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Playground at Main Beach to be replaced
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WOODSTOCK FIRE RESCUE DISTRICT PROVIDES HANDS-ON TRAINING
Project estimated at $195,000 By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – The volunteer-built playground at Crystal Lake Main Beach will be replaced with a cheaper, longer-lasting playground designed to appeal to a wider range of age groups, a Crystal Lake Park District official said. The park board decided Thursday to go with a replacement of the current playground over a renovation, said Ann Viger, the park district’s director of planning and development. The new playground will have swings, slides, lots of climbing opportunities, places to crawl through and bars to hang from, Viger said. The playground will take up a larger footprint than the previous structure, but it will look lighter because it’s made up of multiple structures that have to be set apart from one another. “It’s going to be very fun with a lot to do, and some of it will be very physically challenging for kids, which will be great,” she said. The playground is estimated to cost roughly $195,000 and last 25 years, while a renovation of the current structure would have cost about $225,000 and lasted about 10 years, Viger said. The next step will be to incorporate the board’s decision into the final construction designs for the renovation of Main Beach, which also is to include replacing the boathouse and pier, ex-
“It’s going to be very fun with a lot to do, and some of it will be very physically challenging for kids, which will be great.” Ann Viger Crystal Lake Park District director of planning and development panding the beach area, and adding a play area for young children, two shade sail structures, new walkways and baggo courts. The big questions are when the project will go out for bids and when it does, what will be included, Viger said. The $400,000 Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant awarded by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to help pay for the project remains tied up in the state’s budget fight. The park board could decide to wait and see what happens with the grant, perhaps putting off the project temporarily, Viger said. It also could break the project up into phases that the district could pay for through its own budget. Either way, the work wouldn’t happen until after the beach closes for the season, she said.
2 charged after Lake in the Hills domestic dispute Police: Gun fired, but no one was injured from shot By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shamedia.com LAKE IN THE HILLS – Two people have been charged after a domestic dispute that led to a gun being fired in Lake in the Hills late Sunday night, police said. The charges came as a result of an investigation that began after police responded about 10 p.m. to a single-family home in the 2900 block of Geneva Lane, a department news release said. The dispute involved a boyfriend, girlfriend and the woman’s father, Lake in the Hills Police Sgt. Lloyd Howen said Monday morning. John Bohun, 34, of Lake in the Hills was charged with
reckless conduct and endangering the life or health of a child, and two counts of domestic battery. Jamilie C. Tupino, 27, who was identified by Sgt. Mark Mogan as Bohun’s girlfriend, was charged with two counts of domestic battery. According to court documents, both have been involved in domestic violence-related cases in the past. Police did not identify the third person involved, presumably Tupino’s father. When officers arrived at the scene, they learned two men had been struggling for control of a gun when it was fired. No one was injured from the shot, but police said one person was taken to Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin after the dispute with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Woodstock High School senior Flor Hernandez, 18, talks with a firefighter/paramedic Thursday while training at Woodstock Fire and Rescue Station 3. The Woodstock Fire Rescue District teaches a class that gives high school and college students college credit and prepares them for a career as a firefighter/paramedic.
Students experience emergency response MCC, Woodstock fire district collaborate to jump-start careers By HANNAH PROKOP hprokop@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – About seven years ago, Woodstock Fire Rescue District Chief Ralph Webster said he was seeing an influx of men and women who wanted to be firefighters and high school graduates trying to go into the field without any experience. A program created through the Woodstock district has Ralph c h a n g e d Webster that, and it allows students to become Illinois-licensed emergency medical technicians and earn college credits from McHenry County College by the time they graduate high school. The class meets five mornings a week at Woodstock Fire and Rescue Station 3, 2900 Raffel Road, said Scott Wessel, a Woodstock firefighter/paramedic and the class instructor. High school seniors are able to fit the class into their schedules, and it also is open to people not in high school with no experience, he said. For Wessel, who’s been with the Woodstock fire district for about nine years, the goal of the class isn’t to teach students how to fight fires – it’s to teach them how to be firefighters. “To have a focus on character development is what it really comes down to,” Wessel said. Wessel said public servants are held to higher standards and expectations than residents, and they must
Woodstock firefighter/paramedic Anthony Huemann goes over how to do a rig check with Hernandez during training Thursday at Woodstock Fire and Rescue Station 3. Hernandez, who hopes to be a doctor someday, said she took the class to improve her skills to move on in the medical field.
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You get a whole variety of experiences every day. You can go on 10 calls, and none of them will be exactly the same.” Daniel Jagman
20-year-old paramedic apprentice at McHenry County College
conduct themselves appropriately on and off duty. Some of those lessons come through working at the fire station and partaking in everyday activities, such as doing maintenance around the station, cleaning and studying, Wessel said. “We have high expectations of the new guy, and they have to prove that they’re deserving of being there,” Wessel said.
The field also has become more competitive throughout the years, Webster said, and most departments require potential employees to be certified as a firefighter and some level of EMT. People who enter the program can start as a Tier 1 Recruit, and move their way up through courses offered at MCC to become a certified Illinois basic operations firefighter and Illinois-licensed
paramedic. Webster said Wessel helped redefine the program a few years ago from being a firefighter cadet program to more of an emergency services class. Twenty-year-old Daniel Jagman now is in paramedic school as an apprentice at MCC, and he took the EMT class at the Woodstock fire station his senior year of high school. He heard about the class from his high school counselor, Jagman said, and once he took it, he said he found out that being a firefighter was everything he wanted it to be. “You get a whole variety of experiences every day,” Jagman said. “You can go on
See TRAINING, page A4
See CHARGES, page A4
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