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Tensions simmer on city council McHenry’s six-page strategic plan was center of recent transparency accusations By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com McHENRY – A city’s strategic plan lists its strengths and weaknesses and outlines its goals. It’s not usually a controversial document, but the McHenry City Council’s discussion of a proposed – and subsequently passed – six-page plan resulted in accusations of a lack of transparency and revealed longstanding tensions among council members. Alderman Andy Glab was the sole no vote in approving the strategic plan, pointing to some points, in particular transpar-
Sue Low McHenry mayor
Andy Glab alderman
ency, that he felt the council espoused but didn’t live up to. Glab criticized the city for no longer airing its City Council meetings on the area public access channel like it used to. The city stopped because getting the meetings on the air required sending a staff member to go to the Comcast office in Waukegan, Mayor Sue Low responded, adding that the city has upped its communication to residents in different ways, including a weekly newsletter and social media. “The council’s integrity was called into question,” Low said. “People want a variety of opin-
ions on their council, and people are entitled to their opinion. But your opinion should be stated in a respectful way. I’ve tried to run the meetings in a respectful manner and give everyone a chance to speak.” While multiple elected officials and City Administrator Derik Morefield agree that the tensions haven’t impacted city business or residents, they have led to some policy changes. About 10 months ago, Low implemented a new communication policy, asking council members to contact Morefield with all questions and to send those via email.
The policy was designed to address two issues: First to make sure that all council members were getting the same information, which is easier when it’s handled through email, and the second to cut back on the lengthy conversations some council members were having with staff, which was affecting their ability to do their jobs, Morefield said at the time. The council is spilt on how the policy is working out. Some, including Low and aldermen Geoffrey Blake and Rich Wimmer, think communication is at its best. Blake added that he likes get-
Families head outside to celebrate Labor Day as weather holds
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Zachary Unzicker, 6, and his brother Colin, 10, of Rolling Meadows chase after a ball Monday while spending the day with their grandparents at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach. After growing up in Crystal Lake, the Unzicker family has a tradition of spending the first and last day of summer with their family at the beach in Crystal Lake. TOP: Bob Motta and his daughter Carly, 8, of Woodstock depart Monday from Main Beach. By EMILY K. COLEMAN
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heir chairs lined up along the trout pond of Lake Julian, Janet and Bob Joesel of Fox River Grove watched their son and grandson try to catch dinner. The quiet afternoon was the cap to a holiday weekend filled with boating and entertaining and for daughter-in-law Becky Allen, who sat beside her inlaws, a chance to relax after working the weekend. “The weather has been so unpredictable that everything’s been last minute,” Bob Joesel said. But despite a hazardous
weather outlook warning of thunderstorms that hovered over Labor Day festivities, other families joined the Joesels and Allens outside, hosting barbecues, heading to the beach and taking to the Fox River. Temperatures reached a high of 82 degrees in the early afternoon Monday with humidity pushing the heat index higher, according to the National Weather Service. Light rain sprinkled some areas. The weather hit similar points throughout the weekend, with temperatures peaking in the mid-80s both Saturday and Sunday and clouds filling the skies most of the weekend.
See McHENRY, page A6
Parents of ill boy fight extradition from Spain
the GREAT OUTDOORS
ecoleman@shawmedia.com
ting answers to questions asked by aldermen. Others, including Glab and Alderman Victor Santi, think it’s not working out. Santi finds the email system hard to manage when he’s on the road for work. As an extension of that policy, Morefield sent out an email in June concerning a conversation Glab had with the Northwest Herald. “While Councilmembers are certainly able to express their opinions and to carry out these opinions by way of voting on
Sitting on the stone wall outside The Freeze in Crystal Lake, Kylan and Andrea Harasimowicz enjoyed ice cream and people watching with their two daughters, Grace, 4, and Brynn, 6. The treat followed a day of mini golf. “There’s always a line here, but we were able to zip right in,” Andrea Harasimowicz said as they watched the line begin to grow out the door. The Harasimowiczs live just around the corner and are frequent visitors to the ice cream parlor. Christie George of Chicago suggested a trip to Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach as a family outing for her son and his cousins.
“They’ve been in the water all day,” she said, adding that they try to get together as a family pretty often. Courtenay and Tim Sterzik of Cary also joined their friends, Jill and Ken Shadel of Crystal Lake, at the beach, talking as their kids built sandcastles and dashed into the water. The rest of the weekend had been spent at family gatherings and kayaking at Three Oaks Recreation Area. The Shadels planned on finishing off the evening having dinner on a restaurant’s outdoor patio. “We are just going to wrap up here at the beach and then get the kids ready for school,” Courtenay Sterzik said.
LONDON – The parents say they want to give their 5-year-old boy with a brain tumor the best chance to live with a revolutionary new treatment they learned about on the Internet. Their British hospital says the boy has a 70 percent to 80 percent chance of survival with the treatment it offers, and it’s the parents who are putting the child at risk. Britain has become riveted by the case of little Ashya King, whose parents plucked him from a hospital in southern England and Ashya King fled to Spain amid a dispute over treatment – with British justice close on the family’s heels. Brett and Naghemeh King signaled Monday they would fight extradition, defying doctors and the legal system as a British court considers a ruling on forcing the family to come home. “I’m not coming back to England if I cannot give him the treatment I want, which is proper treatment,” Brett King said as he cradled the child in a video posted before his arrest. “I just want positive results for my son.” The Kings are seeking a new type of proton beam radiation therapy that typically costs at least $33,000. The Southampton General Hospital says that more conventional methods have a very high chance of succeeding. It said that while proton beam therapy is effective for some tumors, in other cases “there isn’t evidence that this is a beneficial treatment.” The family fled to Spain in hopes of selling a property to obtain enough cash for treatment in the Czech Republic or the United States. Police pursued them. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for an offence of cruelty to a person younger than the age of 16 years, hours after the Southampton hospital realized their patient was gone. British authorities traveled to Spain to question the couple. Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead, of Hampshire Constabulary, has said he would rather be criticized for being “proactive” rather than trying to explain later “why a child has lost his life.”
See ILL BOY, page A6
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