OUR PLACE
There’s a community nearby, much smaller (population 1262), to the Geneva Lake communities, and it can serve as a warning for what can happen when small-town politics and some chicanery go hand and hand to let loose.
If not the dogs of war, at least the puppies of chaos.
Not long ago, the mayor of Hebron fell afoul of the law and the goodwill of the citizens, as few as there are. The tiny police force of the town was made up of only two officers. Those officers went to the mayor and indicated to him that they’d figured out that he was playing some games he ought not to have been playing. Given the power, and then using it, the mayor admitted nothing and instead fired the officers and did not replace them.
Going on a year, the small community has only had the protection of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department, but has had to fork over $70 an hour for any services it has received, and the response time is included in that calculated billing, and that response time has been pretty dismal time-wise. One of the biggest effects of the town losing its police force was, and remains, the busy, truck-infested, and nearly lawless behavior of drivers meeting at the four-way stop sign where Highway 173 and Highway 47 intersect. That stop sign complex has to be among the most dangerous to work through in either Wisconsin or Illinois. The mayor was finally jettisoned and hired a new one. The first thing, in a solid initial move, was to hire the two police officers back. Things will improve and go back to normal when they return to work on the 12th of May.
Person of the Week
Marlene. The great new and a wonderful barista at the Lodge Hotel.
