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Assessment Protest At McHenry Shores Continues SHAW MIDI A NCWt SMVICC Excitement reigned and temper* flared at Tuesday evening's McHenry Shores hearing as ane after anather^steyped forth to yoke opposition to a proposed • pedal the Improvement of village roads. In the top picture ad. at dose range, the crowd at the bach of the Civic center room before the wua«ha*gad. la lotoer pbofcCVillage President Grimes tells of Im dc the larger Alliance Bible church. At right Is Village Attorney David decision to Rogers. McHenry Shores residents turned out en masse Tuesday night to oppose the proposed special assessment im­ provement of village roads. The hearing, scheduled to be held at the Lon Reed Civic center in the village, was moved to the Alliance Bible church on Bull Valley road when the village building inspector limited the crowd entering the civic center, a converted small house, leaving more than SO persons clustered outside. He cited safety and structural overload con­ siderations. The hearing recessed at it p.m. and will be reconvened at 7 p.m. The first beautiful weekend in at least three prompted thoughts of getting out on the roaa. Even the rising price of gasoline couldn't discourage the idea entirely - it only reduced the length of the trip. Spring has many pluses. The one minus that soon came to our attention was piles of rubbish appearing here and there along the roadside. Its color in­ dicated that this was not something that had been dormant under the snow and was just emerging. Rather, it seemed to have been a fresh supply of items that probably relieved a trashy house or yard some distance from the point where it was thrown. Here in McHenry, however, something constructive awaits us. Very soon the annual Trade fair will open its doors to an eager public. The very fact that it will cover a greater amount of space gives indication that there is more interest than ever before. And with Trade fair memories still with us, the electorate will be called upon to vote for city, township and village officials. School trustee positions will be left for another time. Here we encounter innovations for this will be McHenry's first vote under the newly enacted consolidation of elections law. One of its purposes is to lessen the number of times the public must go to the polls. But something will be missing this election. Among happy memories that covered many years was trudging home, weary but excited, sometime before midnight after answering hundreds of calls, all with the same question, "Who won?" If it's true that newspaper life gets into the Mood, the metamorphosis takes place at election time. We may have a favorite as the callers do, but we keep it to ourself. Not so with those who phone. They like nothing better than to express their joy or dismay when they learn the name of the victorious candidate. It's the rule, not the exception, when a big booming "Whoopee" hits the ear. On the other hand, something less printable is not unheard of when the "wrong" man wins. This time there will be no ringing phones, no visitors to the office "just to see how things are shaping up at city hall". All the action has been moved to the (Continued on page 4) RTA County Office Moves The Regional Transportation Authority is moving its McHenry county office from Crystal Lake to Woodstock, the county seat, Monday, March 16. The new RTA address, 666 Russell court, is across the street from the McHenry county courthouse, a more centralized location convenient for all county residents. The new RTA phone number is (815) 338-5990. Van Sells, RTA McHenry county regional affairs officer, and her staff will be open for the first day of business in Room 210 at the new location Tuesday, March 17. RTA office hours are from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., week days. The new location is served by the No. 807 (Woodstock-McHenry) bus route operated by Worts Transit company. Residents are invited to stop in at the new RTA office in Woodstock for transit literature and senior citizen reduced fare cards. Thwart Forgery, Theft Attempt At State Bank McHenry police arrested and charged a man and a woman in con­ nection with a forgery and theft at­ tempt at the McHenry State bank last week. Pamela Meissner, of 2445 N. 73rd court, Elmwood, was arrested after she attempted to cash a stolen check at the bank. According to police, Ms. Meissner left when the teller became suspicious. An accomplice, Maurice Townsend, of 8743 Blackstone, Chicago, was arrested later. Townsend was charged with two counts of forgery and at­ tempted theft. Meissner was charged with forgery and attempted theft. Richard William Lapp, of 218 Wonder Way, Lake-In-The-Hills, was arrested by McHenry police after he had the gas tank of his auto filled with fuel, but did not have enough money to pay for it. The county police are investigating the theft of nine lawn tractors from Adams Lawn and Leisure, 2303 Route 120, McHenry. The loss was estimated at 19,000. Robert Masini, of 2312 Glenwood, McHenry, called the police when he found that someone had stolen his pickup truck. The vehicle was later discovered near Lombard, 111. Someone entered a garage and stole a red snowblower that belonged to James Budniakiewicz, of 3813 E. Wonder Lake road, Wonder Lake. Linda Havelka, of 5910 Fox Lake road, McHenry, reported the theft of a (Continued on page 4) Prizes Features Of '81 Free Trade Fair Among the many features at the eighth annual McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce Trade fair will be a multitude of prizes being awarded for everything from free facials to fancy fashions, from free lessons to foam frisbies, from dollars-on-account to cos turn es-for-a-ca use, and many, many more. In addition to the prizes, many exhibitors will have give-aways for every visitor at their booth, in­ formational as well as functional items. Admission is free for all. McHenry restaurants will be serving food in the concession area in the gym as well as accommodating fair-goers making instant phone reservations for those choosing to eat elsewhere. The fair is being held at Parkland school at the west end of McHenry, Route 120 and Ringwood road. Fair hours and dates are: Friday, March 27, 6 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, March 28, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, March 29, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. £ To Location Near Courthouse March 24 at the Alliance church. The already endangered proposal was placed further in doubt as ob­ jectors' attorney, William Cowlin, pointed out that transferring from the place specified in the notice printed in newspapers and mailed to property owners made the entire proceedings of doubtful legality. Cowlin, who said he represented about 60 property owners, registered a number of additional objections including questioning if the persons outside were notified of the eeting place change, failure to call eeting to order'at time specified,, reasonableness of the improvement proposal for $1.5 million against a total village property valuation of $6 million. He also questioned if any rules for procedure for the meeting were adopted at or before the meeting, whether the public benefit of the project (set at $20,000) was sufficient (he said usually it represents about 10 percent of projects). Cowlin suggested that the amount assigned to this portion of the project was tailored to fit the maximum public benefit tax available for the entire village property owners. Cowlin also challenged the $260,000 chargeable for the sale of the special assessment bonds. George Heck, vice- president of Baxter-Woodman engineering of Crystal Lake, had testified that they estimated con­ tractors would discount the special assessment bonds and this was figured in their estimates. Heck noted that in special assessment projects, con­ tractors accept bonds in lieu of money and, to pay their bills and pay their labor, they must sell the bonds, which bear the legal limit of 7 percent in­ terest, at a discount to speculators who gamble on their eventual collection. Default of payments is not un­ common, he noted and the collection process is involved. In response to Cowlin's questioning, Heck admitted that the discount rate could be higher or lower, but it was their best estimate. Cowlin's questioning also elicited possibility of street damage by the future sewer collector installation, estimated as up to 3 percent of the proposed road improvements or $25,000, that would also be paid for by the residents by its inclusion in the costs for the sewer project, payable through the possible federal 75 percent grant and in the 25 percent local share payable in increased service charges. In describing the proposed road improvements. Heck explained that the important and required upgrading would be in the base which is specified as 10 inches thick for major roads and 8 inches for minor roads Sealing the top would be two courses of bituminous oil and two courses of aggregate This surface, he estimated, would last from three to five years and then require "normal" maintenance Cowlin wanted to know what the normal maintenance cost would be and how would the village pay for it con­ sidering the difficulty they were having in maintaining roads now President David Grimes indicated this would come from any funds available for rood purposes Cowlin questioned 25 of his 60 ob­ jectors to get their opinions about the project into the hearing record He emphasized need and reasonableness in the testimony, and most witnesses (Continued on page 4) Foresee Less Drastic Cuts In School Service by Nancy Wells Dr. Andreas assured the board of Johns burg District 12 Tuesday evening that a cutback on services in education will not need to be as drastic as predicted last fall. "The amount of money generated from tax dollars will be down $200,000, rather than the $360,000 anticipated in the referendum" (which failed last November), Andreas said. "This means we'll only have to cut two-thirds as much as we thought". A special board meeting will be held March 17 to discuss cuts. The position of funds for this year is a little better because of energy con­ servation efforts and grant monies Energy costs have been lowered in spite of rising costs through a distnet- (Continued on page 4) Plan For Corned Beef, Cabbage Day Dan Jannotta and Jeff corned beef and for March 17 at i dinner, which runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., are door. Green beer, live entertainment and pri attractions at the STAFF PHOTO-WAYNE GAYLORD THE MCHENRY PLAINDEALER " S E R V I N G T H E C H A I N O - L A K E S R E G I O N S I N C E 1 8 7 5 " VOLUME 105 NUMBER 65 FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1981 2 SECTIONS 20 PAGES 25' Pursue Balanced School Budget by Myrtle Procter With the goal of a balanced budget for the 1981-82 year, the regular business meeting of the Elementary School District 15 board Tuesday included considerable discussion on possible cutbacks. The Finance chairman, Eileen Zurblis, presented a report comparing the operating expenses per pupil of each school in the county. McHenry was listed as eighth out of the twelve grade schools in the county. McHenry's expenditure per pupil is $1,818.08 compared to Fox River Grove, rated first with $2,088.42 per pupil. Mrs. Zurblis stated she anticipated a lower rating for McHenry in the year 1981-82 due to the cutbacks made by the schools. In other considerations by the Financial committee, Mrs. Zurblis stated that cutting all band and sports programs along with the increase in class size were definite possibilities in order to alleviate the $130,000 in- debtedness still' suffered by the board. President Gary Lockwood indicated he was not in favor of saying anything definite about which programs would be cut until a thorough study of cuts, plus alternative programs, had been conducted. Two parents in attendance en­ couraged the board to make a definite announcement as to what will and will not be offered for the year 1981-82 before the present school year ends. President Lockwood assured the parents the board intended to comply with this request, but stated that at this time it is not wise to announce cuts or changes in programs until after the referendum is held. President Lock- wood also stated that county and state funding must also be considered. It was voted to return the study to the financial committee to work toward a more extensive and definite report containing alternatives for cutbacks now being considered. Administration business concerning personnel included the employment of Joan Werth as a teacher at Hilltop in the Primary Learning environment; accepting the resignation of Bruce Ericson, Math teacher at McHenry Junior high school; granting maternity leave extensions to Barbara Popovich, junfor high teacher, and Carolyn Langner, an elementary teacher. The resignation of Patricia Allikian. bookkeeper, was accepted and Martha Olson was employed as bookkeeper. David Dulbert and Mary Reid were employed as bus drivers. A change in the board policy con­ cerning leave of absence was accepted. This will be added to the present poliey. "The employee is eligible to continue the Health and Dental coverage at their expense and must make the necessary arrangement with the business office " The board moved to create an inter- fund loan to avoid thf issuance of tax anticipation warrants. The amount to be transferred~$217,000- brings the total to $367,000 in outstanding loans from the Working Cash fund to the (Continued on page 4) Invitation' To Harmony ' C of C Contest Winners Dairy Cut Reaction Sweet Adelines Membership Drive In McHenry County Section 2-Page 3 * Section 2-Page 4 Page 14