Sheriff sues over intersection?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
July 27, 2009

This morning's Northwest Herald reports that Sheriff Keith Nygren is suing over jurisdiction of an intersection in front of Crystal Lake's Prairie Ridge High School.

Now, what's the big deal over there? According to the newspaper, which probably got its information from the Complaint filed in the lawsuit (how about a link to the Complaint on the Northwest Herald's website???), there were 30 minor accidents "since 2000". Well, not quite - only between 2000 and 2007.

So, in eight years there were 30 accidents. That's less than 4 per year. And the last one was almost two years ago, in September 2007 and reportedly caused by a 16-year-old driver on a cell phone who pulled out in front of an approaching car. Duhhh.....

The article also says that most of the accidents were rear-enders, when a student started to pull out into Walkup Road and stopped (duhhh.... again! ... starts to pull out in front of oncoming traffic) and the kid behind isn't paying attention and hits the car in front. Whatever happened to maintaining safe following distance and paying attention?

Why is the Sheriff getting involved in a jurisdictional argument? The road and/or the intersection is either in the County or it's not. Look at the land survey. It is not the Sheriff's job, duty or obligation to question whether the City of Crystal Lake properly annexed anything.

It is not the Sheriff's job to "lead the charge" on this. He doesn't have the authority to "lead the charge." He is supposed to enforce the laws, not change them.

How much will this cost taxpayers???