The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

(asked in McHenry business District) ROBERT LOSS DENNY SMITH Wonder Lake McHenry "I wish it would be better. "I don't think we'll spend as much. Reaganomics will take a long time to We've cut down to one thing for take effect." everybody." LINDA ZIELKE McHenry "We're not spending as much as in other years." JOHN KASUBA . DIANE VALEK McHenry McHenry > "Definitely worse. I think the "It's worse than last year. We'll economy is worse than last year and it probably buy fewer presents." will have an effect on shopping. The stores are empty all over." PAM LAKOWSKE McHenry "We're anticipating this Christmas to be better than the last. We hope it will be, anyway." S T A F F P H O T O S - W A Y N E G A Y L O R D Township Crew Ready For Winter THE MCHENRY PLAINDEALER 'SERVING THE CHAIN-O-LAKES REGION SINCE 1875 McHenry Township Road district, like other governmental units responsible for road care, is gearing up for the winter months. John C. Regner, township road district commissioner, stated that over 2,500 tons of ice control sand and salt mix have been stockpiled for spreading on the township's 90 miles of roads this year. The township snow removal plan for winter calls for the use of up to nine trucks with snowplows and sand spreaders attached, according to Regner; Also used as needed will be the township's Michigan 45C front-end loader for removing snow and also its own, newly purchased 570A grader with V-plow and wing for opening and widening roads where especially heavy snow would stop the ordinary snowplows. Regner said the township is especially fortunate this year to have its sribw removal equipment all in top condition and "ready to go". Bob Dixon, shop foreman, has made sure that needed maintenance was carried out on all trucks, plows, spreaders, loader and grader throughout the year. "We're also fortunate that we've kept up with replacing old and wi rn out equipment, and what we hav6 is ' new and modern", Regner explained. "This means it will be much more reliable than older equipment". The district will be operating with its regular crew of five men, and also additional personnel described as highly experienced. They will be available as needed, he noted, to man the equipment at any time of day or night, seven days a week, throughout the winter. To open the roads for commuter traffic and school buses after a night's snowfall, Regner said the snow crew will be called out and be at work as early as 3 or 4 a.m. The road district will be working closely with the Sheriff's department, local police and other authorities to clear township roads. The first effort, according to Regner, will be to make roads as "non-skiddable" as possible and widened to two lanes as fast as possible. Nevertheless, he cautions area motorists to take the ice and snow into account and to drive carefully. VOLUME 107 NUMBER 37 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1$82 1 SECTION 24 PAGES 25 New Levy Means Some Tax Hike Shaw Media News Service A slight increase in taxes can be expected as a result of the 1982 tax levy adopted by the McHenry county board at a recent meeting. Based on an assessed property valuation of $1.3 billion, the new rate of .4677 will generate approximately $6,142,443. The 46.77 cents per $100 of assessed valuation is up 5.6 cents per $100 over last year's rate of 41.1 cents. The 1981 property valuation was $1.26 billion on a county basis. Thus, the owner of property valued at $60,000 with an equalized assessed valuation of $20,000 can expect to pay $12.50 extra on the next county property tax bill. The 46.7 rate is higher than last year; however, it is lower than rates levied in 1978 ( 46.9) and 1979 ( 47.1). It should be noted that the property valuation in both years did not break (Continued on pago 22) John Regner, i uewly appointed township road dislrici«commissioner, is shown be used u> keep McHenry township roads in condition during the winter months, with crew mem bers in front of some of the vehicles and ice control mix that will STAFF PHOTO-WAYNE GAYLORD Fund HSA To Prevent Merger by Angela Burden Shaw Media News Service The threat of a merger between the Health Systems Agency for Kane, Lake and McHenry counties (HSA- KLM) with the Chicago and Cook county health agencies drew action from McHenry county board at its Tuesday meeting, where funding in the amount of $9,829 was appoved. The board was informed that federal funding of the local agency was decreased and if the three counties involved did not give financial aid a merger with Chicago might occur. Because of the shortage of funding, it was suggested that Lake county contribute $14,743, Kane county $12,236 and McHenry $9,829 to HSA- KLM. Three board members, Ann Hughes, of Woodstock, John O'Hagan, of Crystal Lake, and Bill Caveny, of Algonquin, voted against the partial funding, indicating they were not in favor of continuing the HSA, which they said was not effective in con­ trolling health care costs. Board members Paul Fidler, of McHenry, and Lou Anne Majewski, of Algonquin, voiced their support of funding HSA-KLM. The health systems agencies were created by the federal government to iteep a check on hospitals' capital expenditures in an effort to control and reduce health care costs, es pecially for the medicare and m«3dicaid programs. A Irs. Hughes said she was "totally opposed to the whole HSA program. I am against centralized control and (Continued on page 22) Present Foster Gates As Feasible Flooding Answer Just like the bright \y lighted store, the Christmas tree in t he window, and the family gathered together friendship is indispensable to the holiday celebration. It was demonstrated \'va its highest form last week when hundreds in the community extended thei:»r generosity to people they didn't know through the agency of FISH. This is -friendship! Once we read a bit of wisdom on the subject credited to the Dutch. A rough translation was: "Old friends are the best unless you can find new fi lends to make old ones out of". That is exactly what is happe ning in McHenry in this pre-Chrit*tmas season, and the results are 1 heart­ warming. One driver who delivered FISH food packages to needy families at Thanksgiving time was astounded at the reception she received. "They were surprised and happy *to see us," she commented, "and the children were excited to see the food." When the long and involved collecting, tagging arid delivery was completed the Sunday before the holiday, weary workers went home. But this was not the end. Joan Bauer, who spearheaded the holiday drive, said turkeys and other food kept arriving at her home. Between Sunday and Thanksgiving - a four-day period - 19 additional families were provided a turkey and food for a week. % (Continued on pago 22) he noted, but the dams in one section would not affect the river situation in the next area. Gregory claimed that studies showed the dams could result in reduction of flood damage costs an­ nually of $85,000. The dams would cost about $5 million. The basin-wide study plan will cost about $1.9 million, without any facility design, Gregory conceded in response to a question, but they originally considered other things such as levees and more dams. Gregory also pointed out that this area of the Fox river had a lot of nuisance flooding (inundation of land at times) but was rurt afflicted with serious flooding such as homes and buildings being washed away as in other parts of the Country. In response to a question by Mayor Joe Stanek, Gregory said that his group had incorporated the results of an earlier federally funded 208 Clean Water study conducted statewide by the individual counties with streams. Gregory also warned that the gates won't protect everyone to a given water level, that more severe storms could cause flooding. The design considered conditions up to the flooding encountered about once in 10 years. It would not have effect on a 100 year flood. Maps displayed for local residents indicated the effect of the gates on water level for communities above the dams during a drawdown. Initially, about 10 residents were present, with the final total reaching 15 with late arrivals. t~ operate the gates. Normally filled with air the gates would be held up by water pressure and stream flow. When a forecast from a meterological model (gauges on tributaries) would indicate possible flooding condition in two to five days, the gate would be lowered and the water in the storage pool pre-dumped in order to allow room for the pre­ dicted onslaught. The gate lowering would occur by filling it with water and pulling down by the chains. The concept nas worked in other areas, including Norway, where it was unaffected by freezing conditions, Gregory claimed. About the effect on the river and the water level, Gregory said they weren't permitted to make conditions worse for residents along the river and claimed a drawdown of water could not produce conditions worse than existed before the dam was there. In other words, the dam must be operated so that there is no more harm either upstream or downstream. He noted that there are 270 potential water damage areas along the Fox as far south as Ottowa. Construction would be financed 100 percent by federal funds, but the sponsor of the foster dam, a municipality, county or state government, would be responsible for the easements, site, rights -of-way, operation and maintenance. Gregory added that it is possible to install the dams in modules without doing the whole area of the river. Some communities might not be interested, Preparing For Winter First In Serios Page 9 Need Income Tax Assistance Seek Volunteers Page 20 FREE TV Guide In Today's Edition • • • • < ' ? . t w < "How Will The Economy Affect Your Christmas This Year"?