McHenry County Blog

David Bachmann writes the blog entitled “Dirty Harry vs. Dirty Keith” strays from his criticism of McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren today.

He lives in Galena Territory and has a handy camera to take photos of those visiting the place…at least of their cars.

A lot of influential types from the Chicago area make the trip.

One of the NIU cars found at Eagle Ridge Resort.

The day news was breaking about the discovery of a girl’s body in a wooden area next to campus, two NIU cars were at the resort called the Eagle Ridge Inn.

Co-ed Antinette “Toni” Keller disappeared last week, sending chills up and down the spines of the university student parents. Just in is news that the burned body found is hers.

Upon examination, he found “there was a full blown ‘Luncheon’ going on for the University Types.”

A second story publishes the first photos of a Galena Territory home that was torched, killing the couple inside.  James and Margaret Marnowski died in the fire.  Little progress seems to have been made in solving the crime.

I guess I should mention that those following the Sheriff’s race also read Zane Seipler’s blog “McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Exposed.” That blog will disappear as soon as Nygren decides to rehire Seipler, because it is against standing orders for deputies to to opine.

Seipler won that from an arbitrator, which was upheld by a Circuit Court Judge. Nygren is now deciding whether to appeal that loss to the Appellate Court. Zeipler reports today that the deadline in October 28th, five days before the election.

Third party candidates in American politics are famous for injecting new ideas into the governmental arena. They usually don’t get elected, but the power party candidates pick up on them and sometimes they get enacted.

Former McHenry County College Board President Scott Summers is suggesting the aging of Illinois suggests it is time to “moth ball” universities or parts of them.

He is not so crass as to make the suggestion that I would, that is, the primary purpose of most public institutions is to provide jobs, but he’s skating close to that assertion.

The following blog post by the Libertarian Party candidate for State Treasurer stimulated the Daily Herald’s story to write a story yesterday on Summer’s suggestion that it is time to close two law schools.

Summers graduated from one of the law schools he wants to close.

These are dark days for governance in Illinois.

Shrinking revenues.  Monster deficits.  Mountains of unpaid bills.    Political paralysis.

But even in these difficult times, we must pull together and plan for our future.

For perhaps the first time since the Great Depression, we face a period of contraction — not expansion — in public services.

We must be courageous enough — and shrewd enough — to plan accordingly for our state’s governance.

Apart from our dire finances — let’s begin by considering Illinois demographics with the broadest of brushstrokes.

Our statewide population is creeping up, but not by much.

Were it not for immigration, we’d be a net outflow state.

We’re also steadily graying: young adults in particular seem to be moving away.

Accordingly, consider — as the tiniest of sketches — higher education.

Scott Summers

If the population of traditionally college-aged young people is static or even seems likely to shrink — then can we really afford all of our public universities going forward?

In other words — has the time come to (gasp!) slim down or even (gasp! gag!) mothball one or more of our universities?

There’s a subset to this, too.

Can we continue to afford some of the programs our universities offer?

For example, we have three public law schools

• University of Illinois (U of I),
• Southern Illinois University (SIU), and
• Northern Illinois University (NIU).

And we have a glut of unemployed lawyers.

Has the time finally come to slim down to just U of I for public law?

(Full disclosure: I’m an NIU law graduate. And I remain very grateful for the tip-top legal education I received there. Personally, I’d hate to see the place close. But I’m counting beans today, not wallowing in sentiment.)

Ditto medical schools.

• U of I has four campuses and additional satellites.
• SIU has two campuses.

They do wonderful work.

They are cherished assets of their host communities. But — but — but — can we afford them all?

So how do we make these horribly difficult — and, I freely admit, politically dead-on-arrival (at least for the present) — public policy choices?

We have to develop assessment and implementation mechanisms where we carefully evaluate our public needs — and then collectively/figuratively hold hands and jump.

Remember the military base closure commissions?

The Pentagon has gone through several iterations with these.

The blue ribbon types come in and do the meticulous analysis, and then Congress goes with a straight up-or-down vote on a recommended list.

There is anguish,
there is pain,
there is inequity,
there is dysfunction,
there is dislocation,
there is wailing,
there is gnashing of teeth —
but the bases get closed in stages, and life goes on.

So back to the higher ed example.

The General Assembly establishes something akin to a base closure commission.

There’s analysis. There are hearings. A set of recommendations is presented. And ideally (ideally!) the members of the General Assembly hold hands and jump — excruciatingly painful as that surely will be.

I could go on with other examples — but you get my drift.

Yes, the time has come. Call it — “Rightsizing Illinois”.

Our political leaders — and yes, we Illinoisans — need to team up and get it done.

Governor Pat Quinn addressing the Illinois General Assembly on his budget.

One of the cuts made by Governor Pat Quinn was $15.7 million for a so-called “Hold Harmless” provision in the State Aid to Education formula.

He get my praise because the program resulted in giving money to school districts to subsidize empty classroom seats.

If a school district can’t get less money than the year before, then when student population declines, it continues to get the same amount of money that it got before.

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

Yes, I have heard the arguments, first from officials at Northern Illinois University in the late 1970′s when enrollment was dropping.

“We still have the same number of classrooms and other fixed costs,” they argued. “That’s why we need the same amount of money.”

When enrollment increased, I pointed out, they asked for more money. After all, there were more students to educate.

But, the educators seemed oblivious to the possibility that costs would not increase for a while. After all, one could put more students into the same classrooms.  There was not immediate increase in fixed costs and not much in variable costs.

The argument led to the “Hold Harmless” approach.

It, of course, allowed tough choices to be delayed.

Complete nonsense, in my opinion, as I argued on the House floor when Democrat Julie Curry of Decatur passed the bill with suburban votes.

Here’s McHenry County College’s official take on the selection of Vicky Smith as its new president:

MCC BOARD ANNOUNCES NEW PERMANENT PRESIDENT

Vicky Smith

[July 2, 2010.Crystal Lake, IL]  At a special meeting on July 2, 2010, the McHenry County College (MCC) Board of Trustees voted to take action on finalizing the contract of a new college president. The Board approved hiring Dr. Vicky Smith as MCC’s new, permanent president for a 3-year contract and at a salary of $195,000 per year. Dr. Smith has agreed to this final salary, and the contract is in the process of being finalized.

Her most recent role has been as the president of Neosho County Community College, a two-campus, comprehensive community college in eastern Kansas.

Before going to Neosho County Community College, Dr. Smith served as the vice president for Academic Services at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, where she oversaw the Damon Center urban campus and the suburban Applied Technology Center, as well as the academic and student services operations on the main campus.

Her prior experience includes her role as president Austin Community College, a small community college in the Minnesota State Colleges and University System.

She received an Educational Specialist (Ed. Spec.) and B.S. degree from Eastern Illinois University, an M.S. from the University of Illinois, and an Ed.D. from Northern Illinois University.

Dr. Smith was one of three final presidential candidates selected by MCC’s presidential search committee, facilitated by national executive search firm, Isaacson, Miller.

Trustee Dr. Bob DeWitt has acted as the presidential search committee chair since its inception.

“We started this process in November. The committee put in many hours in order to finalize a list of strong finalists. Such an inclusive process is what led us to an impressive list of finalists. I am so pleased that after a lengthy deliberation, we chose an excellent candidate in Vicky Smith.”

Also effective at today’s meeting, the Board reorganized its leadership. Mary Miller was appointed Board Chair [replacing in mid-term George Lowe, who replaced Scott Summers in mid-term], and [newly-appointed] Dr. Bob DeWitt was appointed Vice Chair. The Board believes that this structure will allow them to work both efficiently and collaboratively with the new College President.

Upon Dr. Smith’s arrival at the College, a formal welcome reception will be scheduled. For a complete overview on Dr. Smith, please visit this web site.

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That web site provides the following information:

Dr. Vicky R. Smith is currently the President of Neosho County Community College, a two-campus, comprehensive community college in eastern Kansas. While at NCCC, she has initiated new academic programs in health care, “green” construction, computer science, and sustainable energy, as well as developed collaborative partnerships with K-12, business and industry, four-year colleges and universities, and other community colleges.

Under her leadership, NCCC has been the fastest growing community college in Kansas for the last seven years, rising from 18th out of 19th in size to 12th in size through increasing student retention, expanding on-line education, and implementing successful student support services and programs.

Before coming to Neosho County Community College, Dr. Smith served as the Vice-president for Academic Services at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY, where she oversaw the Damon Center urban campus and the suburban Applied Technology Center as well as the academic and student services operations on the main campus.

Under her leadership the enrollment grew by 17% to a total of 25,000 student headcount; the college became the leader in on-line, asynchronous learning in SUNY LearnNET with 21% or 3000 of all New York State students enrolled in the program; and a $26 million Public Safety Training Facility was constructed in partnership with the City of Rochester and the County of Monroe.

Prior to Monroe Community College, Dr. Smith was the president of a small community college in the Minnesota State Colleges and University System—Austin Community College.

While there she developed the first new degree programs the College had initiated in 10 years, oversaw the renovation of the campus and construction of a new library/LRC, computer classrooms, a Center for Student Success, fitness lab, dance studio, and general classrooms. In addition, she was instrumental in the successful merger of her institution with the adjacent technical college campus to become Riverland Community College.

Dr. Smith is passionate about community colleges and their role in changing peoples’ lives. She has devoted her career to ensuring that students are learning and that an environment is created where they can succeed at whatever they choose. Her favorite time of the year is graduation, where she has the honor of shaking the hand of each graduate as they cross the stage after receive their degree or certificate.

A native of Illinois, Dr. Smith was raised on a grain farm outside Decatur, Illinois. She received her Doctorate in Education (Ed. D.) from Northern Illinois University, her Educational Specialist (Ed. Spec.) and Bachelor in Education (BS. in Ed) degrees from Eastern Illinois University, and her Master in Science (MS) from the University of Illinois.

Nine more years of data in this third edition of “More Guns, Less Crime.”

When I read the second edition eight years ago, I was pleased that John Lott’s hypothesis of the mid-1990′s had up held.

After all, it’s just common sense that if a potential rapist thought a woman might be able to protect herself with a gun that he would be less likely to attack, being the cowards rapists are.

But the leap from common sense to policy formation sometimes takes facts.

Fortunately, this book is packed with them.

Besides showing that no state that has adopted right-to-carry legislation has seen any of the parade of horribles that opponents trot out occur, the data presented show that crime actually does decrease when people are allowed to carry firearms.

In my own state of Illinois, there was a member of the Armed Forces killed while sitting in the front row of the Northern Illinois University lecture hall when the shooter entered the stage from an outside door and started firing. Lott points out that campus security arrived in six minutes—faster than in any other mass shooting at an institution of higher learning—but that was still not good enough.

Maybe, had NIU not been a protection free zone, she and others would be alive today.

Perhaps the mayor of Washington, D.C., Adrian M. Fenty, whom I understand is a fellow graduate of Oberlin College, will read the book and figure out that he could lower his city’s crime rate by advocating something no good little Oberlin liberal would ever think would work…unless he or she actually was willing to follow data to their logical policy conclusions.

Not that I think my former legislative colleague Richard Daley, now mayor of Chicago, could make that leap, but, maybe, just maybe, the mayor of Washington can.

The rest of us who read this book will be armed with information to promote a logical “we can protect ourselves when the police aren’t around, if policy makers will let us” policy.

Incidentally, lower hurdles to get a license (in training and dollars) tend to result in larger drops in crime rate.

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The above was published as a book review on Amazon.com.

Related

Crime Fighting – Mayor Daily Just Doesn’t Get It

Shift on Gun Control Thoughts by Leading Liberal Journalist

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren got a headline saying he was in favor of a concealed carry law in today’s Northwest Herald, as you can see below.

Headline: "Sheriff Nygren supports concealed carry law."

I’d try to find the NW Herald article that I believe quoted a Crystal Lake Police Chief Keith Nygren as being against concealed carry in the 1990′s, but, with the NW Herald charging for its archives, that’s expecting too much. (And I didn’t buy today’s paper. I’m a second hand user.)

Beyond what I remember as a flip-flop from when I was state representative, Woodstock Advocate writer and Green Party sheriff’s candidate against Nygren, Gus Philpott, wrote in a comment about Nygren’s speech to the McHenry County Concealed Carry Association that

“Nygren was at the meeting and presented the position of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, which is to support concealed carry; however, at no point did Nygren ever say that HE supports concealed carry.

“What’s your position, Keith?”

It appears that question has been answered in today’s NW Herald.

But, as they say, actions speak louder than words.

Democratic Party challenger Mike Mahon points out that Nygren will not let about 230 his own trained and certified employees carry their weapons when off duty.

You know how you hear about off-duty Chicago policemen interrupting crimes while on their own time. They have guns.

Back when I was state representative, I was told of an Illinois Department of Corrections Office who was shot after he got off work by a gang banger friend of one of the inmates at either Joliet or Stateville prisons.

Illinois stupidly does not allow correctional officers to take their weapons home to defend themselves with. They have to lock them up in the prison. They can’t even have their own guns in the prison parking lot.

The result was that one correctional officer died on his way home to his Chicago neighborhood.

I introduced a bill, got it out of committee and to the House floor to rectify that situation. No help from the Illinois State Rifle Association. The legislation would have allowed correctional officers, both state and county, plus retired law enforcement officers, to carry handguns while not on the job.

My logic was that there would be that many more good guys on the street should some gang banger or crook or just plain nutcase decides to do something in their presence.

The State Rifle Association sat on its hands as a drunken Peoria area Democratic state representative took aim after a well-lubricated dinner.

The ISRA didn’t want any bill passed unless everyone was included.

And my bill lost.

Now, Mahon is calling out Nygren about allowing his own jailers and other trained and certified employees to be armed while off duty.

“Let them carry weapons while off the job,” Mahon is, in effect, saying.

“The community will be safer and you won’t be subject to the charge of being a hypocrite.”

I repeat, those were not Mahon’s words. You can read his words in his press release below:

The following statement was released Tuesday by McHenry County Sheriff candidate Mike Mahon:

Mike Mahon

“I find it interesting that Sheriff (Keith) Nygren has appeared to have gotten religion recently with respect to ‘concealed carry,’ when in fact he has had the capability to reinforce crime fighting in McHenry County for over a decade and has refused to do so.“

I am speaking of the over 230 trained McHenry County correctional and court security officers and process servers whose ability to carry firearms outside of the scope of their official duties has been denied by the same Sheriff Nygren who now states, according to a Northwest Herald article published March 2, 2010, that ‘when something happens to you or your family…the likelihood that there will be a policeman standing next to you is probably not very great’ and therefore that ‘private citizens who have guns could prove especially helpful in circumstances in which police were not instantly at the scene of an incident.’

“Now that the issue of concealed carry in Illinois might be getting some traction, Sheriff Nygren seems to be signaling some lukewarm support.

“But for years and years he could have permitted his officers, who have all completed the State of Illinois Law Enforcement mandatory firearms training course, who work for his office and whom he could keep a close eye on, to carry firearms not only as they travel to and from work but also when off-duty and in the community.

“The list of mass killings like Columbine, Virginia Tech and, closer to home, Northern Illinois University, unfortunately continues to lengthen. An off-duty officer in Utah was instrumental in halting an incident there within the last several years.

“But in McHenry County the additional cavalry are unarmed.

“I, for one, will be far more ready to believe in Sheriff Nygren’s new-found conversion to concealed carry if he immediately lifts his own restriction on the sworn, trained, and certified officers under his command.

“I will also ensure the people of McHenry County that one of my first acts as Sheriff, after a thorough review of personnel records, will be to allow the sworn and trained officers of the Sheriff’s department to carry their firearms off duty.

“This will instantly put hundreds more trained and vetted public servants on the street during their off-duty hours which will therefore bring a higher level of public safety to all citizens of the county.”

For more information contact the Mike Mahon for Sheriff Campaign at 847.515.4772.

= = = = =

I will again point out that there was a woman who had Armed Forces training who was sitting in the front of the NIU auditorium when the massacre occurred.   She could have taken out the little squirrel who did the shooting from the stage, but, instead, she got killed.

NIU is what my campaign manager for governor (when I ran in 2002) called “a protection free zone.”

One more thing.  In John Lott’s “More Guns, Less Crime,” he points out the harder laws make it for people to obtain their own personal protection in the form of a gun, the less likely it is for those people really in need of such protection will be able to qualify.

So, if you want to discriminate against inner city residents, make the hurdles high.

What NIU students see when they log onto the university web site. (Click to enlarge any image.)

Just a little over a year after the mass murdering of students in a lecture hall, students are awaking this morning for a yellow highlighted notice of a “campus alert.”

Campus Alert

5:03 a.m., 2/19/10

NIU Police are investigating a shooting that occurred on campus during the early morning hours on Friday, February 19.

The incident occurred near the Stevenson Residence Hall. An NIU student was injured in the shooting, and was transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital for treatment.

The message that the alert points to.

NIU Public Safety officials are stating that the event appears to be an isolated incident between two individuals, and that the alleged assailant is in police custody.

NIU Public Safety officials are advising all students, and campus residents to take extra precaution on Friday morning, and to be alert for any unusual circumstances.  If students observe anything that appears to be out of the ordinary they are asked to call NIU Public Safety at 815-753-1212.

The NIU campus remains open, and all classes will be held as scheduled.

---

4:29 a.m., 2/19/10

There has been a shooting on campus. Campus has been locked down. The suspect has been apprehended and is in custody. More details to come.

Just reading what the students have on their computers would make me think this is an isolated event.

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Just reading what the students have on their computers would make me think this is an isolated event.

Cassidy Tire had this sign up the week that Sgt. Jason McLeod was honored in Crystal Lake.

Donations to the widow and her children may still be made by calling Marie Davis at 815-477-5050.

The McHenry County College Student Peace Group, or course, had no way of knowing its timing would be bad.

They canceled NIU Professor Marc Falkoff’s talk about his book

“Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak”

Now its on for the Thursday after next Tuesday’s election.

The group’s press release follows:

MCC’S STUDENT PEACE GROUP RESCHEDULES EVENT FEATURING GITMO LAWYER ON FEB. 4th

[Jan. 26, 2010.Crystal Lake, IL] The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) has rescheduled a controversial event focusing on a book of poetry by Guantanamo Bay detainees. for Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the college’s conference center.

The keynote speaker, Marc Falkoff, a Northern Illinois University criminal law professor who represented 16 detainees, plans to speak about a book that he edited titled “Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak.”  The moderator will be Todd Culp, Ph.D., political science instructor at MCC.

Falkoff initially was scheduled to speak at the college in December, but the event was canceled because of security concerns. SPAN had planned the December speaking engagement well in advance, but publicity about the event stirred up controversy as it coincided with funeral visitation for Sgt. Jason A. McLeod, a 22-year-old from Crystal Lake who died in a mortar attack in Afghanistan.

Northern Illinois University criminal law Professor Marc Falkoff

He will discuss the torture the prisoners suffered, the false information elicited, the disarray of evidentiary files, and the telling resignations of  key military prosecutors.  According to Dr. Falkoff, a very real problem exists,

“politics rather than principle reigns at Guantánamo.  As concerned American citizens, we can learn what action we can take to demand accountability and redress of grievances.”

Following the program, he will be available to sign books.

The event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. SPAN is made up of students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education. The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition. The event is free and open to the public.

The college is located at 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.  For more information, contact the MCC Student Activities Office at (815) 455-8772.

= = = = =
Here’s background from NIU on the professor:

Background: Falkoff comes to NIU after three years as an attorney with Covington & Burling in New York. The firm, which is considered the top pro bono law firm in the nation, once named Falkoff the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year during his time there. He earned his juris doctorate from Columbia and also holds a Ph.D. in literature from Brandeis. While this is his first full-time faculty appointment, he taught for several years as an adjunct member of the faculty at the Brooklyn Law School. He is currently working on behalf of 17 Yemeni men who are being held without charges by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay.

Why NIU? “NIU has a very high commitment to public interest law, and that is extremely important to me.”

Goals: “I want to give my students a solid grounding in legal theory, but also instill in them an appreciation for the amount of social good they can do in the world as a lawyer. Personally, I want to not only do excellent scholarly work, but also maintain my real-world focus. It is very important for me to do both, and that is actually something that is encouraged here.”

Maybe I should have entitled this “Another Entrepreneurial Employee” since I wrote a little while ago about Carpentersville District 300 energy czar David Ulm’s efforts to explore using windmills to offset electric costs.

After the District 300 legislative meeting during which pleas were made for the state funding for school construction which were assumed in the $185 million bond approved in 2006, newly elected State Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) was talking to Chief Technology Officer Eric Willard.

They discussed the possibility of commuter trains between Rockford, where Willard lives, and Elgin, among other things.

Impressed with what I heard about Willard’s plan for fiber optic linkage of the schools, I stuck around and got a fascinating presentation.

Willard has rented two dark fibers owned by the Illinois State Tollway Authority. This project was initiated in conjunction with NIU, that had similarly leased Tollway fiber down I-90, I-88 and is just about finished with linking the two systems to the third side of the triangle, I-39 (thanks to funds obtained from a federal grant).

The D300 fiber will connect from I-90 to NIU’s Hoffman Estates campus and then gain access to the Internet from them. This is how we’ll distribute the current risk from all schools in the district having their Internet access at DCHS.

At a current cost of about $88,000 a mile to bury new fiber to connect to the leased fiber, NIU has made quite an investment to connect their campuses in DeKalb, Rockford, Hoffman Estates and Naperville.

District 300 has rights to two strands beginning at the truck stop on I-90 at Route 20 and extending to Meacham Road.

My short course in fiber optic capacity taught me that eight colors will be transmitted over the fibers, allowing eight different connections each way.

If more capacity it needed, the electronics can be swapped out and up to 32 colors or message pathways can be used on the existing fiber, Willard said.

The new Hampshire High will be connected directly to the tollway cable and over-the-air connections will be made from there to the old high school, now a middle school and the grade school in town. Fiber already connects the new high school with Gary D. Wright Elementary School in Hampshire.

Willard wants to run a line up from the tollway to Dundee-Crown, where the the school district has its technology headquarters.

He is also talking to Kane County and McHenry County officials about the possibility of a joint project to run a fiber optic cable up Randall Road to serve the growing communications needs of the two counties and various cities and villages along the way.

His goal is for the cable to be laid when Randall Road is widened.

Willard has been approached by Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg for access to the cable strands that the Carpentersville School District is leasing.

Local law enforcement units are also showing interest in the opportunity.

I asked Willard if the District might bring in more money than it costs.

He grinned broadly and said he hadn’t mentioned that at this year’s presentation to legislators.

I wouldn’t lay odds that such an announcement might be made next year.

Finally, it occurs to me that if Crystal Lake gets its wish fulfillment of a new interceptor sewer, McHenry County College might want to pop for the cost of $88,000 to lay cable up Route 14.

Maybe I should have entitled this “Another Entrepreneurial Employee” since I wrote a little while ago about Carpentersville District 300 energy czar David Ulm’s efforts to explore using windmills to offset electric costs.

After the District 300 legislative meeting during which pleas were made for the state funding for school construction which were assumed in the $185 million bond approved in 2006, newly elected State Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) was talking to Chief Technology Officer Eric Willard.

They discussed the possibility of commuter trains between Rockford, where Willard lives, and Elgin, among other things.

Impressed with what I heard about Willard’s plan for fiber optic linkage of the schools, I stuck around and got a fascinating presentation.

Willard has rented two dark fibers owned by the Illinois State Tollway Authority. This project was initiated in conjunction with NIU, that had similarly leased Tollway fiber down I-90, I-88 and is just about finished with linking the two systems to the third side of the triangle, I-39 (thanks to funds obtained from a federal grant).

The D300 fiber will connect from I-90 to NIU’s Hoffman Estates campus and then gain access to the Internet from them. This is how we’ll distribute the current risk from all schools in the district having their Internet access at DCHS.

At a current cost of about $88,000 a mile to bury new fiber to connect to the leased fiber, NIU has made quite an investment to connect their campuses in DeKalb, Rockford, Hoffman Estates and Naperville.

District 300 has rights to two strands beginning at the truck stop on I-90 at Route 20 and extending to Meacham Road.

My short course in fiber optic capacity taught me that eight colors will be transmitted over the fibers, allowing eight different connections each way.

If more capacity it needed, the electronics can be swapped out and up to 32 colors or message pathways can be used on the existing fiber, Willard said.

The new Hampshire High will be connected directly to the tollway cable and over-the-air connections will be made from there to the old high school, now a middle school and the grade school in town. Fiber already connects the new high school with Gary D. Wright Elementary School in Hampshire.

Willard wants to run a line up from the tollway to Dundee-Crown, where the the school district has its technology headquarters.

He is also talking to Kane County and McHenry County officials about the possibility of a joint project to run a fiber optic cable up Randall Road to serve the growing communications needs of the two counties and various cities and villages along the way.

His goal is for the cable to be laid when Randall Road is widened.

Willard has been approached by Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg for access to the cable strands that the Carpentersville School District is leasing.

Local law enforcement units are also showing interest in the opportunity.

I asked Willard if the District might bring in more money than it costs.

He grinned broadly and said he hadn’t mentioned that at this year’s presentation to legislators.

I wouldn’t lay odds that such an announcement might be made next year.

Finally, it occurs to me that if Crystal Lake gets its wish fulfillment of a new interceptor sewer, McHenry County College might want to pop for the cost of $88,000 to lay cable up Route 14.