NORTHWEST
HERALD
‘WOWING THE CROWD’
January 24, 2016 • $1.50
SUNDAY
5 advance from Huntley dance sectional to state finals / C1
NWHerald.com
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
HIGH
LOW
32 26 Complete forecast on page A12
Facebook.com/NWHerald
@NWHerald
Pioneer Center to halt a service
McHENRY COUNTY ANIMAL CONTROL LEANING ON SHELTERS TO SAVE PETS
Cuts adult psychiatric services; Mental Health Board to fund providers By KATIE DAHLSTROM
kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
Photos by Matthew Apgar – mapgar@shawmedia.com
Leyna Weber (left), 8, and her sister, Morgan, 7, sit on bales of hay inside their family’s barn as they feed cat treats to their barn cats Friday in Woodstock. McHenry County Animal Control is using a network of animal shelters to reduce the number of animals, mainly cats, being euthanized.
County shelter aims to reduce euthanasia Aggressive ‘transferring’ of cats helping lower kill rate
“We have shelters in our county that run down and get those animals. We’ll never get to be a no-kill community unless people help. We do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
By KATIE DAHLSTROM
kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – By the end of 2015, officials at McHenry County Animal Control reported the number of animals being put to death in its shelter had dropped by more than 40 percent over the past two years. The decrease stems from a concerted effort started in 2014 to get cats out of Animal Control and into shelters that would be able to help the animals find a suitable home, McHenry County Department of Health spokeswoman Keri Zaleski said. “We started aggressively transferring cats,” Zaleski said. “Cats that maybe were not adoptable as a family pet. We transferred them
Joyce Crosbie
President of Animal Outreach Society in McHenry
Julie Weber and daughters, Leyna (back), 8, and Morgan, 7, prepare food for their four barn cats Friday in Woodstock. to shelters that could adopt them as barn cats.” The agency’s annual report shows 208 animals – 115 dogs, 89 cats and four “others” – were euthanized at the shelter in 2015. That’s a 13 percent drop from 2014, when 239 animals were put down, according to that year’s annual report. And it’s a 43 percent drop from 2013,
BUSINESS
when 365 animals were euthanized. Those numbers exclude animals whose owners walked into Animal Control requesting that their animal be put down, which dropped from 126 in 2013 to 70 in 2015. The number of animals being taken into the shelter dropped
See EUTHANASIA, page A8
LOCAL NEWS
Public-private partnership
Woodstock gives $25,000 grant to launch creative writing incubator in city / A3 STYLE
Visiting Angels expanding
Crystal Lake-based business now providing non-medical care to communities outside of McHenry County / D1
A head knight’s tale CL man oversees training of horses, knights at Medieval Times in Schaumburg / Style, 6-7
Voice your opinion: Have you ever adopted an animal from a shelter? Vote online at NWHerald.com.
On the Web: To view a chart on McHenry County Animal Control intakes, transfers and euthanizations, visit NWHerald. com.
WHERE IT’S AT Advice ...............Style 9-10 Business .................... D1-4 Classified.................... F1-4 Community ....................B1 Local News.............. A2-10 Lottery............................A2 Nation&World........... B7-8 Obituaries ....................A11 Opinions ........................B2 Puzzles ........................F5-6 Sports......................... C1-8 State ...............................B7 Style..........................Inside Weather ....................... A12
McHENRY – Pioneer Center for Human Services will stop offering psychiatric services to roughly 1,200 adults after the agency’s funding problems pushed the McHenry County Mental Health Board to find other agencies that could provide those services. Pioneer had asked the Mental Health Board to more than double the agency’s funding for adult psychiatric services in order to fund the full $1.5 million Pioneer officials estimate it costs to provide those services annually. With nearly $681,000 coming from the Mental Health Board, Pioneer has a funding gap close to $831,000 that it had funded through surpluses in other programs during stronger economic times, Pioneer Board Chairman Mike Moushey said. Instead of asking for continued funding, Moushey said officials Tuesday gave the Mental Health
See PIONEER CENTER, page A9
Massive blizzard cripples East Coast By SETH BORENSTEIN and JENNIFER PELTZ The Associated Press
NEW YORK – A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation’s capital and its largest city. After days of weather warnings, most of the 80 million people in the storm’s path heeded requests to stay home and off the roads, which were largely deserted. Yet at least 18 deaths were blamed on the weather, resulting from car crashes, shoveling snow and hypothermia. And more snow was to come, with dangerous conditions expected to persist until early Sunday, forecasters warned.
See BLIZZARD, page A9
Expert Service Available 24/7/365
Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electrical
www.althoffhome.com • 815.455.7000
adno=0337621