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Road, wetland work set for fall
McHENRY COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT
WEIGHING IN ON ASSET FORFEITURES
Plans in works for improvements at Apple Creek Estates By HANNAH PROKOP hprokop@shawmedia.com
larger. Last month, prosecutors filed the legal documents to seize $140,618 from a Spring Grove man accused of dealing marijuana. Roger Lambrechts is charged in Lake County, but a McHenry County search of his home turned up an additional six figures that are the subject of pending forfeiture action. Lambrechts’ attorney couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
WOODSTOCK – After about eight years of not being maintained, roads and wetland areas in the Woodstock unfinished subdivision near Lucas Road and Route 47 will see some changes this fall, Woodstock City Engineer Al Wilson said. When the previous subdivision developer, Apple Creek Estates LLC, went bankrupt, road surfacing was not completed, which resulted in cracking and other problems on roads in the area, Wilson said, and the wetland area becoming “like a garden that needs to be weeded.” Now that the Woodstock City Council has approved a settlement agreement between the city of Woodstock, Bond Safeguard Insurance Co., the Land Conservancy of McHenry County and current property owners, Hawthorne 45 LLC and Woodstock 150 LLC, the lawsuit between the parties should be dropped soon and work can start in the unfinished subdivision. Wilson said he expects roadwork to start this fall with the city’s resurfacing program, and also expects wetland work to begin in the fall. The agreement states that a wetland specialist, ENCAP Inc., and the Land Conservancy will make the wetland improvements. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will monitor the wetlands over the next three years, according to the agreement, and the Land Conservancy will take over longterm maintenance of the wetland area. Apple Creek Estates LLC originally intended to develop about 550 acres of property with residential uses in the subdivision, and the city entered an annexation agreement with Apple Creek Estates LLC in 2005, according to the agreement. Planning and zoning administrator for the city Jim Kastner said in Phase 1 of the project, only 268 of the planned 407 residential dwellings were completed, leaving undeveloped lots in the area.
See ASSET, page A4
See ESTATES, page A4
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Robb Tadelman examines a gun Monday at the sheriff’s office in Woodstock. That gun was seized from a drug dealer.
‘Policing for profit’ or taking property and cash ‘away from criminals’? By CHELSEA McDOUGALL
How assets are divided once seized by authorities
cmcdougall@shawmedia.com As the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and other area police departments make moves to take property and cash, as they put it, “away from criminals,” critics of asset forfeiture call the approach “policing for profit.” In Illinois, law enforcement can seize property suspected of being involved in criminal activity or property that is believed to be the proceeds of criminal enterprise. Property can mean cash, cars or real estate. Nearly every police agency in McHenry County has initiated these legal proceedings this year, with the sheriff’s office using them most frequently. It has reported $868,546 in forfeitures to date. Of that, $346,070 has been in cash, but it also has seized real estate, vehicles, a trailer, motorcycles, weapons, TVs, computers and more,
Seizing agency or agencies: 65 percent State’s Attorney’s Office: 12.5 percent Appellate Prosecutor’s Office: 12.5 percent Illinois State Police: 10 percent
A view of assets of more than $100,000 and multiple guns that the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office seized from drug dealers. according to data it provided. According to McHenry County court records, most of the seizures
from various agencies are in small amounts: $100 here or $500 there. Other forfeiture actions are much
Chicago schools budget banks on state funds not yet approved By SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press CHICAGO – Officials with cashstrapped Chicago Public Schools ratcheted up their plea for help from Springfield on Monday, detailing a proposed $5.7 billion operating budget that banks on nearly $500 million in Gov. Bruce pension relief from the Rauner state that might not get approved. The spending plan had been ex-
More online Read more about the bill at ilga.gov. The federal funding bill is SB2042.
pected to be bleak, with officials in the nation’s third-largest district struggling to close a more than $1.1 billion shortfall. CPS officials acknowledged that the proposal – which includes teacher layoffs and a property tax increase – was an “unsustainable” combination of borrowing and cuts but said there was no other choice
with a $676 million teacher pension payment required by state law. “Our goal is to protect pensions and to protect the classroom,” CEO Forrest Claypool said. “To do that, it means everybody’s got to pitch in.” However, attempts at a legislative fix have been unsuccessful. Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to tie money to reforms such as giving communities across the state power to limit unions’ collective bargaining. The first-term Republican called his third news conference in recent days on the issue, saying he took the school budget as a signal that the dis-
Voice your opinion Who's to blame for Illinois' budget impasse? Vote now at NWHerald.com. trict was ready to make “structural changes” and that he was ready to negotiate. He wouldn’t say if Illinois could afford the $480 million “pension equity” money CPS wants before Jan. 1, saying he hadn’t seen details. He has said before that CPS gets special treatment. “The power of the teachers union
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Big R plans to open in McHenry this fall / A3
Protests continue Monday in Ferguson, Missouri / B3
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has been overwhelming. Chicago has given and given and given. It’s created the financial crisis that the Chicago schools face now,” he said, adding that he was headed to Springfield to discuss with legislative leaders. The Chicago Teachers Union, in the midst of negotiating a new contract, blasted the CPS plan for including money not approved by legislators and for wanting to end the district’s practice of picking up a percentage of teachers’ retirement contribution.
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