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Council rejects bleacher request
HAWK DYNASTY?
Court ruling still pending in matter By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com
AP photos
Blackhawks Duncan Keith, Brandon Saad (20), Patrick Kane (center), Jonathan Toews (1) and Niklas Hjalmarsson celebrate a Toews goal in Game 7 of the Western Conference final on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks. The Hawks open the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Tampa Bay.
Blackhawks on quest to win 3rd Stanley Cup in 6 years By JASON SCHAUMBURG jschaumburg@shawmedia.com
W
hen the Blackhawks take the ice Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in Tampa, Florida, they’ll be attempting to do something no team has done in the NHL salary cap era: Win it all for a third time. Only the Los Angeles Kings and the Blackhawks have won two Stanley Cups since a salary cap was installed before the 2006-07 season. The Tampa Bay Lightning stand in the way of the Hawks winning their third Stanley Cup in six seasons. Here’s a closer look at the series, the teams involved and the players who make each team go:
Stanley Cup history An Original Six team, the Blackhawks are trying to win their sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history. After winning Cups in 1934, 1938 and 1961, the Hawks ended a 49-year drought by beating the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010. Three years later, the Hawks knocked off the Boston Bruins. In 22 seasons of existence, the Lightning have won one Stanley Cup – in 2004 when Tampa Bay beat the Calgary Flames. Hawks center Brad Richards was on that Lightning team, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoffs’ MVP.
How they got here A first-round series win over the Nashville Predators (4-2) set up a second-round series against the Minnesota Wild for the Blackhawks. This season was the third consecutive that the Hawks and Wild met in the playoffs. It also was
Series glance GAME 1: Blackhawks at Tampa Bay 7 p.m. Wednesday, NBC, AM-720 GAME 2: Blackhawks at Tampa Bay 6:15 p.m. Saturday, NBC, AM-720 GAME 3: Tampa Bay at Blackhawks 7 p.m. Monday, NBCSN, AM-720
Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos has seven goals this postseason. the third consecutive season the Hawks trounced Minnesota from the playoffs, this time in a fourgame sweep. Appearing in the Western Conference final for the fifth time in seven years, the Hawks ousted the Ducks, winning Game 7 in Anaheim after trailing in the series, 3-2. The Lightning have beaten three Original Six teams to get to this point. After beating the Detroit Red Wings (4-3) and Montreal Canadiens (4-2), Tampa Bay needed seven games to defeat the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference final.
Star power The Lightning’s Tyler Johnson leads the
See HAWKS, page A2
GAME 4: Tampa Bay at Blackhawks 7 p.m. June 10, NBCSN, AM-720 GAME 5: Blackhawks at Tampa Bay 7 p.m. June 13, NBC, AM-720* GAME 6: Tampa Bay at Blackhawks 7 p.m. June 15, NBC, AM-720* GAME 7: Blackhawks at Tampa Bay 7 p.m. June 17, NBC, AM-720* * – if necessary
Inside Undercurrent of grief runs through Hawks’ playoff festivities, as loss of assistant equipment manager Clint Reif, former player Steve Montador still resonates. PAGE C1
CRYSTAL LAKE – A plan that would make some changes to the controversial bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School has been rejected by the Crystal Lake City Council, a move one council member said she thought sent the message that the city wasn’t willing to work with the district. The meeting Tuesday evening was sometimes hostile, but by the end, several council members had said they would support a proposal that switched the larger home-team bleachers back to the building side of the stadium. Superintendent Johnnie Thomas plans on taking the feedback back to the Community High School District 155 Board, he said, adding that he would talk to the school board president about when that discussion would take place. “People could conceptually come up with anything, but I think without having our architects and the appropriate professionals take a look at what that means for the plans of the school itself, it’s just a very difficult thing to determine right now,” Thomas said after the meeting. “We’re always open to suggestions and possibilities.” Any new zoning request the district submits to the city will have to start from square one, council member Ellen Brady Mueller said, adding that in other situations, the council has just sent the project back to the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission to be reworked. “Why are we not able to do that today?” she asked. “Because this plan is different,” Mayor Aaron Shepley said. “You know why? Because there has been a lawsuit pending for the last two years. That’s why.” “I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t see how that – I see that as separate from this proceeding,” Brady Mueller said. “I don’t want to deny them. I don’t want to send the message ... that we don’t want to work with them.” Council member Ralph Dawson disagreed that the vote would send that message, adding that the district has to go back before its board and have its architects draw up plans before it could appear before the Planning and Zoning Commission again. The plan that several council members, including Brady Mueller, suggested the district consider is one that returns the home bleachers back to the building side of the stadium. The reason the district had not
See BLEACHERS, page A2
Audit finds fiscal blunders, lax oversight at dental clinic County-run veterans program has since ended By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com Double-billing, conflicts of interest and misuse of taxpayer resources abounded under a now-discontinued grant program to give low-income veterans access to dental care, an audit revealed. The 36-page internal audit, released Tuesday by a unanimous
McHenry County Board vote, uncovered systemic problems with how the McHenry County Cooperative Dental Clinic administered the program, which was funded through a state grant and the county Veterans Assistance Commission. While the state’s attorney’s office has concluded there is inadequate evidence to warrant criminal charges, and the dentists named in the audit
resigned shortly after it was started, the audit contains numerous corrective actions that have been taken to prevent future occurrences. Under the program, which existed from 2007 to 2012, veterans with dental issues were supposed to be diagnosed at the county dental clinic, then referred to local dentists for treatment. But almost all of that work went to two dentists who were under contract with the clinic, and not only paid for their hourly rates, but also for the work done, much of
which took place not at their offices but at the taxpayer-owned clinic in Woodstock. What’s more, dentist Michael Koehne, who received more than $100,000 of the $150,000 paid out under the grant program, was married to Diane Metrick, the dentist who supervised the clinic. Koehne and Metrick operate a clinic in Wheaton, while the third dentist, C. Eric Mayer, works in Richmond. All three of them resigned within weeks of the April 1, 2014, release of the preliminary
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audit to then-Public Health Administrator Patrick McNulty, who supervised the Department of Health in charge of the clinic. Metrick and Mayer were salaried employees of the county, while Koehne, Metrick’s husband, was contracted to do the dental work. Of the $150,739 paid out to treat 41 veterans, all but $3,567 was paid to Koehne and Mayer. About $95,000 of that was covered by an Illinois
See DENTAL CLINIC, page A6
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