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WRESTLING PREVIEW Crystal Lake Central’s Andrew Marsden looking for another title / C1 NWHerald.com
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Zoning process for bleachers to start District 155 has accrued more than $200K in potential fines over violations By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Community High School District 155 plans to start the zoning process on its controversial $1.18 million bleacher expansion in the near future, its spokesman said. The move comes after one of the district’s appeals – one of three the district has filed in an increasingly complicated legal battle by the owners
Mo. jury faced contrary details
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of homes near the bleachers and the city of Crystal Lake against District 155 – was dismissed recently. While the dismissal means
set time frame on when that decision could be made. The district has taken the time allotted by the stay to research the best way to handle taking down the Aaron Shepley bleachers if that’s what it ultimately has to do, District 155 spokesman Jeff Puma said. “It’s something that we
a McHenry County judge’s order to go through the city’s zoning process stands, the takedown of the Crystal Lake South High School bleachers still doesn’t have to start Dec. 1 as originally ordered. That stay stands until the Illinois Supreme Court decides whether it will consider the case. That could take two or more months, said Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley, who is also an attorney. There’s no
need to prepare for,” he said, adding the district is optimistic the Supreme Court will take up the case because it has implications for school districts across the state. In the meantime, the potential fines leveled by the city of Crystal Lake on the bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School have climbed to more than $200,000. “It has not now or has it ever been our desire to punish the school district monetarily
because it is not in the best interest of the community,” Shepley said. “But the school district must be held accountable.” He added that Crystal Lake residents had been hit twice as much as non-Crystal Lake residents who live in District 155’s boundaries and that the fines might be used to “make the Crystal Lake taxpayers whole.”
See BLEACHERS, page A9
SHARING THE HARVEST
Ferguson court papers full of inconsistencies The ASSOCIATED PRESS FERGUSON, Mo. – Some witnesses said Michael Brown had been shot in the back. Another said he was face-down on the ground when officer Darren Wilson finished him off. Still others acknowledged changing their stories to fit published details about the autopsy or admitted they did not see the shooting at all. An Associated Press review of thousands of pages of grand jury documents reveals numerous examples of statements made during the shooting Bob McCulloch investigation that were inconsistent, fabricated or provably wrong. For one, the autopsies ultimately showed Brown was not struck by any bullets in his back. Prosecutors exposed these inconsistencies before the jurors, which likely influenced their decision not to indict Wilson in Brown’s death. Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecutor, said the grand jury had to weigh testimony that conflicted with physical evidence and conflicting statements by witnesses as it decided whether Wilson should face charges.
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Volunteers Marc Niemann (from left), Mattana Niemann, Bob Bywalec and Tom Allen sort through foods donated by area schools for the annual Crystal Lake Community Harvest, a joint effort between the Crystal Lake Food Pantry and the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce. The annual event on Thanksgiving will bring in about 800 volunteers to the space at 6520 Northwest Highway in Crystal Lake to sort the donations.
Crystal Lake comes together for annual Community Harvest By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com
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very year, Jay Gorski of Crystal Lake takes a week off from his Chicago-based job to spend five hours of each day weighing and organizing food. “I utilize some of my vacation time each year for this,” Gorski said, motioning Wednesday to the enormous, bustling room in which Crystal Lake’s annual Community Harvest was in progress. A joint effort between the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce and the city’s food pantry, the Community Harvest on Thanksgiving Day will bring in about 800
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I tell people, every day you drive up and down a street in Crystal Lake, you’re probably driving by somebody who needs to use the food pantry. Cate Williams President of the Crystal Lake Food Pantry
volunteers such as Gorski in an effort that each year garners about 60,000 pounds of food. “It’s a lot,” event Chairwoman Judy Pelinski said. “To give you an idea, just between Sunday and Monday, we brought in about
20,000 pounds of food.” Accumulated into what only can be described as a small mountain, the food comes from individual donations and organizational food drives throughout November. After being weighed, checked for
quality and stored, the food is sent either directly to the Crystal Lake Food Pantry or to the pantry’s offsite storage center in town. This year, the Community Harvest efforts took place in the space next to Crystal Lake’s Hobby Lobby on Route 14. Pelinski said planning typically begins in June to find a suitable location – it must be at least 18,000 square feet – to house the countless donations of food and house supplies that come in between last Wednesday and Thanksgiving. “This is the food [the pantry] will use through April,” Pelinski
See SHARING, page A9
See FERGUSON, page A9
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