McHenry County Green Drinks -- June 3

In McHenry County, the first Wednesday of each month is Green Wednesday! The public is invited to McHenry County Green Drinks on June 3rd, 2015, from 5pm - 7pm, at Duke’s Alehouse & Kitchen, 110 N. Main St. in Crystal Lake, from 5pm-7pm. Additional parking is available at the train station.

Come and explore biking in McHenry County. Topics will include: Navigating around local communities on a bicycle; easy, inexpensive ways to upgrade older bicycles; tips for maintaining your bike; upcoming bike events; local bike trails and more! Presenters are Bob Olsen, owner of Wheel Werks, and Tim Heil, owner of Ski and Bike, both in Crystal Lake.

Displays:  Wheel Werks and McHenry County Bicycle Advocates

Tentative future topics:

July 1: Fox River Corridor, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning

Aug. 5: Composting for Apartment Dweller & Small Households, Rich Tobias, U of IL Master Gardener

Sept. 2 (6th Anniversary!): "Working Toward Sustainability" Mike Shipley, owner/managing partner of Conscious Cup Coffee, Crystal Lake.

Head upstairs at Duke’s for info and inspiration, business and pleasure. Come talk about “greening” the future with others. Must be 21 to purchase alcohol - non-alcoholic drinks are available, of course!

We have an information table set up, and you are welcome to bring information about your green products and services each month to share.

Additional parking is available at the train station. To be added to the Green Drinks email list, send a note to: GreenDrinksMC@gmail.com or “like” the group on FaceBook www.FaceBook.com/GreenDrinksMcHenryCounty.

The Green Drinks network was founded in North London, England in 1989 and now is active in over 600 cities worldwide. Interested public is always welcome to attend the McHenry County Green Drinks monthly event. Each month there is a short presentation on a different eco-topic plus displays and demonstrations. Also, information about upcoming eco-events and green products and services is made available. Non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks are available plus a featured “green drink”.

Green Drinks McHenry County is sponsored by the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County and Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen.

Sorting Stolen Objects Results In Theft Conviction

Louis A. Bianchi, McHenry County State’s Attorney, announces that forty eight year old James R. Henson was sentenced to serve a period of 16 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for his conviction on the charges of burglary and possession of burglary tools.

The evidence showed that on May 31, 2014, Henson gained access to the Curran Construction lot located at 7502 S. Main St. in Crystal Lake by cutting through a section of chain link fence securing the property. Once inside, Henson cut the locks off two MJ Electric trucks parked on the lot and removed buckets of high voltage brass electrical fittings.

Henson was caught with the stolen items near the crime scene when a citizen walking her dog heard clanking sounds coming from bushes nearby and called police because she thought an animal may be caught in a trap. The noises turned out to be defendant James Henson sorting more valuable brass items from metals of lesser value, so he could carry a lighter load on his bicycle away from the crime scene.

The defendant was convicted after a jury trial in March 2015. Evidence at sentencing showed the defendant’s 30 year history of repeated burglaries and other felony and misdemeanor offenses. The trial and sentencing were prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorneys David Johnston and Robert Zalud.

Green Wednesday Coming Next Week

In McHenry County, the first Wednesday of each month is Green Wednesday!

The public is invited to McHenry County Green Drinks on June 3rd, 2015, from 5pm - 7pm, at Duke’s Alehouse & Kitchen, 110 N. Main St. in Crystal Lake, from 5pm-7pm. Additional parking is available at the train station.

Come and explore biking in McHenry County. Topics will include: Navigating around local communities on a bicycle; easy, inexpensive ways to upgrade older bicycles; tips for maintaining your bike; upcoming bike events; local bike trails and more! Presenters are Bob Olsen, owner of Wheel Werks, and Tim Heil, owner of Ski and Bike, both in Crystal Lake.

Displays:  Wheel Werks and McHenry County Bicycle Advocates

Tentative future topics:

July 1: Fox River Corridor, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning

Aug. 5: Composting for Apartment Dweller & Small Households, Rich Tobias, U of IL Master Gardener

Sept. 2 (6th Anniversary!): "Working Toward Sustainability" Mike Shipley, owner/managing partner of Conscious Cup Coffee, Crystal Lake.

Head upstairs at Duke’s for info and inspiration, business and pleasure. Come talk about “greening” the future with others. Must be 21 to purchase alcohol - non-alcoholic drinks are available, of course!

We have an information table set up, and you are welcome to bring information about your green products and services each month to share.

Additional parking is available at the train station. To be added to the Green Drinks email list, send a note to: GreenDrinksMC@gmail.com or “like” the group on FaceBook www.FaceBook.com/GreenDrinksMcHenryCounty.

The Green Drinks network was founded in North London, England in 1989 and now is active in over 600 cities worldwide. Interested public is always welcome to attend the McHenry County Green Drinks monthly event.

Each month there is a short presentation on a different eco-topic plus displays and demonstrations. Also, information about upcoming eco-events and green products and services is made available. Non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks are available plus a featured “green drink”.

Green Drinks McHenry County is sponsored by the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County and Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen.

Government At Work

Wednesday, May 27

8:30 a.m. -- McHenry County Staff Plat Meeting. Taking place in the County Board Conference Room, McHenry County Administration Building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock. The committee is to consider a conditional use permit for the Schey site plan for a landscape business with outside storage.

1:30 p.m. McHenry County Zoning Board of Appeals, meeting in the County Board Conference Room, County Administration Building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock.

The hearing involves a continuation of hearing from April 29, for Fraternite of Notre Dame, Inc. for a change from A1/A1C to A1CV.

An amendment of Conditional Use Permit 05-04 to add 30 acres to the Conditional Use Permit as parcel B. Also that the petitioner be allowed to build a barn on premises to be able to build a commercial kitchen, process grapes for wine making purposes, and brew beer and also be allowed to build and operate a school with an attached dormitory, a nursing home which would include hospice services, and a gift shop to sell pastries, religious and inspirational articles and wine made on the premises.

Also, height variations to the school with dormitory and nursing home with hospice services from the permitted 35 feet to 55 feet.

6:00 p.m. Valley Hi Operating Board, meeting in Valley Hi Nursing Home, 2406 Hartland Road, Woodstock.

Two presentations are slated to be given before the Board including: Health Dimensions Group Market Demand Analysis presentation and WIPFLI Market Demand analysis presentation.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Over two dozen cities and and towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.

Regardless of the exact date or location of its origins, one thing is clear – Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war).

It is now observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May with Congressional passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363). This helped ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19th in Texas; April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10th in South Carolina; and June 3rd (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.