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July 3, 2014 • $1.00
STILL ROCKING Head East and the band’s remaining founder, Roger Boyd, to perform at Crystal Lake’s Lakeside Festival
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Man gets 12 years in arson case Admitted drug dealer torched wrong home in bid for revenge By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Photos by Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Composer Michael Sweeney of Milwaukee warms up on the tin whistle in between songs Wednesday during the Woodstock City Band performance celebrating 130 years of existence. Sweeney composed and directed “Spring City Overture,” an overture written in part like a march to commemorate the band’s longstanding history. The McHenry County Community Foundation awarded $4,000 to the city of Woodstock to commission Sweeney’s musical composition.
Woodstock City Band celebrates 130 years Crowd gathers for annual patriotic concert By SHAWN SHINNEMAN sshinneman@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – It felt more midApril than Fourth of July. Nonetheless, a sizable, jacket-clad crowd sunk its lawn chairs into the damp ground at Woodstock Square Park on Wednesday evening for the Woodstock City Band’s annual patriotic concert, one of eight shows the band will play this summer. Wednesday’s took on the added caveat of a special celebration for the band’s 130th year in existence. They debuted an original piece commissioned by noted composer Michael Sweeney to commemorate the milestone. The city also read a proclamation.
See BAND, page A6
WOODSTOCK – An admitted drug dealer convicted of torching the wrong house in retaliation for stolen drugs was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison. A jury in May found 24-year-old Joseph Ziegler guilty on multiple arson charges, the most serious of which was punishable by b e t w e e n s i x Joseph and 30 years in Ziegler, was sentenced to prison. Before she 12 years in handed down prison the sentence, McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather listened to a police interview with the Elmhurst man during which he admitted selling drugs to the high school students whom he believed stole ecstasy and methadone from him. “It’s hard to imagine something more repulsive, more cowardly, more pathetic than that, but Mr. Ziegler took it a step further,” Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Zalud said. Ziegler believed Nick Pennington had stolen his drugs, and with that in mind he in-
tended to set fire to Pennington’s Pistakee Highlands home. But he missed his target, instead torching the home of Roseanne Aitken, who lives a few doors away from Pennington. The blaze destroyed two cars in her driveway and eventually spread to the home, causing significant damage. No one was injured. “We lost so much inside the house that to this day, we still find things we miss,” Aitken said at the sentencing hearing Wednesday. The judge appeared sympathetic to Aitken, whom she called an innocent victim. “I can’t imagine being … awoke in the middle of the night to watch everything she loved and owned go up in smoke,” Prather said. Ziegler’s defense attorneys have argued the state presented no evidence tying him to the crime. Assistant Public Defender Angelo Mourelatos said Ziegler suffers from mental illness, and had been hospitalized multiple times for it. He would benefit from continued mental health treatment, Mourelatos said. “He should not be disallowed the opportunity to correct the mistakes he made in the past,” he said.
See ARSON, page A6
Lower kindergarten age among new state laws Rick Buechler holds his granddaughters Violet Levato, 2, and Lilly Levato, 4, during the Woodstock City Band’s performance celebrating 130 years of existence.
“This will cost the state Critics say change more money because stresses already you’ll have more kids at tight school budget a younger age in school. By CHACOUR KOOP The Associated Press
Conductor Duane Peiffer directs the Woodstock City Band.
Afternoon Drive
Brass players debut an original piece during Wednesday’s concert.
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We’re continuing a very important piece of history here in Woodstock. Anything important that happened in the community always included the band playing with it.” John Scharres, Opera House director
SPRINGFIELD – Among several new laws effective in Illinois this week is a requirement that children attend kindergarten at a younger age, a shift that state officials say could mean higher costs for an already underfunded school system. Most of the new measures that went into effect Tuesday deal with youths and schools. One requires young adults seeking driver’s licenses to take a training course. Another, prompted by the death of a high school girl during drill team practice, requires students to learn emergency life-saving skills. Children must now enter kindergarten by the time they are 6 years old. The previous requirement was 7 years old. The change puts Illinois in line with most
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We are having a hard time right now paying for the education that we already have.” Sen. David Luechtefeld R-Okawville other states, according to a news release from Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who sponsored the legislation. She pushed for the measure because – although most children already start school before age 7 – those who don’t are falling behind their peers. Critics, however, derided the change as an unfunded mandate by the state while school funding is tight. Illinois hasn’t been able to fully fund the state aid it has
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