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Group’s plan aims to help homeless
County continuum of care, Heartland Alliance partner to increase effort By HANNAH PROKOP hprokop@shawmedia.com Amy Terpstra said the McHenry County Continuum of Care to End Homelessness’s vision for its new strategic plan could be summarized in one statement: “To make McHenry County a place where homelessness is rare, homelessness is brief and homelessness is nonrecurring.” Terpstra, director of research with Heartland Alliance, the social service agency based in Chicago that made the report, has been working for the past year on a strategic If you go plan to end homelessness in McHenry WHAT: McHenry County. County Continuum A plan such as this is something the of Care to End continuum hasn’t Homelessness had in years, conmeeting tinuum Chairman WHEN: 9 a.m. Hans Mach said. Jan. 14 The continuum is WHERE: Mental all volunteer-based, Health Board, 620 Dakota St., Crystal Mach said, and is made up of service Lake providers and residents in the area, but they have discussed making it a nonprofit organization. Mach said he hopes the plan will help the continuum prioritize what the needs are in the community and provide steps to address those needs. Part of what the continuum does is approve applications for funding requests in the county to assist in the coordination and development of services and housing for homeless and low-income persons with housing needs. “If you’re giving funds to an organization, you want to make sure it’s being put to the best possible use,” Mach said. “Now that we have a plan, we’ll be able to organize it more effectively.” Funding for the creation of the plan came from the McHenry County Mental Health Board and McHenry County Department of Planning and Development Community Development Division, Mach said. He said the total cost was about $27,000. Terpstra said Heartland Alliance created a three-year plan that is action-oriented. She said McHenry County has great
Photos by Matthew Apgar – mapgar@shawmedia.com
ABOVE: Passengers exit a Metra commuter train Wednesday at the Pingree Road train station in Crystal Lake. BELOW: Passengers sit aboard a Metra commuter train from Chicago at the Pingree Road train station Wednesday.
A lonely commute Census survey shows most McHenry County residents drive to work alone By CAITLIN SWIECA cswieca@shawmedia.com About 82 percent of McHenry County residents get to work by driving alone, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey. That percentage is On the Web third-highest among counties in the Chicago region, according to an analysis of To see data that data by the Chicago Metfrom the U.S. Census Bureau’s ropolitan Agency for PlanAmerican Com- ning. A December policy update munity Survey, visit NWHerald. by CMAP studied commuting data from Cook, DuPage, com. Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. Across the region, the agency found the amount of single-occupant vehicle trips to work has remained about constant since 2000, stopping a rising trend that had
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We would prefer to see higher percentages of other modes – either carpooling or mass transit – because there are broad benefits to that.” Liz Schuh, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning principal policy analyst
spanned the 1980s and ’90s. “We would prefer to see higher percentages of other modes – either carpooling or mass transit – because there are broad benefits to that,” said Liz Schuh, principal policy analyst at CMAP. “But I think we’re encouraged that it has leveled off.” While driving alone was clearly the dominant form of transportation – at least 75 per-
cent of drivers in each suburban area get to work that way – analysts also are seeing some shift in the mix of other commuting methods. Regionally, there has been a steady decline in carpooling. It remained the second most-popular commuting mode in McHenry County, with nearly 8 percent of respondents using it. The third most-popular category in the county was telecommuters, a group that has grown regionally over time. McHenry County ranked second among the studied counties with 5.5 percent of respondents working from home. Less than 3 percent of county respondents used any form of public transportation, with commuter rail accounting for about 2.3 percent. That number is in line with the 2.5 percent of residents who work in the city of Chicago,
See COMMUTE, page A3
See HOMELESSNESS, page A3
Protesters in Oregon object to prison sentence for ranchers By REBECCA BOONE The Associated Press BURNS, Ore. – The remote high desert of eastern Oregon became the latest flashpoint for anti-government sentiment as armed protesters occupied a national wildlife refuge to object to a prison sentence for local ranchers for burning federal land. Ammon Bundy – the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights – is among the people at the headquarters Les Zaitz/The Oregonian via AP of the Malheur National WildProtesters march Saturday on Court Avenue in Burns, Ore., in support life Refuge. It was unclear exactly how of an Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson.
many people were taking part in the protests. Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for militia members to come help him. He said “this is not a time to stand down. It’s a time to stand up and come to Harney County,” where Burns is located. Bundy and other militia members came to Burns last month, a small town about 280 miles southeast of Portland, Oregon. They were upset over the looming prison sentences for local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. They went to the wildlife refuge Saturday evening after a peaceful rally
in Burns to support the ranchers. Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time – the father three months, the son one year. But a federal judge ruled in October that their terms were too short under U.S. minimum sentencing law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. The decision generated controversy and is part of a
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Illinois, Missouri begin assessing damage after flooding / A4
CL South girls basketball bouncing back after rough start to season / B3
Workers to return to site of San Bernardino shooting Monday / A5
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decades-long dispute between some Westerners and the federal government over the use of public lands. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the “Sagebrush Rebellion,” a move by Western states such as Nevada to increase local control over federal land. Critics of the push for more local control have said the federal government should administer the public lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreation. In an interview with The Associated Press at the wildlife refuge Sunday, Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy’s brother, said
See PROTESTS, page A6
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