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FILMS FOR FALL New season brings several unconventional movies to theaters, as well as a long-awaited sequel / Planit Pl@y NWHerald.com
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CL South bleachers need city approval Court affirms city authority in lawsuit By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
On Wednesday, the McHenry County Board Transportation Committee voted, 3-2, to add turn lanes and limit nearby entry points at the intersection of Randall and Algonquin roads in Lake in the Hills. A proposed continuous-flow intersection, which would involve a serious redesign of the intersection, had encountered significant opposition from area businesses and elected officials from Algonquin and Lake in the Hills.
Road project plan OK’d Transportation Committee sends proposal to County Board; continuous-flow idea rejected after seeing significant opposition By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – In the end, the controversial proposal to build a continuous-flow intersection at Randall and Algonquin roads isn’t even on the table. The McHenry County Board instead will be presented with a more conventional fix, adding turn lanes and limiting nearby entry points, which its Transportation Committee approved Wednesday after more than two hours of – at times – heated debate. Committee members voted Wednesday, 3-2, to advance the proposal to the County Board, which could vote on it as soon as its Sept. 16 meeting. The proposed continuous-flow intersection, which would involve a serious redesign of the intersection, encountered significant opposition from area businesses and elected officials from Algonquin and Lake
in the Hills. To underscore that point, committee Chairwoman Anna May Miller, R-Cary, read a joint letter from village presidents John Schmitt and Paul Mulcahy stating that the latest CFI design proposal village leaders and other interested parties saw at a private meeting last week was universally rejected. The idea of building a CFI came up shortly after the county in 2008 began examining a way to reduce congestion on Randall Road. “I’m very pleased with this alternative. It think it meets all the needs of this road improvement,” Mulcahy said after the meeting. The plan approved Wednesday would add third left-turn lanes on Algonquin Road and second leftturn lanes onto Randall Road. It also would eliminate several curb cuts near the intersection and limit several retail exit points to right-in, right-out, but allow lefthand turns at others at the request
of area merchants. While the overall project includes widening 3½ miles of Randall Road to six lanes from its start at Ackman Road south to the Kane County line, the proposed and unpopular CFI has dominated the discussion. Under a CFI, the left-turn lanes at Randall Road would have started several hundred feet back at a new set of signals that would – for a stretch – direct the cars onto the oncoming traffic lanes. But building a CFI would have required the closing of other retail entry points, which Lake in the Hills argued would hurt its income – about 75 percent of its sales tax revenue comes from the Randall Road corridor. TranSystems, the Schaumburg-based company supervising the Randall Road project, pegged the cost of both proposed intersection fixes at $16.2 million.
See INTERSECTION, page A4
How they voted The McHenry County Board Transportation Committee voted Wednesday morning, 3-2, in favor of recommending a fix for the intersection of Randall and Algonquin roads that does not involve a continuous-flow intersection. Voting yes were members Nick Chirikos, D-Algonquin, Paula Yensen, D-Lake in the Hills, and Chairwoman Anna May Miller, R-Cary. Members Nick Provenzano, R-McHenry, and Diane Evertsen, R-Harvard, voted no. Member Sandra Fay Salgado, R-McHenry, was absent. Ken Koehler, R-Crystal Lake, listened remotely to the presentation but did not cast a vote.
On the Net You can read more about the project at www.randallroad.info.
CRYSTAL LAKE – The bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School will need to receive city approval after an appellate court affirmed Wednesday a McHenry County judge’s ruling that the district must go through Crystal Lake’s zoning process. In a 42-page opinion, Justice “Requiring Joseph Birkett reconformity jected the district’s argument that the to the city’s city’s zoning authority did not ap- zoning ordiply because public nances will education was a state matter and not prevent the legislative gave the board broad authority to school districts and the that would override city authority. district from “In a conflict carrying out between a school d i s t r i c t a n d a their duties home-rule unit, the to provide home-rule unit’s powers should be public edugiven precedence,” Birkett wrote. “Re- cation to the quiring conformity residents of to the city’s zoning ordinances will the district.” not prevent the Justice board and the district from carrying Joseph out their duties Birkett to provide public in his 42-page education to the opinion on the residents of the disruling trict.” Justices Michael Burke and Mary Seminara-Schostok concurred in the opinion and judgment. The ruling likely brings an end to a yearlong legal battle between the city and District 155 involving a $1.18 million bleacher expansion that was built in the summer of 2013 without zoning or stormwater permits from the city. Neighboring residents who first introduced the lawsuit argued the structure was too close to property lines and too large according to city ordinances.
See BLEACHERS, page A4
Pimped wife from Woodstock murder violates probation, picks up new charges By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – Prosecutors are seeking to revoke the probation of a woman who was at the center of a 2011 shooting death. Kimberly A. Smith, 32, never was charged with murder in the death of Kurt Milliman, but was sentenced to two years of probation on disorderly conduct charges alleging she lied to police the night Milliman was killed. Her husband, Timothy S. Smith, 30, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to spend 50 years in Menard Correctional Facility. His case is pending an appeal.
Authorities said Timothy Smith placed online ads for sex with his wife, and on May 28, 2011, 48-yearold Milliman responded. Things escalated when Kimberly Smith refused to have sex with him and tried to stop the encounter, testimony during Timothy Smith’s triKimberly A. al revealed. A scuffle Smith ensued and Timothy Smith shot Milliman in the back. Kimberly Smith was forced to testify at her husband’s trial, but was offered immunity for the things she said on the witness stand.
Additional charges, including prostitution, were dropped in exchange for her plea. According to a petition to revoke Kimberly Smith’s probation filed Aug 14, she violated her probation by leaving the state without permission from her probation officer, and she picked up new offenses in Marquette, Michigan. According to court documents, she was charged June 26 with driving under the influence, resisting a peace officer and driving on a suspended license. On July 22, she was charged again with unlawful use of a credit card. Her next court date is Friday.
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis spoke Wednesday to the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee at Republican headquarters in Crystal Lake. See page A3 for the full story.
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Israel confirmed that Steven Sotloff also was an Israeli citizen / B4
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