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CDC SURVEY REVEALS MORE HOUSEHOLDS DITCHING LANDLINES
Mental Health Board hesitant to provide agency additional funding
kcraver@shawmedia.com MARENGO – A French Christian order denied a permit to expand operations on its rural McHenry County property has filed a federal lawsuit to get the County Board’s rejection overturned. The Fraternite of Notre Dame earlier this month filed a six-count lawsuit alleging that the County Board discriminated against it as a religious institution when it voted in September against granting it a permit to add a boarding school, nursing home, winery, brewery and gift shop to its 95 acres at 10002 Harmony Hill Road, south of Marengo and Union. The lawsuit alleges that the board’s decision, based in large part on the conclusion that the proposed use is an inappropriate fit for a rural agricultural area, is discriminatory because the
board has granted permission to build for other uses. It singles out the nearby Marengo Ridge Golf Course, the county-owned Valley Hi Nursing Home west of Woodstock, as well as two public schools, a private Lutheran school, and several churches with gift shops. “You can’t say no to [the Fraternite] when you’ve said yes to everyone else,” Fraternite attorney Jim Geoly said. The County Board first granted the Fraternite a permit in 2005 to build a chapel, convent, monastery and bakery on the property. Neighbors have alleged the Fraternite has not been a good neighbor when it comes to work hours and construction, and have argued that adding a school, hospice and brewery would make the property a worse fit for the rural area.
More than half of Illinois households could be without landlines by next year if the trend of residents cutting the cord continues. Some 48 percent of households in Illinois and 47 percent of those nationwide use only cellphones, according to the National Health Interview Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state data. In McHenry County, residents have mixed feelings about eliminating their home phone service. But for many, such as Cary resident Julie McFarlin, the decision rested on what kind of calls were coming down the line. “It’s kind of hard to get rid of it,” McFarlin said of the landline phone service she and her husband
Landlines in Illinois
Voice your opinion
The number of Illinois households with landlines has been decreasing in recent years. 2014
By KEVIN P. CRAVER
By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
5,023,177
2013
Fraternite files federal suit over permit rejection
To cut or not to cut? County residents mixed 5,045,575
2012
See FUNDING, page A6
Matthew Apgar – mapgar@shawmedia.com
Nancy Ellman poses for a photograph Dec. 11 at her home in Crystal Lake.
5,337,103
2011
CRYSTAL LAKE – The McHenry County Mental Health Board agreed to provide the county’s largest social service provider with month-to-month funding as the agency faces an uncertain future. Pioneer Center recently had disclosed “internal inefficiencies” that caused the taxpayer-funded Mental Health Board to re-evaluate whether to continue funding the agency in the fiscal year that began Dec. 1. On Tuesday, the board agreed to continue its $1.05 million annual payment in monthly installments as Pioneer Center deals with its financial struggles. The Mental Health Board grant will fund behavioral health and traumatic brain injury services provided by the McHenry-based agency. Pioneer Center also asked for an additional $100,000, although the Mental Health Board appeared hesitant to provide additional funding to the agency.
During a break in the meeting, Mental Health Board Director Scott Block said Pioneer’s request was “unlikely” to get approved. Speaking before the board, Pioneer Center CEO Sam Tenuto acknowledged the financial problems the agency is facing, but he did not elaborate on the details. He was not available for comment after the meeting. The agency’s board Chairman Mike Moushey has said Pioneer Center is currently owed between $3.5 million and $4 million “from various funding sources,” including state payments. Block also indicated there were some internal billing problems at Pioneer. Tenuto acknowledged the agency is struggling, but said there are no immediate plans to shutter services. “We are not saying we’re going to close down our behavioral services as a whole,” he said. Block has said there are other agencies willing to step up if certain Pioneer
5,645,938
2010
By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
6,091,400 1
2
3 4 in millions
ditched six months ago. “It’s something you’re comfortable with. You’ve seen it through the stages. But I think what finally did it was that the only people calling our landline were telemarketers, people trying to sell us something or
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scam us.” The highest concentration of the country’s wireless-only households is in the Midwest, where the CDC report shows nearly 52 percent of households have at least one wireless customer and no landlines. The
Do you still have a telephone landline in your home or apartment? Vote online at NWHerald.com. preliminary data are based on interviews conducted January through June with about 21,500 households. About 5 million Illinois residents have landline service, a 38 percent decrease in the past decade, the Illinois Commerce Commission reports. At the same time, some 13 million have cellphones. Crystal Lake resident Nancy Ellman is part of the nearly 42 percent of households nationwide that have both cellphone and landline service, but not by choice. She said because of a
See LANDLINES, page A6
“It’s kind of hard to get rid of it. It’s something you’re comfortable with. You’ve seen it through the stages. But I think what finally did it was that the only people calling our landline were telemarketers, people trying to sell us something or scam us.” Julie McFarlin, Cary resident who recently ditched landline service
See LAWSUIT, page A6
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Coming up short
Civil case
Prices edge up
Woodstock falls to Rockford Christian in holiday tournament / C1
LITH man sues Bull Valley after charges he battered police chief dropped / A3
McHenry County home sales decline in November / A4
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