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Power plant proposal withdrawn Developers nix $450M Oakwood Hills project that drew strong opposition from residents By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Developers for a proposed power plant in Oakwood Hills have killed the project in light of strong public opposition from residents of the village and surrounding areas. The proposed $450 million
natural gas power plant was first presented to residents in July and garnered immediate opposition as nearly 1,000 people showed up to the first zoning hearing on the project. Residents said the plant presented serious health, environmental and community concerns, including its proximity to a school and the neg-
“I have a feeling the power company would not have liked the result of the [zoning board] vote.” Martin Gierut, chairman of the Oakwood Hills Zoning Board ative effect it would have on property values. Martin Gierut, chairman of the Oakwood Hills Zoning
Board, said he was glad to see the developers listen to the outcry, but was disappointed the board never got to vote on
the measure. “I have a feeling the power company would not have liked the result of the vote,” Gierut said. “I think it was an ill-conceived plan ... and they decided it was no longer worth the time and effort.” Developers attempted to ease concerns by highlighting the limited emissions the plant
would produce compared to coal plants and other energy facilities. They also outlined a plan that would negate the need for groundwater as the 1.5 million gallons of water per day needed to operate the plant would come from numerous wastewater facilities.
See POWER PLANT, page A6
County votes on changes to UDO
FOX LAKE LANDMARK ENDANGERED
Opponents of RV rules, horse racing prevail at meeting By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
Photos by Cynthia Wolf for Shaw Media
Kim Kiesgen, 58, of Fox Lake cleans up the 26-foot Checkmate that she and her husband, Jack, keep at the Mineola Marine. While the marina remains in business, the hotel and lounge that functioned at the historic Mineola Hotel (background) has been shuttered since 2012.
Uncertain future for historic site Mineola Hotel in need of repairs as owner struggles to keep it maintained By CYNTHIA WOLF editorial@shawmedia.com FOX LAKE – Kim Kiesgen reached for a towel as she cleaned her 26-foot Checkmate on a recent weekday morning. Over the boater’s shoulders loomed the decaying north face of the once majestic Mineola Hotel. The structure has a storied history dating to 1884, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and contains a treasure trove of memories for thousands of people, Kiesgen included. “My whole family hung out there,” said Kiesgen, 58, of Fox Lake. “I miss it. We all miss it.” Kiesgen was talking specifically of the Mineola Restaurant and Lounge, which, until 2012, continued to operate on the ground floor even after much of the structure at 91 N. Cora Ave. had been closed to the public. The village of Fox Lake and owner Pete Jakstas Sr. battled in court between 2011 and 2012 over whether the building was safe for occupancy. A settlement shuttered the business in May 2012.
Pete Jakstas Sr. leafs through a scrapbook containing history and photographs of the Mineola Hotel through the years. The Jakstas family has owned the Mineola at 91 N. Cora Ave., Fox Lake, since 1943, when it was purchased by Pete Sr.’s parents, Pete and Emily Jakstas. “It had a great atmosphere,” said Kiesgen, adding that she bartended at the Mineola in her early 30s, and her sisters worked there, too. “It was
a great place, a fun place.” Built originally as a private members club by directors of the Chicago Board of Trade in 1884, the building
became a public hotel after Edson Howard bought and converted it in the early 1890s, according to a history produced by Lake County historian Diana Dretske of the Lake County Forest Preserves’ Lake County Discovery Museum. Two-hundred-and-twenty-five feet long and four stories high, the building known as the Lady of the Lakes once welcomed hundreds of vacationers who traveled by train from Chicago. During the turn of the century and into the Prohibition era, Fox Lake garnered a reputation for being a drinkers’ and gamblers’ paradise. Al Capone himself is said to have been among the Mineola’s frequenters. While the Mineola’s history is rich, its future is murky. By the 1960s, the hotel portion was closed as travelers eschewed its vintage, un-air-conditioned rooms and shared bathrooms, said Jakstas, whose family has owned the Mineola since 1943. Over the decades since the 1960s, the restaurant and lounge continued to draw the curious as well as those
WOODSTOCK – The proposed McHenry County Unified Development Ordinance will go easy on r e c r e a t i o n a l What it vehicle owners means and hard on horse racing The McHenevents. ry County C o u n t y Board voted Board members at a Tuesday at a Tuesday e v e n i n g s p e - evening c i a l m e e t i n g special approved, in a meeting to series of votes, keep language an amendment in the Unified e l i m i n a t i n g Development p r o p o s e d r e - Ordinance strictions on that forbids the storage of temporary r e c r e a t i o n a l permits for vehicles, and horse racing rejected sever- events on al amendments land zoned for that would have agriculture. e a s e d t o u g h Members also new restricvoted to elimitions on horse nate language racing events. that would Both issues have brought have put out residents in restrictions on force. Owners of the storage of recreational ve- recreational hicles bristled vehicles. at the proposed r e s t r i c t i o n s , What’s and homeown- next ers adjacent to a racetrack The County between Union Board will and Marengo hold its who have comnext voting plained since meeting on 2006 about noise proposed UDO and inappropriate conduct amendments from regular- at 6:30 p.m. l y s c h e d u l e d Oct. 1 at the e v e n t s t o l d county Adboard members ministration to stand their Building, 667 g r o u n d a n d Ware Road, keep the pro- Woodstock. posed restrictions in place. But while opponents to recreational vehicle restrictions have dominated past meetings, much of the hourlong public
See HOTEL, page A6 See ORDINANCE, page A5
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