanes were still closed or not.
As we drove back from McHenry on Route 31, Com Ed crews were fixing a downed power line at the bottom of the Terra Cotta valley, near the Fountains.
Trying to work our way over to Walkup to see what had happened (without parking and making through traffic more difficult) we saw downed tree limbs pretty much everywhere. The one you see is on the train track side of Gates Street.
Here’s a shot of 176 that I got down a side street.
Look at the size of the limbs that had been sawed up ready for pick up by the Crystal Lake Public Works Department. These are easily 6-inch limbs, maybe bigger.
How bad the situation on Route 176 was may be hinted at by this semi-truck load of new electric poles.
Caroline Street, whose northern end runs into the City Hall parking lot, was closed.
Center Street, the one just south of Woodstock Street, wasn’t. I got this photo of the other side of the northernly most block of Caroline Street from the Center Street intersection. Both sides of Caroline were closed.
I turned south on Elmhurst, a short street on which I twice lived. At the home where my sister Janet’s Crystal Lake Community High School Class of 1962 classmate Donna Larson lived in 1958, a crew was cleaning up storm damage.
At West Crystal Lake Avenue and Elmhurst, a city truck was filled with limbs.
We next headed to the neighborhood hit by the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado. As we approached Keith Avenue, one of the worst areas for damage 43 years ago, we saw this up rooted tree close to where Keith ends at Union Street.
My son said the picture showing the roots of the downed tree was the best of the three I took. I think this one shows the size of the tree better.
Let’s end this story with a more peaceful story.
Here’s a photo of Cress Creek. Or, is it Crystal Creek? Anyway, it’s the one that drains Crystal Lake. Note the height of the grass growing in the stream.
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
As we were about to leave for Knox Pool for McHenry Marlin Swim Team practice, our electricity went out.
No problem shortly before 1 AM when the tornado warning siren blared, but no lights at 7:30 AM with very little wind.
Go figure.
We saw lots of limbs down on South Shore Drive in Lakewood. Up to three inchers, I would estimate.
Two blocks away on Broadway Street, this tent had been blown down one door east of the creek.
As we drove down Dole Avenue, WBBM Radio reported that Route 176 was closed near Walkup. Of course, we were taking Walkup.
Fortunately, the Walkup part of the intersection was open, but the lanes east were not.
My trusty assistant photographer could not get the long lens to focus, so we can’t show you anything at 7:40 AM, but the view from the Williams intersection as we were returning to Crystal Lake about 9:30. I can’t tell whether both lanes were still closed or not.
As we drove back from McHenry on Route 31, Com Ed crews were fixing a downed power line at the bottom of the Terra Cotta valley, near the Fountains.
Trying to work our way over to Walkup to see what had happened (without parking and making through traffic more difficult) we saw downed tree limbs pretty much everywhere. The one you see is on the train track side of Gates Street.
Here’s a shot of 176 that I got down a side street.
Look at the size of the limbs that had been sawed up ready for pick up by the Crystal Lake Public Works Department. These are easily 6-inch limbs, maybe bigger.
How bad the situation on Route 176 was may be hinted at by this semi-truck load of new electric poles.
Caroline Street, whose northern end runs into the City Hall parking lot, was closed.
Center Street, the one just south of Woodstock Street, wasn’t. I got this photo of the other side of the northernly most block of Caroline Street from the Center Street intersection. Both sides of Caroline were closed.
I turned south on Elmhurst, a short street on which I twice lived. At the home where my sister Janet’s Crystal Lake Community High School Class of 1962 classmate Donna Larson lived in 1958, a crew was cleaning up storm damage.
At West Crystal Lake Avenue and Elmhurst, a city truck was filled with limbs.
We next headed to the neighborhood hit by the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado. As we approached Keith Avenue, one of the worst areas for damage 43 years ago, we saw this up rooted tree close to where Keith ends at Union Street.
My son said the picture showing the roots of the downed tree was the best of the three I took. I think this one shows the size of the tree better.
Let’s end this story with a more peaceful story.
Here’s a photo of Cress Creek. Or, is it Crystal Creek? Anyway, it’s the one that drains Crystal Lake. Note the height of the grass growing in the stream.
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Not squirting at my son protected by a car window this time.
Right in your face.
And, in my car, had I driven just a bit closer.
You’ve seen the
signs, if you have driven around Crystal Lake recently.
But, do you know why the city public works department flushes them?
Take a look at the color of the water right after the flushing begins in the picture on the left.
All you probably see while flushing is occurring is the white water on the right after the rust or whatever is already in the street.
Quite a bit of gunk apparently gets flushed out of the water supply system.
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. These were taken near Auto Zone in front of Joseph’s Market Place.
Not squirting at my son protected by a car window this time.
Right in your face.
And, in my car, had I driven just a bit closer.
You’ve seen the
signs, if you have driven around Crystal Lake recently.
But, do you know why the city public works department flushes them?
Take a look at the color of the water right after the flushing begins in the picture on the left.
All you probably see while flushing is occurring is the white water on the right after the rust or whatever is already in the street.
Quite a bit of gunk apparently gets flushed out of the water supply system.
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. These were taken near Auto Zone in front of Joseph’s Market Place.
The water in and around Crystal Lake is not as high as it was in the third week of August last year, but it is getting pretty high.
The one pier I could find, Dick Vogelman’s at Lakewood’s Gate 7, was not quite under water.
“Water on the Pavement” signs are up on North Shore Drive.
This one is also in front of the last house before entering Lakewood from the west on North Avenue, right in front of the Lakewood Village Hall.
The water on North Shore Drive, covers only the edges in a couple of places, not the whole road like last year.
There is now a permanent road from the North Shore to Woodland Drive.
It is blocked by a gate, but, if the need arises, traffic can flow like it did last year.
Last year, it looked like this.
And permanent pipes have been put under the road and a pretty wide ditch dug. In the picture above, North Shore Drive is in the background.
From the mud I picked up on my shoes while walking along side to the lake, I’d say it was only recently completed.
It certainly is more substantial, especially wider, than the ditch dug rapidly last year by Crystal Lake Public Works Department employees, quickly supplemented by hoses with pumps, but the drop from North Shore Drive still is very slight.
Run-off will not be gushing into Crystal Lake.
You can be sure of that.
There seems to be more of an effort this year filter out particulates.
You can see how the hose emptied right into Crystal Lake last year.
I did not see any flooding on Broadway last night.
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Compare the last one, which shows how flood water entered Crystal Lake last August, with the two above. The one right above the spewing hose shows the ditch right before the water enters the lake. Above it is a picture looking down at the filtering barrier at the lake’s edge. The lake is on the right.
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