CULT BOURBONS SHOW PROOF OF SPIRIT’S RENAISSANCE Wednesday, april 30, 2014 • nWHerald.com • 75¢
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BULLIED OUT Bulls eliminated from playoffs after losing 75-69 to Wizards Sports, C1
Plea deal accepted in attack 14-year-old admits guilt; hate crime charges dropped By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Fabrication manager Darrell Dedick (left) and Crystal Lake Marine Services owner David Piersall lift the fin of the future replica of Batman’s Bat Boat being built for Glenn Chelius of Crystal Lake on Thursday in Woodstock. The original boat being converted is a 19foot Seaswirl 188 Spyder and they hope to have it completed by Memorial Day.
BUILDING THE
Caped crusader’s watercraft taking shape for CL man
BAT BOAT By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com
On the Web For an interactive look and video of Glenn Chelius and David Piersall’s planning and construction of the Bat Boat, visit NWHerald.com.
Many other replica boats are non-operational, and are only used for car shows and parades. Part of the design complication with Chelius’ boat is the functionality of the boat and the dual purpose Chelius planned on. back of the Bat Boat. They have a red light to place on the back. Workers had to build a hood to give the 19foot Seaswirl the desired shape. Chairs on the boat will be embroidered with the Batman logo. The shop is 65 to 75 percent finished with the job. The boat will carry four to
LOCALLY SPEAKING
six passengers, depending whether the boat is in Bat mode, Piersall said. When all is done, the boat will be painted blue and white with flame decals. There will even be a dashboard mimicking some of the gadgets on the boat, including a radar screen. The trailer wheels will have
See BATMAN, page A8
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See ATTACK, page A8
Ill. Senate adjourns without tax plan vote Many Democrats would not risk it in election year By JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – An effort to let Illinois voters consider a proposed overhaul of the state’s income tax system died Tuesday in the General Assembly, but there’s still a strong possibility the November ballot could include an unprecedented four constitutional amendments. The Senate adjourned without taking a vote on Sen. Don Harmon’s progressive income tax plan on the final day lawmakers could take action ahead of a May 4 deadline to get constitutional amendments on the gener-
“It’s a big decision and some folks still had questions they couldn’t quite answer to their own satisfaction. With a little more time and education we’re going to be able to convince a supermajority in both chambers.” Sen. Don Harmon D-Oak Park
al election ballot. Harmon said he had support in the Senate for a graduated income tax, which would require wealthier res-
See SENATE, page A8
MAN KILLED IN CRASH IDENTIFIED
CARY: DC Comics writer Josh Elder talks about how his love of reading started, teaches students how to draw. Local, B1
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slammed him to the ground before punching him. Babakhani said in February that he occasionally received offensive comments before but never had been physically attacked. Babakhani suffered two fractured clavicles. He still has plates in each shoulder and 12 total screws holding his clavicle bones together after having surgery in February, Omid’s father, Ben
CRYSTAL LAKE The man killed in a multi-vehicle crash Monday evening has been identified as Crystal Lake resident John J. Moore. An autopsy performed by the McHenry County Coroner revealed Moore, 43, died of multiple blunt force injuries due to the crash, according to a news release. For more, see page B1.
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Ben Babakhani Omid Babakhani’s father
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At first, Glenn Chelius wanted a Batmobile to call his own. The 48-year-old fan of the 1960s version of Batman starring Adam West even found a person in Tennessee who could sell him one. “It was pretty reasonably priced for a Batmobile,” the Crystal Lake resident said. “But the more I thought about it, it’s not very practical. It’s a two-seater, you can’t drive it in the rain because there’s no roof on it, you have to store it. As cool as that would have been, my kids are all teenagers now, [and] have always enjoyed boating with friends of ours ... I thought, I’m just going to ... create a Bat Boat or find one for sale.” So Chelius, who does own a Batman costume, went to Crystal Lake Marine Services in Woodstock and asked them to build him a Bat Boat. To put together the design, workers used a 6-inch model of the Bat Boat as their starting point. They eventually drew up designs on Adobe Illustrator for the $20,000 project, said David Piersall, owner of Crystal Lake Marine Services. Workers have built a back fin replicating the
chrome Batman emblems. They hope to have the boat ready to go by Memorial Day. “We are very used to completely rehabbing clients’ boats from the ground up,” Piersall said. “We’re custom fabricators, so we can do anything. This will be the first of this kind of project, and I think it will lead to many more projects like this.” This is the most challenging job ever for Crystal Lake Marine, Piersall said. When designing the boat, Piersall and Chelius wanted it to also be a functional family boat. So they came up with a way to have extra seats in the front of the boat that are covered when the boat is in “Bat mode.” “The whole family will be able to enjoy the boat out on the lake,” Chelius said. “It’s not going to be strictly a parade, show boat or prop. It’s going to be a functional boat.” Chelius even has a short write-up with a boat description, which he plans to put on a display board if he takes the boat to boat shows. If he had decided to buy a new ski boat, Chelius probably would have spent the same amount of money, he said.
CRYSTAL LAKE – A 14-year-old boy won’t face hate crime charges for attacking a classmate at a Crystal Lake middle school in February, under a plea deal a McHenry County judge accepted Tuesday. The boy instead pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated battery and apologized to the victim’s family inside a juvenile courtroom Tuesday as part of the deal. The boy attacked eighth-grader Omid Babakhani inside a hallway at Hannah Beardsley Middle School in February after he said “Hey Persian” in Babakhani’s direction and then made a derogatory comment about his mother, according to Babakhani at the time. He said the other student put him in a headlock and
“In a crime like this, there is no justice. It has stopped my son in his tracks. We just want to move on.”