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’96 letter warned of dangers Detective had concerns about accused Holiday Hills shooter By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – In a 1996 letter, a Wilmette detective who once encountered Scott B. Peters expressed concerns that Peters had a FOID card. He asked Illinois State Police to review and revoke Peters’ privileges to own guns. The letter was written after a police encounter months earlier in November 1995 when Peters allegedly twice fired a gun inside a Wilmette apartment he shared with his former wife. In some ways, that detective foreshadowed Peters’ alleged encounter with local police in Holiday Hills last week – a confrontation that left two McHenry County Sheriff’s deputies recovering from gun- Scott B. shot wounds. Peters “As a result of my investigation, I feel that Peters has the potential to do great harm, and great caution should be exercised when dealing with Peters,” the Wilmette detective wrote the State Police in January 1996. When interviewed by detectives in 1995, Peters, who served in the U.S. Army, showed signs of his anti-police and anti-government sentiments, according to Wilmette police reports. Peters, police said at the time, “would be calm but then become very angry over guns and the U.S. government. He would also become very agitated when talking about his military service.” Peters is currently jailed locally on a number of allegations, including six counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, for what authorities are calling a police ambush. If convicted of all 13 counts against him, he faces a possible prison term of 165 years to
Photos by Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
John Smith, chairman of the McHenry Riverwalk Foundation, works inside the planned space for a tech business incubator, or makerspace, Wednesday in McHenry.
Incubating innovation Vacant building owner plans to open makerspace in McHenry By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com McHENRY – The former Hostess building is virtually empty. The walls that separated the store from the warehouse space are gone. The place has been gutted. Only a handful of equipment, a mound of dirt and a scissor lift rising up to the original wooden rafters remain. Window blocks are stacked in the back. The building’s new owner, John Smith, hopes to transform the place into a makerspace – somewhere entrepreneurs and high-tech crafters can come to use specialized equipment and share ideas – to be named Create It! Smith was the owner and CEO of SEC Group, a civil engineering firm that merged with HR Green in July 2009. He co-founded another company, The Anthem Corpora-
tion of America, which provides project management services. Smith isn’t sure whether the idea will pan out. As far as he’s aware, it hasn’t been done in a town the size of McHenry, but makerspaces, also known as hackerspaces, are popping up across the country, serving as a type of business incubator. A few more, including one in Huntley, are being discussed in McHenry County, said Pam Cumpata, the president of the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation. None, however, are moving ahead like Smith’s, who thinks each town could have its own someday. “From a standpoint of a makerspace, that kind of a setup is growing across the country,” Cumpata said. “It provides a centralized location
See MAKERS, page A6
The space is intended to house advanced machining and laser printing equipment with different spaces for various high-tech crafters.
Learn more Contact John Smith at jsmith@anthem-corp.com or 815-236-3700 to learn more about memberships, classes or partnerships.
“From a standpoint of a makerspace, that kind of a setup is growing across the country. It provides a centralized location for people to communicate face to face, to innovate, to discuss potential new inventions as well as people getting access to equipment that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It can take us back to do a little bit more with our hands. ... It’s a great opportunity for learning for young and old.” Pam Cumpata, president of the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation
“As a result of my investigation, I feel that Peters has the potential to do great harm, and great caution should be exercised when dealing with Peters.” Wilmette detective in a letter written to the State Police in January 1996 about Scott B. Peters
life. On Tuesday, McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather increased Peters’ bond to $7 million in light of additional charges filed this week. In asking for an even higher bond amount, Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Combs told the judge Peters still harbors anti-government and anti-police sentiments, accusations Combs said were confirmed by Peters’ Holiday Hills neighbors. Shortly after being arrested last week, Peters told investigators “70 percent of cops are criminals or [expletives],” Combs told the judge, adding that the defendant laughed when investigators asked him what he was thinking during the shooting. Tuesday was Peters’ first court appearance before Prather, who will preside over his case. He slowly limped to the bench, shackled at his hands and feet and flanked by two corrections officers. Defendants jailed locally are rarely shackled for court appearances. His attorney, McHenry County Assistant Public Defender Rick Behof, had little to say outside the courtroom, except that he intends to order a psychological evaluation for
See SHOOTING, page A5
McHenry County Board receives tentative budget for 2015 Proposal does not collect inflationary property tax increase for third straight year, now on display By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – Next year’s proposed county budget is again balanced and for a third straight year does not collect the inflationary property tax increase it is allowed under the tax cap. The McHenry County Board received the tentative $234.3 million county budget for 2015 at its Tuesday evening meeting. It is on 30-day review
until the board votes Nov. 18 to accept it before the Dec. 1 start of county government’s fiscal year. Next year’s budget is a maintenance budget that again does not include new programs or capital projects. Its only growth comes from natural growth of employee benefits and some minor supplemental awards. The 2015 budget is about $13.2 million less than the current 2014 budget of $247.5 million.
On the Web You can read the proposed 2015 budget for McHenry County government at http://shawurl.com/1i0l.
“Once again, this budget process has been a challenge for administration and all elected and appointed department heads as we continue to maintain the quality of service our constituents have come to expect, while confronting
revenues that have been slow to recover following the downturn of the preceding years,” the letter accompanying the budget states. The roster of county government employees in 2015 will mark a fifth straight year
of decline, as county government since the Great Recession has adopted a policy of automatically eliminating vacant positions after several months unless departments can make a sufficient case for keeping them. However, next year’s budget does include a merit pay increase of up to 2.25 percent for nonunion employees. County Board members in recent years have strived to maintain some sort of wage parity with unionized em-
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Advice ................................ D3 Buzz.....................................C6 Classified......................D3-10 Comics ...............................D4 Community ........................B1 Local News.................... A2-6 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World...................B5
ployees so as not to encourage more departments to unionize. One unknown that may require a tweak later in the 2015 budget year is the fate of the contract with the federal government to house inmates at the county jail. The decade-old contract expires next October, and declining revenues may mean the County Board decides not to renew it. The program grossed $542,131 last
Obituaries ......................A6-7 Opinion...............................B2 Planit Taste .................... D1-2 Puzzles ...........................D3, 5 Sports..............................C1-5 State ............................... B3-4 Stocks................................. A7 Weather .............................A8
See BUDGET, page A6