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Wonder Lake sustainable garden featured on annual walk / Style, 3 NWHerald.com
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
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Tom Kotlowski Crystal Lake police operations commander
LAKEWOOD – The top priorities of extending utilities to Routes 47 and 176, improving the intersection and reimbursing the village for its expenses aren’t the only way Lakewood officials were considering using dollars generated by the newly created tax increment financing district. In negotiations with the developers of a sports complex proposed for the area, village officials had discussed giving the sports complex a share of the sales tax and property taxes it generated, according to emails obtained by the Northwest Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request. Those dollars may have gone to a backup fund to be used to cover the complex’s bond payments if it didn’t generate enough revenue to cover them
Home State Bank has endured challenges, successes since founding in Crystal Lake / D1 SPORTS
‘Being together with family’ Parades, fireworks shows and festivals make for a jam-packed holiday weekend throughout McHenry County / A3
Player-coach reunion Crystal Lake native lands first full-time NHL position with Columbus Blue Jackets / C1
“This is all in draft form. We’re at an impasse. That’s why we’re not moving forward.” Catherine Peterson Lakewood village manager
Post-referendum future of Greek gov’t uncertain By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS The Associated Press
Illustration by R. Scott Helmchen – shelmchen@shawmedia.com
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BUSINESS
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By EMILY K. COLEMAN
“You have to give them the ability to seek recovery,” Kotlowski continued. “Death is not recovery. It’s our responsibility to keep people from harming themselves, and this is just part of that.” Police also are stepping up enforcement and aggressively targeting suppliers, law enforcement officials say. There are two pending drug-induced homicide cases being prosecuted in McHenry County. In those instances, two Lake County men are accused of selling fatal doses of heroin to an Algonquin woman and a Port Barrington man. According to statistics provided by McHenry County Coroner Anne Majewski, there have been 24 overdose deaths so far this year. As Majewski explained, there could be more yet to be counted because toxicology reports typically lag four to six weeks after death has occurred. “It is worrisome to me that we have 24 overdose deaths at the end of April,” Majewski said. Of the 24 drug-related deaths this year, nine were heroin-related. In 2014, there were 12 deaths attributable to heroin, out of all 32 drug overdose deaths. The coroner was quick to point out that while the heroin death rate is alarming, prescription opiate drugs, such as Oxycontin, Vicodin or oxycodone, contribute to more deaths in the county.
LOCAL NEWS
Complete forecast on page A12
ecoleman@shawmedia.com
Opiate antidote finds wider use, but fatalities continue As area police departments make a push to carry Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of an opiate overdose, statistics from the McHenry County coroner show that heroin and opiate-related deaths show no signs of slowing. It’s a clear sign that heroin and other opiate drugs still have a firm grip on the county, officials say. A growing number of police agencies in the county are equipping their officers with Narcan, the brand name for prescription naloxone. Narcan works by blocking the brain receptors that opiates latch onto and helping the body “remember” to take in air. Paramedics and hospitals have been carrying Narcan for years, but lately there’s been a push for police also to carry the version of the drug that’s administered nasally. Crystal Lake was the first police department in the county to start carrying the drug in May 2014. Since then, police saved five lives: two in 2014, and three this year, according to Crystal Lake Police Operations Commander Tom Kotlowski. “What nasal Narcan allows us to do is push pause when we come in contact with a person experiencing an overdose so our EMTs, paramedics and firefighters can have a patient that is save-able,” he said.
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Documents: Lakewood considered giving sports complex share of revenue
FIGHTING OVERDOSE DEATHS By CHELSEA McDOUGALL -
LOW
Village weighed tax perks
“You have to give them the ability to seek recovery. Death is not recovery. It’s our responsibility to keep people from harming themselves, and this is just part of that.”
cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
HIGH
WHERE IT’S AT Advice .................... Style 8 Business .................... D1-4 Classified.................... F1-5 Community ....................B1 Local News................ A2-9 Lottery............................A2 Movies...................Style 11 Nation&World...............B3 Obituaries ....................A11 Opinions ........................B2 Puzzles ....................... F3, 6 Sports......................... C1-8 State ...............................B3 Style..........................Inside Weather ....................... A12
ATHENS, Greece – Whether Greeks decide in Sunday’s referendum to accept their lenders’ bailout deal or reject it, the government’s hold on power may be shakier than its brash prime minister has calculated, analysts say. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is banking on fellow Greeks to deliver a resounding “no” in the popular vote that he believes will give him strong leverage in his negotiations with creditors to swing a softer bailout deal for a country ravaged by years of harsh austerity, deep recession and crushing poverty. A win for the “No” campaign, the reasoning goes, could also furnish Tsipras with an endorsement for his five-month rule and
Alexis Tsipras Prime minister of Greece. The Greek government is holding a referendum Sunday on whether to accept or reject the nation’s lenders’ bailout deal.
See GREECE, page A4
Shorten YOUR SUMMER TO-DO LIST ITEM NO. 7
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