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July 3 1, 2015 • $1.00
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Pitchers save the LITH Thunder, who will play Huntley in MCYSA tourney / C1 NWHerald.com
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Mosquito season back with a bite Wet month has some areas ramping up treatments as population spikes By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – A sudden spike in the mosquito population has some municipalities ramping up efforts to control the biting nuisances. A city of Crystal Lake contractor will spray a mist citywide overnight Friday into Saturday to help manage
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the mosquito population after the number of mosquitoes in one city-monitored trap jumped 12-fold in a week, said Denver Schmitt, assistant to
Village moves forward on plan
the public works director. The city keeps six traps around town and checks them three times a week to make sure there are fewer than 150 female mosquitoes inside, Schmitt said. On Monday, the trap at 365 Poplar St. had 192 female mosquitoes, up from 36 less than a week before. “That kind of triggered us to look at that closer for
Wednesday, and then it ballooned,” Schmitt said. “It was fairly shocking.” By Wednesday, the trap contained 434 mosquitoes. Two readings above 150, plus the exponential upsurge sent officials to their mosquito abatement contractor, Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management Inc. Clarke will spray in the
overnight hours, killing any mosquitoes that come into contact with the spray. Normal abatement efforts for places such as Crystal Lake, Woodstock and others involves placing a briquette in storm sewers. As it rains, the puck dissolves, releasing a substance that kills mosquito larvae into areas where water could pool. The larvae
thrive in standing water, a familiar sight in some areas this summer, which has been wetter than normal. McHenry County received 4.46 inches of rain in May, more than the average 3.77 inches, but far from the 10.25 inches the area received when it set a record in 2004,
See MOSQUITOES, page A4
TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST: TOLERANCE, ACCEPTANCE HAVE GROWN ALONGSIDE COUNTY’S POPULATION
Targets housing for seniors, adults with disabilities By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com LAKEWOOD – With demand high, group homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities play a new role in Lakewood’s plans to bring affordable housing to the village, documents show. The Lakewood Village Board approved in a 4-0 vote this week a plan that identifies Routes 47 and 176, the location of a tax increment financing district, as a potential site for new affordable housing, as well as group homes similar to the one built by Pioneer Center for Human Services in 2013 in existing neighborhoods. Trustees Ken Santowski and Paul Serwatka were absent from the meeting. State law required the village to submit an updated affordable housing plan this year after being notified it remains a nonexempt community for not meeting the 10 percent minimum laid out in the state’s Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act. Of Lakewood’s 1,367 occupied housing units, only 37, or about 2.7 percent, are considered affordable under the law, putting it slightly ahead of communities such as Winnetka, Northfield and Sleepy Hollow, according to the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The percentage is slightly
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Crystal Ann Gray (left) of Wonder Lake and her wife, Shari Miller, take a stroll July 16 at the McHenry Dam. Gray was born a man and transitioned into a woman after her wife died in 2006.
Transgender activist, Woodstock native find acceptance in county By ZACH BROOKE editorial@nwherald.com
I
n the wake of Caitlyn Jenner’s high-profile coming out and acceptance speech at the ESPY Awards, as well as transgender feature stories in major national media outlets such as the New York Times and PBS Frontline, trans people are experiencing an unprecedented moment of visibility.
Just because the attention is new, however, it doesn’t mean trans people haven’t always been there. Even in McHenry County. “I grew up in Woodstock off of North Street by the old Woodstock Dye Cast, which is now gone and it’s townhomes over there. I lived two blocks away from the Square. I could see the train station from my bedroom,” Crystal Ann Gray said. Gray graduated from Woodstock High
School in 1990. After a traumatizing youth that saw people like her bullied, stigmatized and treated as mentally ill, she moved away to pursue a better life. “There were no GLBT services back in 1990. There was still the idea of sending someone to a counselor to do some reparative therapy,” Gray said.
See TRANSGENDER, page A7
See HOUSING, page A4
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