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

GOOD MORNING \ * - • • MrCullom PLAINDEALER- HERALD McHenry, I l l inois Friday, December 14, 1984 Post Office considering sites for new McHenry facility MCHENRY ihi rairrim, The shaded area on the map above is an approximation for the "preferred area'1 in which a new McHenry Post Office will be located. Gif t wrap for readers The McHenry Plaindealer Herald will help its readers "wrap up" their holiday gifts with a special offer in this issue. A sheet of specially-designed gift wrap doubles as the cover of our Christmas "Dream Book" supplement. Hie free sheet, ap­ proximately 600 square inches and custom-designed and printed by our company, bears the personalized message: "Merry Christmas from McHenry." It can add identity to gifts wrapped for out-of-town friends and relatives, and may also be used for tissue paper within your holiday packages. "We think this gift wrap is an extra touch to our readers, and at the same time, we feel it enhances our Dream Book section," said Sam Zito, Plaindealer Herald advertising manager. Extra copies of the personalized Christmas wrap are available in the McHenry Plaindealer Herald office for 10 cents per sheet, while supplies last. McHenry vehicle stickers on sale The Jan. 31 deadline to own a city sticker for your car is creeping up, and there are penalty fees for being tardy. Residents of McHenry can buy stickers for their vehicle at city hall. Stickers for cars and small trucks are $6, and stickers for trucks with C or above license plates cost $15. The price of the sticker goes up $2 for a resident every month he is tardy on the payment. In addition those without stickers after the Jan. 31 due date are subject to a fine. However, people just moving into the area have 30 days after their relocation to purchase stickers. An open letter to the person who, for the third year, has placed five gold coins in a Crystal Lake Salvation Army donation kettle: For the third straight year, you have demonstrated to us the meaning of charity. Once again, I would like to offer you a humble and heartfelt thank you on behalf of the Salvation Army. That, according to Dave Schneider, McHenry County's Salvation Army kettle campaign director, is the only contact he would like to have with a mysterious donor who is quickly becoming a folk hero. Last weekend, Salvation Army workers once again found five gold coins in one of their donation kettles. MCHLI6NT Santa and Mrs. Claus trek to McHenry Saturday, and McHenry Parks and Recrea­ t ion Department staff members are preparing for their arrival. More informa­ tion on the Claus' visit ap­ pears on page eight. While important differences separate this donation from the gold found in previous years, Schneider says he is not curious to unmask the "Phantom." "I would be very sad if the person identified himself to me. It wouldn't be the phantom anymore," Schneider says. For the last two years, five Krugerrands (one ounce South African gold coins) have been deposited anonymously in a kettle outside Crystal Lake's K mart store about one week before Christmas, he said. This year, five one ounce gold Canadian Mapleleafs were dropped into a kettle standing at Crystal Lake's Eagle super­ market in the Crystal Lake Plaza two weeks before Christmas. The coins, worth $327 on the London gold market, "are electrifying," Schneider said. Coin collectors will bid on them at a later date. Schneider said the "Phan­ tom" might have changed his habits slightly to hide his identity. He or she, Schneider supposes, might think the Salvation Army is looking for him. "That is not true," he said. Schneider describes the "Phantom" as a "humble in­ dividual. The type of person that doesn't need to be center stage." Identification, the four-year Salvation Army volunteer said, would destroy the mystique. INDEX S H A W I R l f P R f S S M l D I A . I N C . Business .. Sec 2, Page 8 Church. Sec. 2, Page 2 Life Today.. /.... Page 6 Neighbors.. Sec. 2. Page 3 Volume 109, Number 33 "Obituaries.".".-..... Page 8 Schools .. Sec. 2. Page 10 Sports .. Pages 16.17. 18 2 Sections. 30 pages Dist. 156 calls back mediator A mediation session has been scheduled for Monday, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the continuing negotiations between the District 156 Board of Education and the McHenry High School Teachers Association. Commissioner Robert Calloway from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Rockford will serve as mediator. By Anthony Oliver PlaMMtar-Hanld N«w» Service People living in McHenry know well the tiny lobby area of the McHenry Post Office. With two large tables and counter windows for only three clerks, to say the lobby can be very cramped during high business times is an understatement. But, behind the counter, in the area where mail is sorted and routed to the proper carrier, it is worse. Space, rather the severe lack of it, is the single most im­ portant problem facing the U.S. Post Office in McHenry. "We have 12 city routes and 14 rural routes," said Jim Tapio, superintendent at the McHenry office. "We don't have the equipment or the room to handle them all." Five years ago, there were 11 rural and seven city routes. Tapio commented that in letter separation, for example, there is room for only eight clerics. The department could use five or six more people immediately. "During a given week, we process more than 500,000 pieces of mail. This is almost double the volume of two years ago," Tapio said. "The way the economy is going, we're an­ ticipating that it will continue to go up." Tapio noted that when tractor- trailer trucks arrive in the morning, the back part of the post office is a madhouse. Mail is everywhere, on the tables and floors, as staffers sort out what must be delivered that day and what can wait. "First class mail must go out every day. But we are timed on the bulk business and non- preferential mail," Tapio said. "By the time the mail comes in until it hits your mailbox, we have 48 hours." If the 48-hour deadline is missed, late mail reports have to be filled out and that raises questions from above; questions no one wants to answer. On the average, every single person- man, woman and child-in the McHenry Post Office service area receives 13 pieces of mail each month. There are between 39,000 and 40,000 people, Tapio said. Tapio noted that the existing facility did have a few "inadequacies." The most obvious to the general public is the lobby, which is woefully inadequate for the amount of traffic it bears. What the public does not see is that the building is far outdated and energy inefficient. There is a two-month waiting list for post office boxes, not including those people who simply did not want to put their names on a list. Lighting in the building is enough to get the job done, but individual lights in the separation area are far superior to the existing overhead florescents. And finally, there is only one women's washroom for a work force comprised of more than 50 percent female em­ ployees. "At times, it's such a night­ mare," Tapio said. The hustle and bustle of the morning mail arrival coupled with the "inadequacies" sometimes puts a strain on an employee's at­ titude. And sometimes, that strain is transferred to the customer But, what is the thrust of afr this? Hie McHenry Post Office is slated for expansion. Tapio envisions a brand new, much larger building with plenty of work area for his troops and a large lobby for the public. The present building on Green Street is a little more than 7,500 square feet, not including the dock and platform, which brings the square footage to 20,280. "They'll look at our equip­ ment and employees to an­ ticipate the needs • for the building," Tapio said. "Hiey give us so much room per case for each route." The newer buildings usually have self-service vending machines for rolls and books of stamps, envelopes and the like, saving a great deal of time for customers and employees. "As far as we know, there will be a complete revamping with more parking," Tapio said. If all goes according to expectations, there could be a parking area for the public, a separate one for employees and delivery vehicles and a reasonable space for the semi-trucks that roll in each morning and night. Currently, only special trailers can be used at the existing post office because of the difficult configuration of the parking and loading area. "The full-length trailer just can't get in here," Tapio said. 1 "We were targeted for ex­ pansion a year-and-a-half ago and we're in the real estate stage now," Tapio pointed out. Earlier this year, the post office solicited bids from landowners in the McHenry area for potential sites. About 19 bids were received by the real estate section of the Postal Service, according to David Devaney, real estate specialist in Chicago. "We're still considering sites for the final determination," Devaney said. "Twelve were eliminated because they were not in the preferred area and seven are left" " Tapio predicted there would be an increase in the number of employees at the McHenry office, which is staffed now by 54 people. He estimated the work force could go as high as 90 pvople down the road. The projections are based on a 10- year estimate of population growth in the McHenry area. Devaney was unable to say when a decision would be made on a site for expansion, noting there was a lot of study and red tape involved. But, for the public and the workers at the McHenry Post Office, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. .. Riverside Hotel escapes serious fire damage Than torn'returns to donation kettle By Robert Gordon PUiwtoaler Herald ateff wrttar A fire broke out at the Riverside Hotel, 3308 W. Elm St.-one of McHenry's oldest structures-at approximately 8:40 Wednesday morning. The small blaze began in a third floor room,located at the east side of the building. The firemen contained the fire there, but damage was extensive. Once the fire was put out, firemen pulled damaged debris out of the building, through the northside fire escape entrance. McHenry Township Fire Chief Glenn Peterson said the fire appeared to start on the mat­ tress of the bed, but an in­ vestigation is being made to make sure of the origin. "At this point in time it's hard to tell if a cigarette was drop­ ped, or a lamp was tipped over, or if it was a faulty electic blanket," Chief Peterson said. According to Deputy Chief Chris Bennett, the firemen had the fire out within ten minutes of arrival. However Chief Peterson said that both companies were called as a precautionary measure. "TTiis is normal procedure in a business area, especially with it being a hotel," Peterson said. "The minute you have a building of this magnitude, you call in reinforcements early." Pearl Street Bridge and Riverside Drive were blocked off while the fire department put out the blaze, and cleared the damaged room of the debris Bennett said that seven pieces of equipment and 25 firemen were called. The fire depart­ ment finished the job and left the scene at approximately 10:30 a.m. Plaindealer Herald photo by Robert Gordon bed mattress that ingfire. Fire Protection District believed to have si nnel toss out a the Monday morn- %^y Letters to Santa DREAM BOOK SUPPLEMENT