We would like to express our thanks to Mayor Shepley, the City Council members and the PZC Commissioners and staff for their support and doing what was right for the city and the residents. We hope the city can finally heal now.
We thank the CL police dept. for their help when it was needed.
We send a huge thank you to our amazing next door neighbors and our family who went through all of this with us and were a great source of strength, comfort and support.
Many thanks to Tom Burney and his team for everything they did for us. We were so lucky to have you by our side. A simple thank you doesn't seem enough.
We were asked by a reporter recently if thinking back on it all, was it really worth it?
Though the last 3 years have been a nightmare for us, yes we believe it was.
We stood up for our rights and that is always a good thing. More people should do that.
We taught our children how to stay strong even under terrible scrutiny and bullying.
They are proud of us and we are so very proud of them.
We have in the last few years met some unbelievably kind people and unfortunately some that weren't but the good definitely outweighed the bad.
Lastly, we thank SD155 for finally doing the right thing. It took awhile (and with the addition of new board members and a Supreme court ruling) but you finally came to your senses. Possibly an apology from you will follow?
Kim & Jeff Gurba
Crystal Lake, Il.
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The Illinois Supreme Court has finally resolved the issue regarding the wrongful construction of the bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School. However, the effects of such ill-advised decision making on the part of school administrators and counsel will have longer lasting effects on all involved.
Most importantly, the students at CL South were witness to inconsiderate behavior toward neighbors, arrogance and a sense of entitlement as displayed by their school administrators in this protracted battle.
The school district's response after they lost -- they would cooperate. That cooperation was needed long before the court ruling. In this situation, the students now have experienced a hands-on civics lesson. A civil apology to all from the administration might be a good step in reframing a model of education for students.
Crystal Lake resident
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THE BERLIN WALL OF STEEL
CRYSTAL LAKE SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL’S NEW MEGA BLEACHERS
No one is above the Law. The Law must be adhered to by all men. Justice must prevail for each and every one of us. NO EXCEPTIONS.
On December 23, 2011, the decision by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan states school districts must comply with municipal and county zoning ordinances unless such ordinances interfere with the district’s main purpose of educating students.
For District 155 to comply with Crystal Lake’s municipal and county zoning ordinances in construction of these CL South High School Mega Bleachers ABSOLUTELY in no way interferes or hinders in the education of their students.
For School District 155 to maintain they do not have to adhered to the City of Crystal Lakes zoning process and laws because they are governed solely by the McHenry County Regional Superintendent of Schools and received permits from that office is stating they are above the law and the law does not apply to them.
District 155’s defiance is an example of governmental abuse at its finest. Taxpayers do not work for the government; the government works for the taxpayers because it is through the taxpayers sacrifices in paying their taxes they support all government salaries, contribute towards their pensions, etc. and keep all of these agencies functioning.
We, the taxpayers, definitely without question have a say in all that we support through our hard earned taxes that by law we must pay or be penalized.
District 155 in defiance to comply with Crystal Lakes municipal and county zoning ordinances has failed in the trust we the taxpayers have placed in them to be teaching educational development to students.
By ignoring the law, District 155 and the Regional Superintendent have taught students that it is acceptable to defy the law and ignore the concerns of Crystal Lake taxpayers who are the individuals paying District 155’s and Regional Superintendent’s salaries, contributing to their pensions and funding the lawsuits against the wrong doings of District 155.
Although District 155 in advance placed announcements in the newspaper about their upcoming plans, they never went into explicit detail as to being up front as to their vision in replacing the current bleachers. Nor did they convey the truth and notify Amberwood Drive Homeowners as to the wrongful injustice they would have to endure in the construction of replacing the old bleachers. Further, for the first time the City of Crystal Lake was by-passed in not being notified of the District 155’s plans in replacing the current bleachers.
We are residence on Amberwood Drive (most likely the longest residing homeowners) since 1988 (25 years plus) and never until The Berlin Wall of Steel was constructed did problems exist between the school administration staff and the homeowners. The previous administration and Amberwood Homeowners enjoyed a Good Neighbor Policy. The school maintained their property and the homeowners took care of their property.
The appearance of the new grandstands on the west side of the football field is, in our estimation, at least five to six times larger than the old stands. The Scorekeepers Booth (which is approximately the size of a trailer) at the top of the stands will make these grandstands, by far, the largest and highest structure in the whole area.
They block the sun and the open views we have been accustomed to for over twenty-five years. We also receive the worst view of the stands. The exposed supports and beams are unsightly. And in the years to come their appearance will deteriorate as the supporting structure rusts due to poor maintenance of the stands in the same way as the old stands had deteriorated. Already it is noticeable that the steel construction beams are showing discoloration. If the school had a proper maintenance program in place, the old stands would still be in usable condition.
Further evidence of the poor maintenance program practiced by the school recently is the poor condition of the easement between the school fence and the homes on Amberwood Drive. Grass is cut infrequently, trash collecting in the easement is not removed, and bushes along the fence allowed to grow wild are but a few of the examples. It was not unusual to see an Amberwood homeowner mowing the easement between their property and the school so they would not have to look at the unsightly condition of the school’s easement property.
We can only recollect that the structure of the old stands were painted once which was just a few years ago. No wonder the old grandstands were cited as “Unsafe”.
The Homeowners on Amberwood Drive, who have, by the payment of their Real Estate Taxes, paid for this monstrosity in their back yards. Now we are being rewarded for this by having our home values drastically reduced with no hope of ever getting the equity out of our homes even when the economy improves, because our homes have now become worthless due to The Berlin Wall of Steel.
About fifteen years ago, we had our home appraised by a licensed appraiser. At that time, the appraiser advised us that the biggest detraction to our property value was the presence of the grandstands in place at that time. I wonder what the appraiser would say now.
We look at this Berlin Wall of Steel morning, noon and night. When relaxing in one’s family room, eating meals in one’s kitchen, or just looking out one’s windows, The Berlin Wall of Steel glares at you. When spectators occupy the top bleachers and hang over the top rail, they look right into one’s private home necessitating one to keep their blinds and curtains drawn.
We are retired and getting up in the years with related aging health issues, and it is extremely painful and depressing to see what has happened to the value of our home and the loss of our investment due to The Berlin Wall Of Steel for 4 to 5 football games each fall season.
As soon as the Amberwood homeowners realized what was taking place as to the replacement of the old bleachers, complaints by the homeowners became apparent. So bless their little hearts, School District 155 hand delivered letters to affected homeowners about a meeting to take place to address concerns. Unfortunately, District 155 was sued so homeowners’ meeting was cancelled. However, as rumor would have it, they planned on planting trees to camouflage the unsightly monstrosity they constructed in our backyards.
As previous stated, we have been residing behind CL South High School for many years, and just now the trees originally planted on our properties are starting to look full grown or close to it. The point made here is that if District 155 planted trees, it will once again take a good 20 to 25 years before the trees reach their potential height, and still they will never grow tall enough in height to cover the hideous bleachers we are faced with. Further as we all know, trees shed their leaves in the fall and become baron during the winter months.
Then to add insult to injury when the 5 purple portable potties appeared for the first football game under the bleacher side facing the homeowners. And, of course, no school administrative personnel took blame for the portable potties being placed there. Strange to say the least, because the portable potty company when delivering them will place them where they are instructed to place them.
The District 155 has completely failed in its responsibility to the surrounding community to do what is right for all concerned. No one is above the law which includes District 155.
Only 4 to 5 football games are played at Crystal Lake High School in the fall. Only twice in our residence of over 25 years, we observed 2 games where the old grandstands where full. Track and soccer do not draw many spectators to justify for these new mega grandstands. Further, there is only activity on the football field during fall and spring. The football field remains empty during winter and summer months. With Statistics like these, the new grandstands that will seat approximately 3900 spectators at a cost of $1.18 MILLION taxpayer’s money is not justified.
To date, NO 3900 spectators attended the recent scheduled football games here at Crystal Lake South High School.
Further, we taxpayers are paying for District 155 to transport school buses round-trip from their parking lot to Central High School’s parking lot and surrounding area in the event more parking spaces at CL South High School is needed for spectators attending their football games.
We have been residing on Amberwood Drive for 25 years plus and as retirees with aging health issues, depression, anxiety and stress prevails due to our home now becoming unsalable when the economy improves in the housing industry.
School District 155 must be held accountable for the dishonesty in not properly notifying Amberwood homeowners who are affected by this monstrosity Berlin Wall of Steel by letter before construction of the bleachers began. Their newspaper notices never conveyed the truth of their anticipated plans just that the bleachers are to be replaced due to safety concerns. Homeowners ultimately assumed the old ones would be replaced with similar bleachers along with providing seating for handicap spectators. Not The Berlin Wall of Steel they replaced the old bleachers with.
School District 155 must be held responsible to everyone who has been affected with property value loss and the anxiety and stress they are encountering due to THE BERLIN WALL OF STEEL in our backyards.
Paul & Eileen Schwake
Crystal Lake, Il.
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These new bleachers have been invading our yard and homes for over 2 years now and our privacy too. We have kids climbing them
at all hours of the day and night. They hang from the steel beams in back, they try to break into the sound trailer and often get in
because the school neglects to lock the field and the trailer. These bleachers at this enormous height are just an accident waiting to happen. There has been nasty graffiti written on the trailer that we have had to look at till the school cleans it up. Break ins that destroyed property. There are even adults that break into the field to jog up & down these bleachers at 6 am and walk their barking dogs around the field. The steel pops and bangs at all hours of the day and night. I'm not talking small noises here but huge bangs at 2 am that wake everyone up. Constant popping noises from the steel that now make it difficult to be in our backyard. There is also water/flooding issues, water gushes down from the bleachers like a river now. We also deal with the crowds and extreme noise of the games there. Yes, we have always heard the games but now with the Home team literally in our backyards and with the addition of a new sound system with 6 loud speakers instead of 2 makes a very big difference. Most of all this affects my 2 daughters, who are 16 and 11. Their bedroom is on the second floor of our home and for the last 2 years they have had to seal up their bedroom windows. Whenever people are on the top rows of the bleachers for games or other school activities or people on the weekends are there illegally or fans at events they are always being yelled at and have even had grown men yell cat calls out to them. That's sick. You see, their bedroom can be seen into from the top of the bleachers, in fact now our entire home can now be seen into. My daughters are now too embarrassed and afraid even to get dressed in their own room. Can you imagine your own daughter not feeling safe and comfortable in her room? They have had to deal with this for over 2 years now. My 11 year old doesn't even sleep in her bedroom anymore because she's so uncomfortable in it. My 16 year old gets bullied at school from football players and their friends. It's heartbreaking as a parent because there is nothing I can do about it. We have had threats to our home and family. Threats to burn our home down, damage our cars and someone has even tried to burn our mailbox down. There have been online threats and bullying too. The sad thing is that most of this is done by adults around here. Nice lessons they are teaching their children. Our property values have also been greatly affected. We have officially lost half of our land value according to the township assessor and I have not spoken to one realtor who doesn feel that to sell our home now will be very difficult. Why would anyone buy our home with these massive bleachers now directly behind it? They will find the same exact home elsewhere in the neighborhood without the bleachers and purchase that one instead. The school district has made our homes worth exactly nothing. They have made our entire block undesirable to live on now. The school district took so much away from us. Some say we have no right to be upset but we disgree. We once lived behind a small high school football field on the Visitors side that only held 400 spectators. Now it can hold 3000 people. That's a HUGE difference and the school is not growing. In fact the Superintendent has stated publicly that the attendence is declining and will continue to do so for many years to come. We never got a warning that the school was building these bleachers and swapping sides. Never recieved an email or letter or phone call. Never was there anything in the newspapers stating clearly what the school/district intended to do here right behind our homes. We deserved to know about this before it was being built. The district should have given us common courtesy and informed us of the plans so we then would have had the chance to have a discussion with them. If they would have done that and worked with our city, all this could have been avoided. The district chose to hide this. The district chose to build an illegal structure. The district chose to force the city to defend themselves. The district has done everything to delay this causing more and more money to be spent. They continue to delay this by not submitting new plans to the PZC like they were asked to. It's been 5 months and they have done nothing at all despite Dr. Thomas' promises that he would find a solution. This school board under Wagner's and Thomas' misguided leardership needs to be held accountable. They need to finally follow the law and do what's right. We need to demand that of them.
Kimberly Maselbas-Gurba
Crystal Lake, Il.
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This is affecting not only the value of my property but also the desirability of living here for myself, my family and for any potential buyers.
For me, the main selling point of our home when we first looked at it was the openness of the backyard. The district has taken that away from us.
This is not about 4 or 5 football games a year. This is also about all the other activities that go on causing extra noise. We now have kids stomping up and down them for gym classes, jogging up and down for track, soccer, the band now plays facing our homes instead of facing away and on the other side of the field.
Then there are all the people that use the field and bleachers at all hours on weekends and over the summer and school breaks when the field should be locked and secured.
We have always had to deal with a small amount of noise but nothing like it has been since they moved the Home bleachers to the west side of the field.
We now deal with extremely loud banging and vibrations from the bleachers whenever the wind blows or when the hot or cold temperatures make the steel expand and contract.
We deal with this 24/7 and 365 days a year at all hours of the day and night. I look out my back windows and all I see now are the bleachers I don't even want to use my backyard anymore.
We have also had issues with kids and grown men staring and yelling out to our daughters as they are in their bedroom. It got so bad that we now have to keep the bedroom windows sealed because we can never know when someone will show up on the bleachers to do this.
Therefore depriving our daughters of sunlight in their bedroom.
The school district is not growing. By the district's own admission attendance is down and they don't see it going up anytime soon. Also D47 has also said their numbers are down as well. This shows us that bleachers of this enormous size were not needed at all.
I do ask that no matter what ends up being there, something on the back of the bleachers, be it some kind of rubber backing, needs to be put in to help reduce the noise.
Thru this whole thing I've felt nothing but violated as a homeowner and member of the community.
Jeff Gurba
Crystal Lake, Il.
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9/24/2015
I am grateful to the Supreme court for their ruling today. They upheld the law that we knew was right and just all along.
The district has made us all go through over 2 years of legal battles, harrassment, threats and bullying and more delays than I could count. They alone had the power to stop all this. To stop wasting taxpayers money but did they? No. Wagner stated in his mass email to parents of 155 that " We are committed to working with our residential neighbors, and we will continue to work with the City of Crystal Lake to move forward in a cooperative and respectful manner. We will now work to finalize a demolition process and timeline that will minimize disruption to our students and community. " He has never worked with the neighbors, he has never worked with the city and he certainly has not conducted himself in a cooperative or respectful manner at any time through this. This ruling doesn't just affect us. This ruling will have an impact on all homeowners in the state of Illinois who happen to live next to a school. They now have a voice that sends the message that school districts are not above the law. They just can't do or build whatever they please under "but it's for the kids" catch phrase. They have to consider others like neighbors and the cities they are part of and their taxpayers. The district should admit their wrong doing and publicly apologize to everyone.
Kimberly Maselbas-Gurba
Crystal Lake, Il.