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Ap ril 17, 2 015 • $ 1. 00
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Mariah Dionne leads Marengo softball past Genoa-Kingston / C1
HERALD
HIGH
LOW
75 50 Complete forecast on page A10
NWHerald.com
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
42 HIGH SCHOOLS PARTICIPATE IN PROGRAM
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Cary man charged in robbery Suspect accused of taking cash from Woodstock bank By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
and STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Hampshire’s Jason Lunstrum, 16, reacts after being one of two students whose keys turned on the ignition of a car Thursday during the Operation Click event at D’Andrea Banquets in Crystal Lake. Operation Click is a teen safe driving program that operates in high schools in northern Illinois and Wisconsin. Students who participate in Operation Click sign a contract at the beginning of the school year to drive safely, and those who honor that pledge are given the chance to win a car.
Safe teen drivers rewarded Two area students win new cars through Operation Click By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Sixteen-yearold Jason Lunstrum on Thursday jumped out of a silver Ford and thrust both fists triumphantly in the air, all of a sudden the owner of the brand-new vehicle. The Hampshire High School junior was one of two students from 15 area high schools to receive this overwhelming prize as part of Operation Click, a peer-run program sponsored by AAA Chicago that promotes safe teen driving. “Honestly, it was so just so exciting,” Lunstrum said. “When I turned the key and the lights went on, it was like, wow, I actually just won a car.” Around since 1998 when seat belt compliance in Crystal Lake schools stood at about 70 percent to 80 percent, Operation Click now operates in 42 high schools in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, program Vice President Nicholas Pyan said. He added the local schools now have a compliance rate of 99 percent to 100 percent. The program encourages licensed students to sign a contract at the start of the school year, promising to drive safely. Twenty-eight finalists who honored that pledge were chosen at random to partake in the drawing for two new cars. The vehicles were donated by Courtesy Buick GMC and Kunes Ford Antioch. Before the winners won their new
McHenry East’s Sarah Dart reacts after her key turned on the ignition of a car Thursday during the Operation Click banquet. wheels, though, about 200 students gathered at D’Andrea Banquets in Crystal Lake to celebrate a year of complying with seat belt regulations, following driver’s license laws, and staying away from drinking and driving. The pledge also requires students to have a year free of behavioral or conduct issues at school. Among the event’s several speakers was Michael Ploszek, vice president of ambulatory services and operations at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, which is a longtime supporter of Operation Click. Ploszek told the story of three young people who were spared in a car wreck because of the seat belts
they chose to wear. He went on to describe the successful and happy lives those people have lived, later revealing they were his own three children. “Look what happens when we make the right choices,” he said. “Every time you get into a car, think about that and make the right choices.” Local high schools participating included Crystal Lake South and Central, McHenry East and West, Prairie Ridge, Cary-Grove, Huntley, Hampshire and St. Edward, among others.
See OPERATION CLICK, page A4
VOICE YOUR OPINION: What’s your biggest concern about teens driving? Vote online at NWHerald.com.
LOCAL NEWS
Third Bank branch at 265 W. Virginia St. in Crystal Lake. But as of Thursday, prosecutors said Feterick had only been charged with the bank robbery in Woodstock. According to McHenry County court records, Feterick has a few criminal charges in his history but only one felony. He spent eight days in jail and was fined and sentenced to conditional discharge on a 2009 forgery charge and was convicted of two 2010 misdemeanor theft charges in Crystal Lake and Cary.
Illinois restores $97M of school funding cuts The ASSOCIATED PRESS SPRINGFIELD – Almost 600 of the 800 Illinois school districts will have $97 million in state funding restored after a budget deal brokered last month between Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders cut money for education, with about one-third going to Chicago schools and the rest scattered among the other districts. But even with millions coming back to schools across the state, it will not make up for a 2.25 percent across the
board budget cut that included education. And school officials still have to worry about more funding problems as the state continues to grapple with an ongoing budget crisis that may prompt more budget cuts in the next fiscal year. “School districts are not out of the woods yet,” Elgin U-46 schools Superintendent Tony Sanders said. The Illinois State Board of Education plan, which was approved Wednesday and supported by Rauner, identified
See FUNDING, page A4
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SPORTS
Marengo Rescue Squad opens new station in Union that once was an auto repair shop; ribbon-cutting to be Saturday / A3
Photo provided
This photo provided by the FBI shows the suspected robber of the Fifth Third Bank in Woodstock on Wednesday. The suspect also is linked to a robbery at a Fifth Third Bank in Crystal Lake in March.
LOCAL NEWS
Lake in the Hills man sentenced for sexual abuse of two young family members / A3
Out with the old
WOODSTOCK – A 45-yearold Cary man was charged Thursday with robbing a Fifth Third Bank branch in Woodstock, after local police arrested him inside a hotel in Algonquin, federal prosecutors said. Michael Feterick, also known as Michael Retterly, of Cary, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the bank robbery charge, the U.S. State’s Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said. Feterick allegedly entered the Fifth Third Bank branch at 1745 S. Eastwood Drive, Woodstock, around 10:50 a.m. Wednesday and handed a teller a note that stated, “Money, no dye pack,” before he fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash, prosecutors said. Police from Crystal Lake and Woodstock arrested Feterick later on Wednesday inside an Algonquin hotel. Feterick is now in federal custody, and had an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, prosecutors said. Federal authorities previously linked Feterick to a March 30 robbery at the Fifth
Late push not enough Prairie Ridge girls soccer falls to York in PepsiCo Showdown game / C2
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