Two Batavia men charged in Elgin bank heist

These Elgin State Bank security photos were posted

on the FBI's http://bandittrackerchicago.com website.

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Jan. 20, 2012

Federal charges were filed Friday against two Batavia men accused of concealing their faces and brandishing handguns to rob an Elgin bank on Wednesday evening.

Douglas Kelley, 27, and Lucas G. Marin, 29, both of Batavia, were each charged with one count of bank robbery, a felony, in a criminal complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

OCTAVE errs on chamber accusation

Defends other criticisms of business license

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Jan. 19, 2012

Insinuations that the Elgin Chamber of Commerce somehow concealed about 130 member businesses from the city administration when it began its business license program are false, BocaJump learned Wednesday afternoon.

The special interest group Elgin OCTAVE has been pressuring the City Council to dump the business license and publicly has offered a litany of criticisms of the program. But on Tuesday morning, Chuck Keysor, one of OCTAVE’s founders, wrote in an email to supporters and other interested parties that a Freedom of Information Act request he filed with the city revealed documents indicating “the chamber of commerce provided the original list of Elgin businesses to the city, around which the business license program was built. But amazingly, that list was missing about 130 of the chamber's own members! And not only were they not on the first list; they are still not on the newest list received two weeks ago!

“Are you shocked and disturbed yet?!”

Keysor stands behind other chamber criticisms

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Jan. 19, 2012

While acknowledging he ultimately was wrong about who supplied the city with a list of businesses used to initiate Elgin’s business license, OCTAVE spokesman Chuck Keysor said the group continues to stand by other criticisms it has leveled about the issue.

 “… I still stand by the list of all the other issues I raised a few minutes ago,” he wrote, referring to an email he sent in which Keysor outlined an array of issues with the business license program, all of which have been aired publicly before the City Council and in emails to OCTAVE supporters and others following the group.

VIDEO: Elgin Snow Command ready for winter

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Dec. 7, 2011

When snow hits, whether it’s a light dusting that’s enough to make the roads slick or a monster storm like February’s blizzard, which left 18 inches or more of snow in its wake, people expect to be able to drive to work, go to the doctor’s office or head to the grocery store.

Prigge speaks out against racism allegations, innuendo

Councilman breaks council silence to defend police

John Prigge

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Oct. 28, 2011

Councilman John Prigge said Thursday he simply had had enough when he decided Wednesday night to break the Elgin City Council’s silence over “unfounded accusations and innuendo” about racism in the Elgin Police Department.

Stressing that he had been speaking on his own behalf Wednesday night and not on behalf of the council, Prigge said Thursday he had been biting his tongue each time the issue was raised publicly during recent City Council meetings.

The allegations erupted over the summer when Elgin police Lt. Sean Rafferty was suspended for five days without pay. The suspension order censured Rafferty over a 14-year-old photograph and over an incident in 2009 or 2010 when a “race-based joke” was sent as a text message to a black fellow officer. Rafferty is white.

Elgin seeks grant for Slade boat ramp

Looming budget woes cast shadow on project

A look at the approach to the Slade Avenue Park
boat ramp reveals cracked, crumbling asphalt.
(Ted Schnell • BocaJump)

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
A drive west down Slade Avenue in Elgin ends at a park laid out along the edge of the Fox River on the city’s East Side.

There is an area for parking to the right, and the driver brings his car to just a crawl as a couple of bicyclists slip out from a wooded trail to the left. They’re headed north on the Fox River Trail, a bike path that meanders through the area, following a shoreline made lush and verdant by this summer’s rains.

We asked, you answered:

What you #LikeMostAboutElgin

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump

What a city we live in. Nestled along the Fox River, Elgin got its start as a rural town that grew into a center of commerce and industry, noted for its watches, for its dairies and long known as the City of Churches.

Illinois Supreme Court ruling renews hope for Riverside Drive Promenade

Published July 12, 2011

A court ruling Monday may free up funding for the Riverside Drive Promenade project. (Hitchcock Design Group)

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
The first thing you might notice while walking along the old Riverside Drive parking deck that juts out over the eastern shore of the Fox River in downtown Elgin is the element of decay.

Weeds have grown upward from cracks in the pavement. A concrete barrier bars vehicles from most of the deck’s former southbound lane, because the deck’s underpinnings have weakened with time and may not support a vehicle’s weight.

Tech shifts how city gets the word out

Published June 24, 2011

Getting the word out today involves more than a press
release, says Elgin City Manager Sean Stegall, who says
the city must look at multiple information platforms,
such as the Internet, as well as traditional media.
(Image by Stock.xchng vi)

First of two
By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
The explosive growth of new media over the past 15 years has seen a correspondingly dramatic shift in the way people gather and share information – even how they communicate individually with each other.

“You can never communicate enough,” City Manager Sean Stegall said Wednesday afternoon.

More media vie for city ad dollars

Published June 24, 2011

Information is gathered today in far many more ways
than when it was delivered on your front porch.
(Image by Stock.xchng vi)

Second of two
By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
The dominance of traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television once meant there were relatively few choices for “getting the word out” about anything.

For cities, government agencies, civic groups and businesses, press releases typically were the way to go, sometimes sparking enough interest that an editor would assign a reporter and photographer or cameraman to cover the story.

BocaJump: Live-blog council coverage

Published June 22, 2011 | BocaJump publishes a short council preview story that sits on top of the Cover It Live widget users will click on to follow the meeting. Beneath the widget is a rundown of the City Council agenda.
By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
A day after flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder heralded a tornado warning amid heavy rains over Elgin, the City Council will be asked to approve spending $252,527 to add six new weather warning siren systems on the city’s Far-West Side.

Coincidence?

Yes – the agenda was set last week, long before storms raked the city on Tuesday evening.

Is Prigge solo on downtown carnivals?

Published June 20, 2011

(Image by Stock.xchng vi)

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
Downtown Neighborhood Association President Karin Jones admits that carnivals in Elgin’s Center City seem to have run their course as fundraisers for the organization.

But they remain a viable interest in the eyes of local nonprofits, Jones said Monday, and they help make the downtown a hub of activity when they operate, drawing residents into the area to walk around, perhaps visit a business or two while they’re out having fun.

Jones said she has worked as a volunteer at the carnivals, she has visited them with her family and has had fun doing so, all the while watching others have fun as well.

Court threat from downstate inmate

Published May 3, 2011
Emergency personnel stage near the MABAS decontamination unit, which has facilities for people to undress and shower as part of decontamination in hazardous materials incidents, outside the Second Appellate Courthouse in downtown Elgin on Monday afternoon. (James Jordan • BocaJump)By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
The police tape is gone and all was quiet Tuesday outside the Second Appellate Courthouse in downtown Elgin, but authorities say a threatening letter sent with suspicious white powder has been traced to a prison in southern Illinois.

Elgin Police Department spokeswoman Susan Olafson said Tuesday the letter containing the threat and the white powder has been traced to a downstate prison, although she did not have the name of the facility.

Powder threat sends 29 to hospitals

Published May 2, 2011

By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
Nearly 30 people were sent to three area hospitals on Monday afternoon after someone in the Second Appellate District Courthouse in downtown Elgin opened an envelope containing a threatening message and a suspicious white powder, Elgin authorities said.

Wowway: ‘We’re in compliance’ on 911

But company warns customers don’t dial 1 first
Published April 22, 2011
By Ted Schnell • BocaJump
A representative of Wowway, which provides telephone, Internet and cable television service to some Elgin residents, says it is in compliance with the state’s regulations on 911 calls, even though one such call recently was routed to an Indiana sheriff’s office.

Spokesman Bill Wright, calling from the company’s offices in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Thursday afternoon the company had checked with the Illinois Commerce Commission, which oversees public utilities such as telephone service providers, and verified that its service is routing 911 calls correctly according to ICC standards, even though one such call in Elgin was routed to the sheriff’s office dispatch center 80 miles away in Lake County, Ind.