scout26
Member
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/635275,4_1_JO05_HUNTING_S1.article
Ms. McGovern, why don't you just move back to somewhere "safer" like the Westside or Southside of Chicago ?????
WILL COUNTY'S URBAN, RURAL PROPONENTS DISAGREE OVER RIGHTS TO A FALL TRADITION IN THE SUNSET RIDGE AREA.
November 5, 2007
By STEWART WARREN STAFF WRITER
JOLIET -- Early on a Saturday morning in mid-October, Christy McGovern heard gunshots.
It was 5 a.m., and she wasn't really awake yet. The shots went off somewhere beyond her home in the Sunset Ridge subdivision, a neighborhood off Caton Farm Road and south of Illinois 59. The neighborhood isn't far from a stretch of the DuPage River and a few remaining farm fields.
Every year during the fall, the Joliet police and the Illinois Department of Conservation police get calls complaining about hunting in the Sunset Ridge area.
McGovern worried a little with each boom.
"It really sounded like it was in front of our house, rather than in the distance," said McGovern, who lives on Carrington Lane.
Clash of cultures
For the past six years, McGovern has heard the shots on many fall weekends. Although she doesn't know exactly where they are, she thinks the hunters might be in the nearby fields looking for ducks or geese. McGovern has two small boys, and for her, it's a little too close for comfort.
"We are so populated here -- it's not a farm anymore. There are a lot of young families, and a lot of small children. Whether it is waking them up -- or God forbid there is an accident," she said.
Other Sunset Ridge residents told similar stories. Besides hearing the shots, they've found pellets in their driveways and lawns. One young mother of three who requested anonymity told a story about walking with her boys down their street, Parkside Drive. A few geese flew overhead, the hunters started shooting and to her horror, birds dropped from the sky. She immediately turned the kids around and went home.
They're not the only ones to notice the hunters. Every year at the same time, the Joliet police and the Illinois Department of Conservation police get calls complaining about hunting in that general area.
It's the classic Will County clash of the past two decades: suburban living butts heads with the area's still rural nature. People moved to Will County during the recent building boom because they could buy more house for the money and enjoy good school systems. But they sometimes expect the area to be like the densely populated and more mature communities they've left behind.
No illegal activity
But officers from both departments say they've never discovered any injury or wrongdoing related to the hunting.
"As long as there is a 100-yard gap between where the hunters are hunting and people are living, no law is being violated," Joliet Deputy Police Chief Pat Kerr said. "If anyone has any damage of property by pellets, we haven't gotten any reports of it."
The federal government sets guidelines each year for the opening of hunting season for waterfowl, said officer Dave Wollgast of the conservation police. The dates are based on the number of ducks and geese observed during official counts of each species, he explained. This year, the duck hunting season in the north zone that includes the area around the Sunset Ridge subdivision began Oct. 20 and continues through Dec. 18, he said. There's an early season for geese between Sept. 1 and 15 and a later season from Oct. 20 and Jan. 12, he said.
The less-regulated dove hunting season begins every year on Sept. 1, closes on Oct. 21 and opens again briefly between Nov. 4 and 12, he said.
"We get complaints all the time in that area -- from people about hunting, and hunters complaining that people harass them," he said.
Residents call and claim that someone is shooting at them, Wollgast said. But that's never been the case. Sometimes pieces of the shotgun pellets fall on nearby lawns or driveways, he said. But it's not dangerous. "When that shot is raining down, it has no force behind it other than gravity," he said.
It's against the law to interfere with hunting, but sometimes people will play music loudly or walk through an area to scare the birds away and foil the hunters, Wollgast said.
Carline Bronk, one of the owners of the farmland off Bronk Road between Caton Farm and Black roads and near the Sunset Ridge subdivision, has heard about the complaints. For the past few years, she allowed three men to hunt doves on part of the property she owns with her husband, Barry Bronk. But she only allows them to use one particular field that's not adjacent to the subdivision. And she monitors their presence, requiring them to telephone to set up the hunting expeditions and make follow-up calls when they arrive on the property and leave.
"We don't let them hunt all the time," Carline Bronk said, explaining that she and her husband have too much work to do in their fields. "We follow the law and can only have other people follow the law," she added.
But she also hears the guns and wonders where the hunters are. The noise is so frequent that her horses don't even notice it anymore, Carline Bronk said. She's heard that people hunt on the east side of the DuPage River behind some commercial buildings that are right across the water from Sunset Ridge, but hasn't seen them there herself.
Time for change
She also has experienced the suburban vs. rural Will County culture clash. Children trespass on her property to see her horses. Unwanted old furniture, appliances, cars and even a boat have been dumped in different spots.
And a few weeks ago, someone vandalized a car parked near an old barn on her property. All the windows in the red Camaro were broken, and someone jumped on the car's roof. They poured gasoline around the inside of the barn, leaving the cans behind. Thankfully, they didn't start a fire.
But if the hunters and property owners are obeying the law, what's the problem? Wollgast wonders if it's unfamiliarity with the sport. "Some people have never been around hunting, and it frightens them. They fear for themselves and their kids," he said.
Nevertheless, McGovern thinks it's time someone put a stop to the hunting that happens near Sunset Ridge. "It's probably not a good idea any more," she said.
Ms. McGovern, why don't you just move back to somewhere "safer" like the Westside or Southside of Chicago ?????
that the students are staying up late partying. The suburbanites then force their expectations upon the students, who are the majority in the neighborhood.
Not very scenic now.
More of an eyesore.
