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January 18, 2015 • $1.50
Hampshire’s offense puts up team effort in 53-42 win against Woodstock North / C1 NWHerald.com
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
THE RIGHT COUNT? School impact formula for apartments might need update
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Is ‘threat’ to officer protected speech? High court hears case similar to LITH man’s By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Students are dropped off Thursday at the intersection of Route 31 and Kane Avenue in McHenry after riding the bus from school. By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com Myra Garcia stands at a bus stop in the afternoon in McHenry waiting for her 9-year-old son to arrive after a day in school. The stop is down the street from the two-bedroom apartment where they live with Garcia’s 13-year-old daughter. Garcia has lived in the apartment for about a year, because it’s more affordable. “I feel more people have to live together because [housing] is more expensive,” Garcia said. “You can’t make it out there.” After the housing bubble burst and the recession took its toll, living in rental units has become increasingly popular. In recent months there have
“Most school districts have the flexibility in classrooms in buildings. A few more kids, one way or another, you can accommodate that. If you had a big development, then you have to look at that.” Mark Bertolozzi District 15’s chief financial officer on the accuracy of a formula used to estimate how many new users of a district a new development would bring
been discussions of more multifamily developments being constructed in parts of McHenry County. Last year, Pedcor Investments opened a 60-unit apartment complex in Crystal Lake, and received approval to build a 60-unit complex in Cary. Among the questions people have had about the apartment
construction is how many new students would be added. In order to estimate how many school-aged children would end up living in a residential development and later help determine the impact fees paid to school districts, municipalities use a table put together by the Illinois School Consulting Service and Associated
Municipal Consultants in 1996. The table is titled: “Estimated Ultimate School Population per Dwelling Unit.” The table was based off a formula put together by the city of Naperville to estimate how many new users of a school district or park system a new development would bring and determine the associated impact fees. Pedcor’s Crystal Lake facility was estimated to generate 10.26 kindergarten through eighth-grade students, according to the 1996 table. Crystal Lake District 47 has 14 students at the apartment complex. Eight students are new to the district and six students who moved in were already in the district, officials have said.
See FORMULA, page A4
Legal issues before the Supreme Court on the limits of free speech in the digital age could affect a McHenry County case filed last week, legal experts say. In Elonis v. United States, a Pennsylvania man is fighting his nearly four-year sentence for making violent threats against his ex-wife and others in rap lyrics posted to Facebook. In the local case, authorities say a 24-year-old McHenry County man threatened a Crystal Lake police officer in the form of a rap video also posted to Facebook. Gerard X. Golston of Lake in the Hills faces up to five years in prison on a felony charge of threatening a public official. “There are obvious First Amendment questions that we need to explore,” his public defender Rick Behof said outside court Friday, after a judge denied Golston’s request for a reduced bond. McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather denied a bond reduction because Golston doesn’t have permanent residence or a driver’s license. He remains jailed in lieu of $35,000 bond. The question before Supreme Court justices in the case brought by Anthony Elonis would set a standard which a jury should use to determine whether statements
Free speech or threat? The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case on where to draw the line in protecting free speech on social media sites. In a similar but unrelated case, Gerard X. Golston, 24, of Lake in the Hills faces up to five years in prison on a felony charge of threatening a public official via a rap video posted on Facebook.
Gerard Xavier Golston
See SPEECH, page A4
Illinois Bible colleges sue state for the right to issue degrees day in U.S. District Court in Chicago, contends the Illinois Board of Higher Education is SPRINGFIELD – Bible col- violating the Bible colleges’ leges in Illinois have filed a First Amendment rights of federal lawsuit against state free religious exercise, free education regulators, seeking speech and ignoring the estabthe unencumbered right to lishment clause prohibiting a award degrees to students who state-sponsored creed. complete their programs. The Bible colleges – there The lawsuit, filed late Fri- are about 15 statewide – don’t
By JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press
BUSINESS
have full-fledged collegiate curriculums that the IBHE requires to issue degrees. But the schools’ leaders say not every student is seeking that; many want the religious education at a quarter or less of the cost of other private and many public institutions. More than anything, the schools argue, the U.S. Con-
stitution requires the government to butt out. “We don’t think there can be state regulation of a religious program,” the Rev. Jim Scudder Jr., president of Dayspring Bible College and Seminary in Mundelein, told The Associated Press. “If there is, then the state is deciding ‘which’ religion and breaking
LOCAL NEWS
Missing Cary man found Kyle Cuchna, 21, was found late Saturday in Wauconda, according to a Facebook post / A3 PLANIT STYLE
Retirement age increasing Retirement becoming a distant prospect as McHenry County residents join a growing number of Americans working longer / D1
the establishment clause of the First Amendment.” The lawsuit names IBHE board chairwoman Lindsay K. H. Anderson as defendant. IBHE Deputy Director Jonathan Lackland told the AP that board officials were reviewing the lawsuit and declined to comment. Included in the filing are affidavits from Scud-
der and other Bible college leaders, accompanied by IBHE correspondence asserting the colleges are violating the law and, in some cases, threatened to close them. Legislation to give the colleges degree-conferring authority won Senate approval
See COLLEGES, page A4
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