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FIRE AT STABLE LEAVES MANY HORSES DEAD
They’re changing media landscape By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
“Nobody is just a customer. We’re a family here.” Tyson and Amber Bauman were attending the Illinois Hunter Jumper Association awards banquet in Schaumburg and returned home shortly after the fire broke out. Two of their three children were home, but they were not injured, and the house was spared. The first firefighters arrived at 10:53 p.m. and reported heavy smoke and fire coming from a large, T-shaped stable. Because of a lack of fire hydrants in the area, Crystal Lake called for help through the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System. More than two dozen area departments
A rare opportunity with the federal government has slowly diversified the media landscape in McHenry County during the past year with homegrown content fit for the FM dial. The many volunteers who run community radio stations in Harvard, Huntley and Marengo have worked for years to deliver locally tailored news and entertainment to their residents without any guarantees that their broadcasts and programs ever would air on the actual radio. Rife with uncertainty, the grassroots process to reach the radio developed from the desire to provide residents with content larger commercial stations couldn’t deliver, said Allen Pollack, executive director of Huntley Community Radio, which started broadcasting on 101.5 FM earlier this fall. Unbeknownst to Pollack, the Huntley community responded in a much larger way. “I think they embraced us once we told our story,” Pollack said. “We told them how it was going to benefit them. They saw the value, and they saw how our mission was going to reinforce the growth in our community.” All of the community radio stations in the county rely on their communities for financial support, office space and equipment. The voices behind the newscasts and programs generally work on their own time. In Huntley, the station’s volunteers raised more than $45,000 to construct the radio antenna and other equipment necessary to broadcast on FM radio. They worked with the Huntley Park District on finding a home in Deicke Park. The volunteers at Marengo Community Radio embarked on similar fundraisers and partnerships to establish themselves as an independent local news source. The Harvard Community Radio
See FIRE, page A5
See RADIO, page A5
Joe Shuman for Shaw Media
An overnight stable fire killed as many as 32 horses at Valley View Acres, on 5116 Mount Thabor Road near Crystal Lake. The fire was reported at 10:43 p.m. Saturday by the owners’ son.
Owners shaken by devastation of award-winning facility By KEVIN LYONS kelyons@shawmedia.com
and CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com Tyson and Amber Bauman stood in the mist and rain Sunday morning as firefighters monitored the still-smoldering stables where fire officials believe as many as 32 horses died in an overnight blaze. The devastation at Valley View Acres, just north of Route 176 and Haligus Road, is a tremendous loss for the Bauman family and a big blow to McHenry County’s tightknit horse community. “It was an honor for us to buy it,” Tyson Bauman said, reflecting on eight years ago when he and his wife
purchased the facility that boarded horses and offered riding lessons. “It’s my wife’s passion. She grew up riding here when she was little.” Fire officials said preliminary estimated damage at the stables at 5116 Mount Thabor Road, including the value of the horses lost, could be more than $1 million. The Baumans’ 15-year-old, Adam, reported what he suspected was a fire at the stable at 10:43 p.m. Saturday. He call 911 and described a crackling sound near the area of the stables, Crystal Lake Fire Rescue District officials said. Investigators will continue to work on determining how the fire started. The cause was still unknown Sunday, but it doesn’t appear
to be suspicious, Crystal Lake Fire Deputy Chief Chris Olsen said. “We have no idea. They don’t know how [it began],” said Tyson Bauman, who also is deputy chief at the Harvard Police Department. Officials said there were as many as 37 horses in the stable at the time of the fire. Adam Bauman and a stable worker, Jose Gonzalez, were able to rescue four horses before becoming overcome by the fire’s heat, the Baumans said. One horse jumped over a fence and survived. Eighteen of the horses belonged to the Baumans, while the rest were boarded there by about 13 different owners, Tyson Bauman said. “They’re all very supportive. We’re all like a family,” he said.
Chicago church members each get $500 to do good for the world By SHARON COHEN The Associated Press CHICAGO – On a very memorable Sunday, Pastor Laura Truax surprised her congregation with a bold announcement: She was about to hand out money to everyone. LaSalle Street Church had received a tidy $1.6 million from a real estate deal, the pastor said, and $160,000 – a typical 10 percent tithe – would be divided among some 320 regular attendees. Each would get a $500 check to do something positive. LaSalle, a non-denominational church, has long been involved in social causes, from feeding homeless families to buying an ambulance for a medical clinic in Niger.
Not surprisingly, many donations will reach far-flung places, including a school in the Himalayas and an irrigation project in Tanzania. Closer to home, some checks are helping needy friends. Church members, Truax says, are doing just what she’d envisioned when she distributed the checks in September. “I hoped that they would recognize the power they had to bless others and change somebody’s life,” she says. “... And that has largely happened.” Jeliner Jordan remembers being young and in debt. More than 40 years ago, she was a divorced mother of three who couldn’t stretch her seamstress earn-
ings far enough to support her kids. She took out a loan of about $4,000 to attend a business college, expecting it would lead to better opportunities – and it did. But she never forgot the pressure of making payments, then falling behind before eventually settling her debt. Aware that her granddaughter, Deitra Galloway, was saddled with college loans, Jordan knew what she’d do with part of her church money: She gave Galloway $300, figuring it might cover a month’s payment. She was shocked when her granddaughter revealed her school debt was in the many thousands.
See CHURCH, page A6
AP photo
Jeliner Jordan (second from right) sings at a morning service Nov. 2 at LaSalle Street Church in Chicago. In September, Jordan and other members and regulars at the church each received a $500 check from the church. Jordan, who is 71 and retired from an insurance industry job, gave $100 to a Chicago elementary school, $100 to a new arts organization in her neighborhood and the remainder to her granddaughter in Virginia to help her pay off her student loans from college.
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Woodstock man selling turkeys for The Salvation Army / A3
Anxiety, speculation running rampant in Ferguson, Mo., as grand jury deliberates / A4
Colonel Palmer House to host bedtime stories, Victorian tea / A6
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