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No deal yet on CL South bleachers Attorney: Structure may be demolished if D-155, property owners can’t reach agreement By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Crews have steadily been working on taking the west bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School down. The question that remains is how far will they go. Will they stop at the ninth row – a height suggested by neighboring property owners
and agreed to by the Community High School District 155 Board as part of an overall conceptual plan? Or will the whole structure end up coming down? Attorneys representing the property owners and the school district continue to discuss the other conditions suggested along with the nine rows, but both sides agree the designs aren’t at the point
where concrete agreements can be drawn up. The clock is ticking, though. The mandate that puts the Illinois Supreme Court decision siding with the property owners into effect was handed down this week, which means the court order requiring the demolition of the west bleachers in back in play. McHenry County Judge Michael Chmiel handed down
the order last year after the owners of two residential properties that back up to the bleachers filed a lawsuit arguing the district violated the city of Crystal Lake’s zoning and stormwater ordinances. The district wants that order to be revised allowing it to keep the nine rows, said its attorney, Robert Swain. But the property owners’ attorney, Tom Burney, said
they “don’t feel comfortable revising the demolition order” without the other conditions – regarding landscaping, storm drainage, where the press box would be temporarily stored, a privacy screen at the top of the bleachers and noise restrictions – being addressed. Those are all items that will be discussed during the zoning process, Swain said, adding that it’s frustrating the parties
spent more than two years going through the legal process just to answer the question of whether the district is supposed to go through zoning, only to have the property owners not want to handle this through zoning. The district plans on submitting its zoning application to the city around the end of
See BLEACHERS, page A5
Russian airliner crashes; 224 killed
FATHER LOST PART OF HIS LEG AFTER BEING STRUCK BY ALLEGED DRUNKEN DRIVER
Plane went down in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula The ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Juan Martinez, 26, and his son, Esteban, 2, go for a walk Friday near their Lake in the Hills home. Martinez was fixing his broken-down motorcycle with two friends when they were struck by a drunken driver. A month after the crash, he’s learning to live without his left leg, which had to be amputated.
LITH man recovering after crash LAKE IN THE HILLS – Juan Martinez peered down the set of stairs in his aunt’s Lake in the Hills home and gradually lowered himself to the landing. He pushed his body down each step, careful not to disturb the dressing around his left leg where his knee had been before grabbing his crutches from his cousin at the bottom of the stairs. He limped to the couch around the corner and asked his cousin for a drink and some tissues. “Anything I need I have to ask for,” Martinez sobbed from the couch. “I’ve never been like that. I’ve always done every-
STYLE
thing on my own. Now I need someone.” Martinez had his left leg amputated from 2 inches above the knee down in September after a man police allege was driving drunk crashed into Martinez and his 18-year-old friend, Zac Feltman, while they were fixing a motorcycle on Algonquin Road. As Martinez waits for his wound to heal enough so he can get a prosthetic leg, Feltman has yet to leave the hospital. Martinez moved from Maywood to live with his extended family in Lake in the Hills just a few days before the crash Sept. 6. He said he wanted a change and quickly connected with his cousin’s friends.
See CRASH, page A5
Juan Martinez, 26, plays with his son, Esteban, 2, on Friday at his Lake in the Hills home.
LOCAL NEWS
Maplewood’s future Cary committee to discuss zoning, demolition costs for school property / A3 SPORTS
WHERE IT’S AT Advice ................ Style 8-9 Business .................... D1-4 Classified.....................F1-7 Community ....................B1 Local News.............. A2-10 Lottery............................A2 Movies...................Style 11 Nation&World...........B3-6 Obituaries ....................A11 Opinions ........................B2 Puzzles ..................... F5, F8 Sports......................... C1-8 Style..........................Inside Weather ....................... A12
See PLANE, page A6
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By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – A Russian passenger airliner crashed Saturday in a remote mountainous part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula 23 minutes after taking off from a popular Red Sea resort, killing all 224 people on board, including 25 children. The cause of the crash was not known, but two major European airlines announced they would stop flying over the area for safety reasons after a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group claimed it “brought down” the aircraft. Russia’s transport minister dismissed that claim as not credible. Almost everyone on board the Airbus-A321-200, operated by the Moscow-based Metrojet airline, was Russian; Ukraine said four of its citizens were passengers. Russian officials did not give a specific breakdown of the 217 passengers’ ages and genders, but said 25 were children. There were seven crew members. A civil aviation ministry statement said the plane’s wreckage was found in the Hassana area some 44 miles south of the city of el-Arish, in the general area of northern Sinai where Egyptian security forces have for years battled local Islamic militants who in recent months claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group. The ministry said the plane took off from the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh shortly before 6 a.m. for St. Petersburg in Russia and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after takeoff. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail toured the crash site and later told a Cairo news conference that 129 bodies had been recovered.
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