The Huntley Farmside

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Thursday, October 28,1999
The Himtley Faimside
7R 1000 A Press Publications newspaper«/servinq the Huntlev communitv _. .
Volume 29, Issue 43
Huntley board approves Rt. 47 21-acre mall site
By Christopher Petersen
Press Publications
Huntley's Village Board came out in fevor of a proposed strip mall to be built on Route 47 tiiis past Thursday.
The mall would be built on a 21-acre plot south of Deicke Park, across the street from Centegra Health Systems. The development would feature a 160,000-square-foot lot, large enough for either a large re¬ tail store or a one-story office building.
Along with the larger lot, plans call for a set of six smaller lots along Route 47 that would be developed potentially as a strip mall or separately for individual businesses.
The entrance to the pro¬ posed development cuts through some wetiands on the lot, but the developer, Richard Clesen, has worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to assess and alleviate any en¬ vironmental impact the project might have.
"They've got some modifi¬ cations to change there," said Village President Richard Dhamer.
"It's going to be
a nice piece of
business, in my
opinion."
Richard Dhamer
Huntley Village President
The Village Board seemed to be favorable to the project, and no problems were dis¬ covered during the design re¬ view on Thursday. Clesen hopes to begin work on "the site in the spring, and Dhamer said that the entire project may not be completed until sometime m either 2003 or 2004.
The lot Clesen has chosen for the development has been targeted for retail once before. According to Dhamer, a Bur¬ ger King restaurant was slated to be built on the site about two years ago. The project never saw the light of day because plans were never finalized and the proposal just fell apart.
¦   MALL, Page 2
Huntley Fire Inspector Al Wiesneth shows off his award for Outstanding Service In Fire Protection from the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association. This Is the first year the association has given away the award.
Local firefighter recognized
By Christopher Petersen
Press Publications
Huntley Fire Inspector Al Wiesneth does a lot for the community, and on Friday he was recognized by his fellow inspectors for his work.
Wiesneth received the award for Out¬ standing Service in Fire Protection from the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association at their annual dinmer last Friday night. This was
the first year that the association presented awards at the function.
"It was an honor and we sure appreciate it," Wiesneth said.
The award was given to Wiesneth for his work in fire prevention and fire inspection, but it's his work in public education where he really makes a difference to the com¬ munity. Wiesneth has established many programs to educate school children and senior citizens on the importance of being ¦   WIENSNETH, Page 2
Dist. 158 moving around school boundaries
By Christopher Petersen
Press Publications
Huntley's School District 158 has set tentative school boundaries in response to population growth, and a final decision on where the village's children will attend school will be made within the next month.
The district set the tempo¬ rary boundaries on Thursday,
with the date for a final deci¬ sion set for the School Board's Nov. 18 meeting, according to Superintendent J.R. Hartiey.
As the boundaries stand now, children in kindergarten through third grade who live east of Route 47 and north of Algonquin Road, excluding the area west of Pine Creek Golf Cotu-se, will attend Chesak Elementary at the Reed Road Campus, and all other kin¬ dergartners   through   third-
graders would attend Leggee Elementary at the Harmony Road campus. This includes both Huntley and Algonquin, along with the Bellchase sub¬ division in Lake in the HUls.
The board will hold an open forum at 7 p.m. Nov. 8 in the Huntley Middle/High School's Media Center, where Huntley residents will be able to voice their opinions about the new boundaries. The board does not  anticipate  any  negative
feedback over the plans. Hartley said.
"We've done quite a bit of communicating with people and we think what we've come up with is fairly logical," he said.
In order to accommodate growth in the district, the board approved the construc¬ tion of 16 new classrooms at Chesak Elementary. The new classrooms allow the school to handle   about   800   students.
Eight of thenew classrooms are intended for elementary classes, and eight for kinder¬ garten classes.
The majority of students live in the area for Chesak, meaning that fourth- and fifth- graders from the Chesak zone will be sent to North Ele¬ mentary, and others from the Leggee zone will attend South Elementary.
While the new boundaries ¦   SCHOOL, Page 2