2007 retrospective

It was a year of highs, lows, hellos, good-byes, surprising turnarounds and near-misses.

Cabela's and the Chicago Shamrox debuted in Hoffman Estates, as did Bartlett's new Metra station, but the Lindbergh School and Streamwood's former police station and village hall were torn down and Barrington said goodbye to a long-running business.

Streamwood, Barrington Hills and Deer Park turned 50. Hanover Park got a new mayor. State Rep. Paul Froehlich shocked by switching parties, Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 narrowly avoided a teachers strike.

Here's a look at those and other top local stories that shaped our lives in 2007.

January

• The year kicks off with new smoking bans going into effect in Schaumburg, Palatine, Hoffman Estates and Rolling Meadows -- and grousing from business owners in those communities. March sees additional bans kick in for Barrington, Wheeling, Mount Prospect and Cook County. But by the end of the year, a statewide ban is imposed and set to take effect Jan. 1.

• An explosion and fire at Palatine business, Expert Auto Repair on Northwest Highway kills the owner, Michael Kipnis of Lake Zurich.

• Harper College and its adjunct faculty announce they've reached a 4-year contract deal.

• The Illinois State Board of Education reinstates fired Conant High teacher Suzanne Rausch. She'd been dismissed the previous July amid accusations she wrote an anonymous letter that defamed a fellow teacher. The state board rules that Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 administrators failed to prove Rausch wrote the letter.

• Palatine Township Elementary District 15 Superintendent Robert McKanna announces he will retire at end of 2007-08 school year.

• State Rep. Terry Parke, a Hoffman Estates Republican, bids the Illinois legislature adieu after 22 years of service. He'd lost re-election the past November to Fred Crespo, who resigns his seat on the Hoffman Estates Village Board -- but too late for his seat to appear on the April ballot. Jackie Green is later appointed to replace Crespo in Hoffman Estates.

February

• Fremd High edges out Palatine to win the girls gymnastics team state title. District 211 dominates the field, with Conant placing third. Fremd's Mary Burke takes the all-around title.

• Palatine High wins first place in both the Tall and Lyrical flags divisions in the Team Dance Illinois state finals.

March

• Twenty Barrington Middle School Prairie Campus students and one teacher are taken to the hospital after coming down with flu-like symptoms. The cause was never determined.

• Fremd High is named a Grammy Signature school for excellence in music, the second time in three years.

• Jam Productions announced its plans to open a new outdoor amphitheater at Prairie Stone Business Park -- near the famed but defunct Poplar Creek Music Theatre -- are on hold. But by June, it appears the plans are back on track, with a possible opening in May 2008.

• The Chicago Slaughter football team plays its opening game at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

• A Bartlett family, the Bruskis, sue over the death of their dog, Cleo, who they say was killed in the nationwide tainted pet food scandal.

April

• John P. Tompkins, a Dubuque, Iowa, man, is arrested and identified by federal authorities as the so-called Bishop mail bomber, who sent threatening letters to financial institutions -- including two in Rolling Meadows that included dud pipe bombs. Other packages were mailed from Palatine and to addresses in Barrington Hills and Naperville.

• Barrington Area Unit District 220 voters reject a plan to move the early-childhood center but agree to renovate the football stadium. Barrington High will break ground on its new stadium before the end of the year.

• In a non-binding referendum, 70 percent of Palatine voters get behind a proposal for the village to buy the historic Patten House. But in May, amid price haggling, a divided village council decides against buying the house and, by June, the house is on the open market.

• Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington debuts a brand-new emergency room. In other hospital news, Alexian Brothers Hospital network unveils plans for a $66 million women's and children's medical center to be built in Hoffman Estates. It's targeted to open in 2010.

• Rosemont's one and only mayor, Donald Stephens, dies. He became mayor with the town's incorporation in 1956. His son, Bradley, is named as his successor.

May

• A two-seater plane makes an emergency landing along Northwest Highway in Palatine after the pilot runs out of gas. Hundreds came out to see the plane, which landed right in front of Brandt's Little Cafe.

• Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 tightens eligibility criteria for sports and other extra-curricular activities.

• Palatine High takes the boys state gymnastics team title. Barrington High's girls track and field squad puts on a true team effort, winning two relays and the state title.

• Barrington Area Unit District 220 taps Barrington High Principal Tom Leonard as the new superintendent.

• The sticker shock begins when homeowners in Elk Grove and Maine are the first in Northwest suburban Cook County to receive notice of their new property tax assessments, the first in three years. Palatine, Schaumburg and Hanover townships follow in August, November and December and, despite a housing market that is slowing, many homeowners are shocked to see assessments rise by 30 percent or more.

• Ozzi Water Park in Palatine closes for good.

• Schaumburg inventor Aneela Rajusth wins Oprah Winfrey's Next Big Idea contest for her baking pan with the fold-down sides.

• Longtime Schaumburg Township Republican leader and state Rep. Paul Froehlich stuns constituents by announcing he's flipping to the Democratic side.

• A Montana plane crash kills Hamilton Partners founder Allan Hamilton, along with his young colleague and Barrington-area native John Mark Wauterlek. The prominent development firm was known for such projects as Greenspoint office complex in Hoffman Estates.

June

• One of the nation's largest pot cultivation operations is discovered -- inside the Crabtree Nature Preserve in the Barrington area. Some 30,000 marijuana plants that would have been worth millions in street value were tended by workers who used a sophisticated watering system and were living in tents in the preserve. Two men are arrested in July, but authorities said they were just small cogs in the operation. In September, a smaller patch of 400 plants is discovered in Barrington Hills, resulting in further arrests.

• Barrington opens the new, 55-acre Citizens Park. Its centerpiece, a large tree house, goes on to garner numerous awards.

• Two Rottweilers attack a woman in Palatine, biting both of her arms. The dogs' owner battles with the village to get her dogs back. In September, a deal is struck allowing the woman to keep one of the dogs but must return the other to its Wisconsin breeder.

• Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington again tops the Church Report's annual list of the 50 most influential non-Catholic Christian churches. In January, the same group names pastor Bill Hybels the nation's third most influential Christian behind only Billy Graham and Joel Osteen.

• Barrington High eliminates class rank.

• Palatine Township District 15 acknowledges it has hidden camera at Willow Bend School.

July

• Barrington Hills loses a court battle with Dallas-based Fritz Duda Co., allowing 117 acres to be de-annexed from the village and developed.

• Patricia Columbo is again denied parole for the 1976 murder and mutilation of her family in Elk Grove Village.

August

• Rocker Ted Nugent appears at Durty Nellie's in Palatine to dedicate a giant rock in honor of his late mother, Marion "Ma" Nugent. She lived for much of her life in Palatine.

• Major storms cause serious flooding and damage throughout the Northwest suburbs. Though the worst flooding is along the Des Plaines River in Des Plaines and Mount Prospect, some areas farther west also have problems with outages, flooding and tree damage.

• Powerspace, a band with members hailing from Schaumburg, Palatine and Arlington Heights (a fourth is an Ohio native) play Lollapalooza.

• Willow Creek Community Church's leadership conference is beamed to 138 satellite locations in North America alone.

• The Tour of Elk Grove bicycle race returns with an even more impressive field and bigger purse. But in November, the winner, Nathan O'Neill of Australia, is stripped of the title after testing positive for a diet drug. O'Neill admits to taking the drug during the off-season, which is legal under cycling rules. He apologizes to fans but loses his $33,500 prize and is banned from the Tour of Elk Grove for life.

September

• Jacqueline Blout is installed as commander of the Palatine American Legion Post 690. She's the first black commander and the third woman to lead the post.

• New busing routes in Palatine Township Elementary District 15 result in hundreds of complaints.

• Inverness dedicates its new veterans memorial.

• A single-engine plane crash in Crystal Lakes kills two, including Barrington's David Burdine, a retired Navy commander and Top Gun flight instructor.

• Inverness rejects a long-term contract for Barrington police coverage but does stick with Barrington for the time being. In December, Deer Park will look to Barrington for police coverage but decides instead to stick with Kildeer.

• The state busts a scheme to inflate condo prices at One Renaissance Place in Palatine, where units were bought and sold multiple times.

• Community Church of Barrington celebrates 160 years.

• Deer Park celebrates 50 years as the restored Vehe Farm is dedicated. Barrington Hills also honors its 50th anniversary with a yearlong celebration that coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Riding Club of Barrington Hills, making this year's annual Kalaway Landowners Cup polo match Sept. 8 particularly special.

• Lake Barrington's Stacie McManus wins the national Women of Spirit award from the American Red Cross and Morton's Steakhouse for her work for autistic children.

• Barrington's Aspen Ski and Patio closes its doors after 30 years.

• With much fanfare, Cabela's outdoor gear superstore -- the first in the Chicago area -- opens in Hoffman Estates' Prairie Stone Business Park. With millions in village investment and incentives, the 185,000-square-foot, $32 million store features a 26-foot-tall "mountain" with waterfall, a 16,000-gallon aquarium, dioramas and gun library -- and brings in hundreds of new jobs.

• A car plows into crowds gathered in Schaumburg to watch the Septemberfest fireworks, injuring several people. Three months go by before a Roselle teen is charged in the crash.

• Patrick McCarthy, a special education teacher at Robert Frost Junior High in Schaumburg, is charged with battering and restraining some of his students. He's immediately placed on leave.

• Melanie Goldish of Hoffman Estates wins national the Energizer Keep Going Hall of Fame award. She founded SuperSibs!, which provides support to siblings of cancer patients, after her own son battled cancer.

October

• Long-simmering tensions between Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 teachers and administrators are ratcheted way up when teachers reject the district's contract offer and set a strike date. A federal mediator fails to break the impasse and the district is pushed to the brink of a strike before a deal is reached in early November. Teachers get most of what they ask for, including 3.25 percent base-pay raises for this school year and about 2.8 percent for next year.

• As news continues to emerge about drug-resistant MRSA infections, suburban schools begin reporting their own cases of the staph superbugs. Cases appear in Palatine, Conant and the Academy-North alternative school in Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211, as well as at Canton Middle School in Streamwood and other schools. But no cases of serious health effects nor epidemics are reported, and most parents remain calm and keep their kids in school.

• Several area schools -- including Grove Avenue in Barrington and St. Colette and Willow Bend in Rolling Meadows -- win the prestigious Blue Ribbon award from the federal government.

• Lake Barrington approves Northpointe Development, featuring a 175,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art sports complex.

• St. Hubert Catholic community in Hoffman Estates kicks off a major, year-long renovation project.

• What's touted as the "post office of the future" debuts in Schaumburg, where the Woodfield station received a first-in-the-country customer-friendly makeover, featuring a lounge with comfy chairs, WiFi and TVs.

• After playing its first game at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates in January, the Chicago Shamrox lacrosse team's 2008 season appears to be over before it starts in October because players and owners can't agree on a contract. But nine days later a deal is reached.

• Army medic and Schaumburg native Phillip Compean and a colleague are honored for helping rescue two men injured in a car crash Compean witnesses while serving in Kuwait.

November

• An ugly scene breaks out after Fremd High loses a playoff football game to Glenbard North, when Glenbard fans swarmed the field and mutual taunting ensues. An IHSA probe follows and there's talk of a Glenbard forfeiture, but that's avoided. Glenbard North goes onto the state 8A title game but loses to Naperville North.

• The Barrington High School boys soccer team captures its first state title in a 2-1 win over Naperville's Neuqua in a triple-overtime thriller lasting 106 minutes. The team compiled 25 wins this year, the most in school history. The team is honored with a special pep assembly that included a parade down Main Street.

• The so-called Compassion Cottage kicks off its national tour from Barrington, on a fund- and consciousness-raising tour for the continued rebuilding effort in Pass Christian, Miss. The town was virtually wiped out in 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and a group of Barrington-area residents and businesses have spearheaded their own efforts to help out.

• The entire Palatine community puts on a tremendous showing of support when the cross-town rivalry football game -- Fremd vs. Palatine -- goes pink in honor of Fremd mom Susan Mertes. The mother of three current and one former Fremd football player, Mertes dies of breast cancer in September.

• Hoffman Estates resident Phillip O'Brill is hospitalized after trying to defend his Christmas decorations from vandals. In December, the teens fingered in the incident are let go after O'Brill decides not to press charges.

• Two Republicans and one Democrat formally file to try to unseat former Republican Paul Froehlich next year in his 56th House District. But in December, one of the Republicans, Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 school board President Charlotte Kegarise, is removed from the ballot following a challenge to her nominating petitions. That means if Froehlich wins the Democratic primary against newcomer John Moynihan on Feb. 5, Froehlich will face Anita Forte-Scott in the November general election. She is president of the Schaumburg Township District Library board -- whose members also include Froehlich's wife, Marilyn.

December

• Barrington Area Unit District 220 has to shut down all its schools Dec. 4 after vandals slashed tires on 40 school buses.

• A long debate over leaf-burning in North Barrington ends when the village board decides to restrict further the times when leaves can be burned but stop short of an outright ban.

• Dozens and dozens of Christmas presents intended for domestic violence survivors and their children are destroyed or damaged in a fire at a Schaumburg office building. But the community responds with thousands of dollars in gift cards for the clientele of Women in Need Growing Stronger, or WINGS.

• Someone buys a winning Mega Millions ticket worth $81.5 million at a Shell station in Streamwood. As of Dec. 23, no one had come forward to claim the prize.