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THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
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FOLLOWING THE TREND
McHenry County mirroring national trend that shows more deaths from middle-aged suicide, drug overdoses By CAITLIN SWIECA cswieca@shawmedia.com When McHenry County Coroner Anne Majewski looks over data from the past few years, it’s clear the area is mirroring a national trend explored by researchers earlier this year: Middle-aged white Americans are dying at higher rates from suicide and afflictions stemming from substance abuse. The follow-up question Majewski asks herself is much less cut-and-dried: How can public health officials work to address the circumstances leading to such deaths? The national study, released in November by Princeton economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case, found the mortality rate for whites 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high school education
“In thinking about that, what support systems will we give not only to our teenagers, which starts as early as middle school, but for middle-aged people? Why are these people doing it? They’re hopeless.” Anne Majewski McHenry County coroner
increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people from 1999 to 2014. They attributed the jump to rising suicide and drug abuse rates.
According to Majewski’s data, adults between the ages of 40 and 60 accounted for just more than half of deaths by suicide or drug overdose in McHenry County since the beginning of 2013. Following the county’s overall demographics, the vast majority of those adults are white. While the number of deaths has generally been steady, the shrinking of McHenry County’s population indicates the percentage of those deaths is rising slightly. The trend disproportionately affects males: 65 of 109 drug overdose deaths and 79 of 99 suicides in that time span have been men. Like the national numbers, most of those men are poorly educated: Only 35 percent of the men who committed suicide and 11 percent of men who
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Recorder candidate wants to cut office
Joe Tirio favors merging services with county clerk By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
WOODSTOCK – McHenry County recorder candidate Joe Tirio wants to put himself out of a job, if elected, by eliminating the office altogether. Tirio, one of three Republicans running for the office, pledged to pursue asking the county’s voters if they want to abolish the office and merge it with the county clerk, which is the way it is done in most Illinois counties. In an age of electronic recordkeeping and scanning, Tirio said it is no longer necessary to have a separate elected office. The recorder’s office is responsible for recording, maintaining and retrieving a number of records, such as real estate and land records, subdivision plats and military discharge certificates. It has more than 3.4 million documents on file. “A hundred years ago, it made sense to have separate offices for these things, but
“There’s an opportunity here to save some money. I know it’s not a tremendous pile of money, but I think any opportunity we have, we should pursue.” Joe Tirio McHenry County recorder candidate if we were setting up a new government today, I don’t see that we would need to make that distinction,” Tirio said. State law puts the office’s duties in counties without an independent recorder under the county clerk. Only counties with more than 60,000 residents may have an independent county recorder, meaning that
See CANDIDATE, page A10
CL shop owner tapped to serve on City Council By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com
A view of headstones at Algonquin Cemetery on Thursday.
CRYSTAL LAKE – A longtime Crystal Lake business owner will take the vacant seat on the Crystal Lake City Council. Exceed Floor and Home owner and president Haig Haleblian’s appointment to the council was unanimously approved Tuesday evening, filling the remainder of now McHenry County Board member Jeff Thorsen’s term. Thorsen resigned in November after getting tapped to fill the remaining term of former board member Ken Koehler, who resigned in September after being appointed to the Metra Board. Haleblian started his flooring company in Crystal Lake nearly 30 years ago and was one of
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
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the founding members of the city’s nine-member volunteer Economic Development Commission, which has been around about a decade. He also sat on the Lakeside Center Board when First Congregational Church owned the historic Dole Mansion. Haleblian hopes to bring his perspective as a business owner to the council, which he complimented along with the city’s staff for having “done such a good job of bring the city to where it is today,” being pro-business and keeping taxes in check. Haleblian has “got exactly the personality fit that I think we’re looking for,” said Mayor Aaron Shepley, who made the recommendation. “I don’t think he’s
See SERVE, page A10