Wow! Green eggs and hams on parade
OK, lads and lassies, get ready to don your green and get your Irish up. I hear you'll find more than a few hams on parade in the East Dundee St. Patrick's Day parade along the riverfront Saturday.
You'll also find plenty of green eggs among the thousands of multi-colored eggs hidden at Easter Egg hunts here in the northern Fox Valley. Your dilemma will be where to be on a busy Saturday when St. Patrick collides with the Easter Bunny.
Do you race for eggs or go watch the Irish ham it up?
If you work it right, you might just be able to do a bit of both. Most of the egg hunts around the northern Fox Valley, including Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Dundee Township and Gilberts will take place at 10 a.m. or earlier. The parade kicks off at 11 a.m.
I'll bet leaders in Community Unit School District 300 wish they'd picked another Saturday morning for their first town-hall meeting -- from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Hampshire Elementary School -- which overlaps the egg hunts and the parade. It seems we need a regional calendar people can check before they schedule such events.
If you choose the parade, it begins at 11 a.m. at Bandito Barney's, heads north to Barrington Avenue, west to Water Street, then north to Rosie O'Hare's, which is co-sponsoring the parade with the village. Watch for a certain village president with a bagpipe.
On the roads & more
It's a similar conflict -- minus the candy eggs and green beer, of course -- Wednesday night when tax- and traffic-weary residents can speak their piece at two places at the same time. McHenry County statehouse legislators Mike Tryon, Jack Franks and Pam Althoff are co-hosting a town meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the McHenry County College Conference Center. This is your chance to tell the lawmakers what you think state-funding priorities should be.
McHenry County transportation folks also invite us to stop by their public hearing on Rakow Road expansion plans. You can hear details and tell them what you think from 4 to 8 p.m. at the informal open-house hearing at Crystal Lake High School. If ever there was a night to be in two places at once, this is it.
East side
Good news for you east-side Algonquin residents craving fast food: the new Arby's is now open! Algonquin village leaders promised they'd keep working to answer the pleas of those living on the east side of the river, somewhat frustrated that most Algonquin retail development has gone west to the Randall Road corridor. Two new grocery stores, a Jimmy John's, Starbucks, Quizno's and several other stores later, I'd say they're sure keeping that promise. Arby's plans a "Super Saturday" grand opening March 29, but welcome you to stop by now.
Music from above
Phyllis Connelly invites us to the increasingly popular celebration of music and prayer at the 13th annual Palm Sunday Interfaith Concert at 3:45 p.m. Sunday to be held at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in West Dundee this year. You'll definitely want to get there early as dozens of musicians from a number of churches throughout the area join voices and instruments to celebrate and honor Lent. They'll invite you to join in for a few numbers and welcome us all to the free celebration. If you'd like to make an offering, they'd appreciate it.
Busy signal
Thank you to those who've already weighed in on how you feel about automated phone calls from political candidates. You sure have had a lot to say -- and candidates just might want to listen. If you'd still like to spew -- I mean add your thoughts -- give me a call at (847) 931-5725 or e-mail me at amack@dailyherald.com. Let me know if it's all right to use your name and town, too, OK? I'll share your thoughts in Sunday's column.
So far, it sounds like you're none too happy with the robo calls … no matter who they came from.