Downtown Algonquin Restaurant Revived

Between White Elephant Square at Main and Algonquin Road and the defunct Java Bar at Main and Washington there are no fewer than seven "For Rent", "For Lease" or "For Sale" signs. The recession's used Downtown Algonquin roughly. So it was good news when a pair of young entrepreneurs re-opened Martini's on Main restaurant Friday.

Martini's, as its window claims, is "Where Old Friends Meet" but that hasn't happened since former owners closed its doors last year. The restaurant business has a brutal attrition rate even in normal times and the 116 year-old 8 South Main location has gone through four different owners in the last 10 years.

Greg Geigel and Klara Cukova of Wauconda have been conducting what they call a "soft start" at Martini's since Tuesday serving clientele by invitation. Their re-opening to the public was yesterday.

Cukova's the one with an extensive restaurant background. Geigel laughed saying, "Mine's all corporate."

"We just really thought it was a really good property in a really good location," Geigel said. "We're also sure the village is serious about getting out and renewing the downtown area. That counts for a lot. We're really confident."

At 12:30 am today Geigel and Cukova hadn't finished counting the first day's receipts. Geigel summed up the restaurant's first real day saying, "It went well. It really went well. We got really lucky with our kitchen staff and our cook. It looks good now."

Martini's on Main will be open from 4 p.m. every Tuesday through Sunday.

Algonquin Battle of Bands Future Uncertain

The Who's Pete Townshend once said

" Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage". So why are there not enough entries for the Village of Algonquin's upcoming Battle of the Bands? Is there a sudden shortage of youthful angst and ennui?

The event, scheduled for June 21, is the first step in the Illinois Teen Battle of the Bands Competition and a possible exciting and rewarding career in the field of entertainment loud enough to make your eardrums bleed.

But Recreation Superintendent Sara Stefan reports she's only received two entries and the magic number is four. "If I don't have four I can't make it go," she said. "Got to have four to have a battle."
The deadline next Friday, June 12, looms. Stefan says she hopes it's just youthful procrastination. "You know, like waiting until the last minute to turn in homework."

Rules and regs ("Oh, Maaaaan....") and forms for last-minute entries to the Battle of the Bands can be found at http://www.algonquin.org/egov/docs/1242222836_447326.pdf

Pete Townsbend, by the way, just turned 64.

Colonial Raises $1,400 for Food Pantry

"Penny Pancakes" at Algonquin's Colonial Restaurant raised about $1,400 in cash and food donations for the Algonquin Lake in the Hills Interfaith Food Pantry, according to Colonial Manager Rick Rittigarn.

"We sold 3,557 pancakes and had 1440 guests," he said. Rittigarn said the donation total was something of a spitball estimate. "The money's easy to count. The cans are a little harder. We think there's $700 to $800 there."

In the pic: Melissa Ruby and her Mom, Leslie, Algonquin, were two among nearly fifteen hundred who supported the Food Pantry Thursday.

LITH Attacks Emerald Ash Borer

Returning home Thursday afternoon, Jamie Polit was stunned to find Lake in the Hills Forestry Department workers reducing the 14 year-old ash tree that had stood in front of her house that morning to a truckload of chips. Not that she hadn't had suspicions.

"I'd read that one of the signs (of Emerald ash borer infestation) was sprouts coming out and I'd seen that. I'm not totally surprised," Polit said in the voice of one who has hoped for the best and failed to get it.
Following Wednesday's Illinois Department of Agriculture confirmation of the Emerald Ash Borer in the neighborhood between Algonquin and Reed roads and west of Haligus the village's public works department cut down 10 infected trees Thursday to prevent the bugs' spread.

Forestry Department worker Chuck Comstock promised Polit the village would replace the tree they'd just cut down at no charge since the tree had been on village property.

"Can I pay extra to get a bigger one?" she asked.

It was a good question to which there is, as yet, no answer.

Lake in the Hills officials plan a public meeting in a couple of weeks to provide information about the ash borer and the village's plans to combat the creature. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. June, 17, at Village Hall.

In the pic: Lake in the Hills Forestry Department Worker Andy Serafin fells one of the village's infested ashes.

Complaints and Kudos at Huntley C.O.W.

Complaints about car burglaries and award for a policeman lifesaver turned out a near-capacity crowd for Thursday night's Huntley Board of Trustees Committee of the Whole meeting.

Almost half a dozen residents came forward to tell trustees their southwest neighborhood has been plagued by a rash of thefts from cars and trucks for the past year.

"I know the police are doing all they can," said Leslie Thredgill-Smith, "but it's not working."

"Right now it's just cars," said Adrian Soliz, "but later on it might be something else."

Huntley Chief of Police John Perkins responded that his department was aware of the problem, had solved five of the eleven neighborhood thefts in the past year and had a strong suspect in five more.

"We've talked with the Neighborhood Watch, too," he said. "Half of the cars were unlocked. Lock your car. Turn on a light," he advised.

Continuing an upbeat police theme, trustees gave officer L. J. Marak a medal and an award for saving the life of a Huntley child three weeks ago. Called to the youngster's home because he was choking on a ball, Marak arrived before emergency medical personnel. Even though a babysitter had cleared the child's airway he'd stopped breathing and Marak immediately began CPR. EMT's arriving later credited him with saving the boy's life.

Marak posed for pictures after the ceremony with the medal which was shiny. The better shot, though, was the one with with the boy he'd saved, one year-old Ryan Hilton, who was beaming.

In the pic: L. J. Marak with Riley Hilton whose life he saved last month.

Penny Pancakes Help Food Pantry

Customers flipped over "Penny Pancakes" Thursday at Algonquin's Colonial Restaurant to benefit the Algonquin Lake in the Hills Interfaith Food Pantry.

"We might make this a family tradition,"said Huntley resident Heather Zmich enjoying a syrupy stack of flapjacks with her children Gabriella, Ethan and Cameron and her brother Chris Yaeger of Algonquin.

Customers purchasing a beverage at the Colonial were promised all the pancakes they could sit down and eat. A jar for donation to the pantry was strategically close by the cash register and by 9 a.m. it was already as stuffed as some of the customers.

That's a good thing since Summer has always been a thin season for donations to the Pantry even before the economy fell apart.

Co-Director Kathy Herman reported the Pantry, 600 East Oak St., Lake in the Hills, served 835 people last month. A year ago the figure was only 561. "That kind of says it all," said Herman.

Penny Pancakes to benefit local philanthropies is a tradition in the restaurants of the Colonial chain. "It gives something back to the community and helps thank our customers for voting us the best family restaurant," said Manager Rick Rittigarn.

Gabriella Zmich was all for the idea. "Let's have honey pancakes for lunch," she said.

In the pic: Chris Yaeger, sister Heather Zmich and her kids Gabriella, Ethan and Cameron tie into a pile of pancakes to benefit the Algonquin Lake in the Hills Interfaith Food Pantry.

ComEd: LITH Electric Service Better Than Most

Lake in the Hills Tuesday released ComEd's annual report to the village on how well it's been providing electrical service. The verdict: not quite as well in 2008 as the previous year but better than in most other Northern Illinois communities.

Not counting storm outages, ComEd reported the average Lake in the Hills home last year had a three in four chance of one outage lasting an average hour and fifteen minutes. The chance was only one in two in 2007 with an average length of about an hour and five minutes, according to the report.

Both 2008 numbers were slightly better than those for ComEd customers everywhere. Adding weather outages raised the Lake in the Hills average to about one per year lasting almost two hours. "We had 24 big storms last year," said ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick. Even counting storms Lake in the Hills residents fared better than the average ComEd customer, who had a 25 percent greater chance of losing power for almost an hour longer, according to the report.

Average outages per customer and average duration are the two main reliability measures promoted by IEEE, formerly the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE has a third measure, one for those little "hiccups" in the system that leave digital clocks and video recorders blinking all over the house. Few electrical suppliers report the measure and ComEd isn't one of them.

"We don't measure 'flickers'," said Burdick. Even a hapless squirrel or a stray Mylar balloon can cause a local problem to which the company's equipment automatically adjusts in seconds, he said. Anecdotally, Burdick said most momentary interruptions are caused by bad weather somewhere in the system. "It wouldn't be a good measure of reliability of ComEd when it's what Mother Nature's done to us."

McHenry County Shorted in State "Pork Bill"

by Pete Gonigam

If Monday evening's stopgap Illinois capital budget bill was "porkbarrel politics" McHenry County ended up with chitterlings. Projects and municipalities in the county garnered only about $8.5 million out of the $3.1 billion total.

The Village of Algonquin, usually good at getting "free money", snagged only a $100,000 grant for road, sewer and water work. "They said, 'You're getting $82 million for the Western Bypass so you're out of the running,'" reported Village Manager Bill Ganek. Ganek noted $82 million hasn't actually been appropriated yet but said, "That's looking very good."

Lake in the Hills won two grants totalling $400,000 tagged for park development. Huntley earned $150,000 for roads and capital improvements.
One of the largest bags of bucks in the county went to Algonquin Township in four appropriations totaling $745,000. That included $75,000 for a new roof on the township maintenance building. "Gee, that's just what we asked for," said Highway Commissioner Bob Miller. The remainder of the appropriations are marked for roads.

When lawmakers Friday inserted the appropriations bill into the eviscerated shell of something entitled "$Goverment Tek" that had passed full legislative review, staffers for Sen. Pam Althoff (R) 32, Rep. Mike Tryon (R) 64, and Rep. Mark Beubien (R) 52 began calling local officers and administrators. One such said Tuesday, "I got a call Friday and they said, 'We're going to be doing some horse trading. What do you need?'"

If appropriations for McHenry County seemed skimpy, the marks of local legislators' efforts were all over the bill. In one instance literally. In the rush to put together the 972-page document someone forgot to hit a button. On page 877 instead of the numerical designation given to all the other grants the one for $125,000 in Grafton Township road improvements was marked "Section Tryon".

The rest of McHenry County townships were all granted at least$75,000 apiece for road infrastructure. "Some of the townships and villages have some pretty old roads now and they need the money," said Tryon.

McHenry Township won $150,000 plus $85,000 for a food pantry. Nunda Township got the standard $75,000 road infrastructure money and another $175,000 for "road improvements". Nunda Township Road District was given an extra $285,000 ration for township roads.

The appropriations bill also included about half a million dollars each for widening projects on Rakow Road and Miller Road in McHenry.

Other appropriations:

Hebron Village--$150,000

Richmond Fire Protection District--$80,000

Johnsburg--$500,000

Woodstock--$300,000

Marengo--$150,000

Fox River Grove--$200,000 and $50,000

Cary Village--$450,000

Cary Park District--$75,000

McHenry City--$700,000

Lakewood--$200,000

Crystal Lake--$700,000, $482,000

Lakeside Legacy Arts Park (Crystal Lake)--$75,000

Pioneer Center for Human Services (Crystal Lake)--$80,000

Fox Waterway Agency (Trinski's Island)--$500,000

The "something for everybody" bill is part of a $29 billion public works program Gov. Pat Quinn has threatened to veto if the Legislature can't come up with a way to reconcile expenditures with revenue. Technically the bill didn't actually pass Monday; a motion to reconsider the matter is still pending so lawmakers could "unpass" the measure later on but that idea drew chuckles from officials Tuesday.

Algonquin Accepts Randall Road Crossing Report

In a largely pro-forma meeting Tuesday night Algonquin's Board of Trustees agreed to accept a report on Randall Road pedestrian crossings prepared by Christopher Burke Engineering.

The report examined possible crossings at Bunker Hill/Huntington Drives, a site mid-block to the south, Harnish Drive, County Line Road and Longmeadow Parkway. Options considered were grade crossings, overpasses and underpasses.

The report boiled down concluded grade crossings were cheap and easy at $50 to $75 thousand apiece; overpasses were way more expensive at around $3 million apiece and liable to tie up traffic for a short time during construction; while underpasses, depending on how many utilities had to be relocated, might cost from $3 to $6 million apiece and tie up traffic all summer.

At last week's Committee of the Whole meeting trustees agreed to make no choice until federal financing shows up to actually pay for any sort of crossing anywhere at all.