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Grant for veterans shelter stalled TLS says Hebron village president holding funds hostage to help tavern The latest controversy in Hebron village government involves a proposed water main that TranHEBRON – Representatives sitional Living Services, which from a homeless veterans shelter runs the New Horizons shelter, say they might have to cut staff agreed to install on its property in after grant funding stalled after exchange for Jacobson’s signature Village President John Jacobson’s on a $25,000 Illinois Department effort to force them into funding a of Human Services grant applicawater well for a neighboring bar. tion.
By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO
sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
John Jacobson
With representatives from TLS present, the Village Board unanimously approved a timeline for the water main project during an Oct. 20 meeting, both TLS Director Betty Hartwig and Hebron board members said. Jacobson has yet to sign the group’s grant application after TLS refused to agree to a list of
separate conditions the Hebron village attorney described in a letter to TLS’s attorney two days after the board’s vote. Village trustees were not aware of the extra conditions until Hartwig started calling individual board members about the additions. One condition states that Transitional Living would have to pay
the owners of Hoops Bar and Grill $5,000 to help them construct a new water well, if the McHenry County Department of Health orders the bar to build one within the next two years, according to the letter obtained by the Northwest Herald.
See HEBRON, page A4
Appelate court stays bleacher teardown By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
A crew with Geske And Sons Asphalt Paving and Excavating lays asphalt Thursday for the new parking lot at RedTail Golf Club in Lakewood.
RedTail club survives challenges Business plan at village-owned golf course produces mixed results By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com LAKEWOOD – The RedTail Golf Club has had a challenging year. There was measurable snow in May and October. Its superintendent died in June, forcing the general manager of clubhouse operations to take over most of his duties on top of implementing the strategies laid out in the new business plan. But despite that, the village-owned golf course has had a pretty stable year, Village President Erin Smith said. The update presented to the Vil-
lage Board at its meeting this week comes just more than a year after the board reversed course on a decision to sell the club. The club has been a contentious issue in the village for the two decades it failed to generate enough revenue to cover the needed longterm infrastructure improvements and the annual loan payments. A few months after deciding not to sell the club, village leaders rolled out a 20-page business plan aimed at boosting the club’s revenues through increasing the number of leagues, events and memberships. The village also is in the process
SPORTS Kris Rosemann (right)
of repaving its parking lot, and staffing changes are proposed for next year. The success of the business plan has been mixed, General Manager Chris Neuhart said. The number of rounds played as of October is down about 3 percent compared to the previous season, he said, adding that other golf courses in the region are seeing similar numbers. However, the revenue brought in from memberships and member play grew 27 percent over the previous year, way above the 5 percent goal set in the business plan, Neuhart reported in a memo to the
board. More new golfers signed up for lessons this season, and staff members are looking at expanding the player development pass program next year after they sold more passes than originally set out in the plan, the memo said. And although the club didn’t meet some of other benchmarks set in the business plan, it did see increases over the previous year. New junior golf lesson programming is slated to start in April, which might help boost revenue from family and junior golfers, the
See REDTAIL, page A4
LOCAL
WHERE IT’S AT
McHenry park in transition
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Built in 1994, park getting upgrades to bring it up to modern-day standards / A4 STATE
Analytical approach
Jane Byrne dies at age 81
Marengo High School grad Kris Rosemann boosts Benedictine football team / C1
Was elected Chicago’s first female mayor in 1979 over Mayor Michael Bilandic / A7
CRYSTAL LAKE – A set of bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School can stay up for now. A state appellate court in Elgin is allowing Crystal Lake-based Community High School District 155 to keep a controversial set of bleachers erected at the high school. The appellate court issued a stay of a ruling from McHenry County Judge Michael Chmiel, who ordered the $1.18 million bleachers to be torn down by Dec. 1. District 155 spokesman Jeff Puma said the district received a letter Friday saying the teardown order was stayed until the state Supreme Court makes a decision on whether to hear the case. Puma said the district is “very optimistic the [state] Supreme Court will take the case.” When the Illinois Supreme Court will make a decision is not known. Last month, District 155 asked the state Supreme Court to take up the case, as a ruling can dictate how every school district across the state handles its construction projects, Puma said. Chmiel had ordered the district in September to start going through the city zoning process by Oct. 16 after an appellate court upheld Chmiel’s December 2013 ruling that the district needed to go through Crystal Lake’s zoning process before constructing the bleachers. District officials had not started the zoning process as ordered. Neighbors of the school initially sued the school district because they said the structure, erected last year, violated city ordinances by being too close to property lines and being too tall, among other concerns.
• Reporter Emily Coleman contributed to this article.