Pandemic, pot, BLM protests, corruption among suburbs' top stories in 2020

It was a traumatic year for the nation, confronted by a virus that killed more than 300,000 people, protests and, at times, riots after video was posted of the slow death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer, and a presidential election where many still question the result.

All of those issues played out in the suburbs, too, in an appalling number of nursing home deaths; battles over masks, business closings and school openings; protests, counterprotests and occasional looting over policing and racial issues; and a continuation of the Blue Wave in suburban election results, even as Republicans showed strength statewide.

We'll sum up how those big national issues played out locally, but first we'll take a look at some of the biggest local stories of 2020.

Reefer madness

Large crowds turn out on the morning of Jan. 1 as suburban dispensaries in Addison, North Aurora and Mundelein began selling recreational cannabis for the first time. Some people wait in line more than eight hours, and statewide roughly 77,000 people spent nearly $3.2 million that day.

That was just the beginning. In November, voters in six suburbs that previously banned recreational pot sales - Elk Grove Village, Mount Prospect, Glen Ellyn, Park Ridge, Batavia and Wilmette - said they would support it. That was after voters in Naperville, Rosemont and Maple Park supported similar measures in March. And in July, Arlington Heights, once a staunch opponent, reversed its ban.

Veterans honored

About 600 people attended services in January at Symonds-Madison Funeral Home in Elgin for “unclaimed” veteran John James Murphy, who died at age 71 at Presence St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin. For weeks, authorities tried to get in contact with his relatives - reportedly a brother, two sisters, one child and grandchildren - without success.

Five weeks later, about 150 people responded to the call to honor a second unclaimed veteran. “He doesn't have family,” funeral homeowner Dan Symonds said of Ronald “Ron” George Olson of Elgin, who died at age 83. “We're his family now.”

Then in December, a Marine Corps veteran who had no known family when he died was honored during a donated memorial service at the Laird Funeral Home in Elgin. Lance Cpl. Stephen Alan Myerson, 72, died in September at the Citadel Care Center in Elgin.

After a Daily Herald story, relatives reached out to say they had been searching for Myerson, who had a falling out with the family.

Court backs mayor

The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled in February that a proposed referendum, if approved by voters, would have retroactively imposed term limits on long-serving Elk Grove Village leaders, was unconstitutional. The ruling ended months of acrimonious debate between Mayor Craig Johnson and his critics over the proposal.

In December, Johnson, first elected trustee in 1993 and mayor since 1997, filed to run for a seventh term as mayor in April's election.

Fading to black

Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles officially closed its doors March 1 after roughly 57 years in business after failing to find a buyer. In August, thousands of items of memorabilia were sold off in an online auction. “You can just feel the history,” said Ben Grafe of Grafe Auction.

In September, the city approved the division of the 46-acre property into three parcels, including a 12-acre McGrath Honda dealership that would receive an incentive of more than $5 million to relocate to the eastern portion of the property from elsewhere in the city.

The future of the middle lot, consisting of the bulk of the buildings, and a third lot that is mostly undeveloped, remains unclear.

Betting on the future

After announcing in August 2019 that he would no longer pursue the casino license long seen as the key to the survival of Arlington Park, Bill Carstanjen, CEO of parent company Churchill Downs, continued to paint a bleak future for the horse racing mecca in 2020.

In July, Carstanjen told investors the site will “have a higher and better purpose” as something other than a track. Despite the gloomy outlook, the track opened with limited capacity this summer and officials committed in September to hosting a 2021 racing season.

Link laid low

A year after being implicated as the feds' confidential informant in the FBI's corruption probe of another lawmaker, longtime Lake County legislator Terry Link was indicted in August on a federal tax evasion charge. He pleaded guilty and resigned from the state senate in September. Sentencing is pending.

Pocketing kickbacks?

In September, federal authorities charged Bloomingdale Township Highway Commissioner Robert Czernek with pocketing more than $280,000 in kickbacks related to phony invoices for dump and storm sewer projects.

The fraud scheme spanned eight years and resulted in Bloomingdale Township issuing checks totaling more than $700,000 to Bulldog Earth Movers, a Bloomingdale contractor, federal prosecutors said. He pleaded not guilty.

The indictment followed the January resignation of Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci after federal agents seized $60,000 in cash from his home during their investigation of red-light camera company SafeSpeed. Ragucci hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing.

Drive-in hopes

In a year that saw renewed interest in drive-in movies as an entertainment alternative during a pandemic, hope remains that the iconic Cascade Drive-In in West Chicago can reopen next year, though hurdles remain.

There are zoning and utility issues to resolve before the single-screen drive-in, which closed in 2019 after its lease wasn't renewed, can make a comeback. Jeff Kohlberg, who ran it for 30 years, hopes it will be able to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its first family movie night in 1961.

Unwelcome neighbor

Haymarket Center initially filed in July 2019 to convert a former hotel building at 860 W. Irving Park Road in Itasca into a 240-bed facility for adult patients with substance use and behavioral health disorders, only to meet opposition from hundreds of people who packed school gymnasiums.

Not much has changed as 2020 draws to a close. After months of hearings and then months of delays - first because of a lawsuit Haymarket filed against the village that was dismissed, and then because of the coronavirus - hearings resumed in October.

Haymarket lined up new experts and offered new studies to rebut concerns, but continued to meet intense opposition from residents who say the town of less than 10,000 residents lacks the infrastructure to support a treatment center that would serve roughly 4,750 patients a year.

Protesting policing

The video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes, resulting in his death, sparked dozens of mostly peaceful prayer vigils, rallies and marches in the suburbs. The protests went on for weeks and drew a diverse audience.

Protests at the end of May in Aurora and June 1 in Naperville turned violent, however, with some people engaging in angry encounters with police and breaking into and looting stores. More than a dozen downtown Naperville businesses were hit.

While several rallies were organized to show support of the police, the protests also prompted an examination in Aurora and elsewhere of police use-of-force and training policies and protocols for dealing with protesters.

Blue Wave continues

The big shift from red to blue that was evident in the suburbs in 2018 in reaction to the election of President Donald Trump continued this November.

In DuPage County, once the state's Republican powerhouse, Democrats now hold 11 of the 18 county board seats, a gain of four that gives them a majority for the first time since the Great Depression. They also took control of the countywide offices of auditor, circuit court clerk and recorder.

In Lake County, Democrats won the races for state's attorney, coroner, circuit court clerk and recorder of deeds, after picking up the posts of sheriff, clerk and treasurer and a county board majority in 2018 in the once predominantly Republican county.

In Kane County, Democrats replaced Republicans as county board chair, state's attorney, circuit court clerk and auditor, and took a majority of the county board seats. Two-term incumbent board Chairman Chris Lauzen had withdrawn on the last possible day in the March primary.

In Will County, Democrats retained their control of all the countywide spots on the ballot.

McHenry County bucked the trend, with Republicans regaining their traditional hold on the county board chair office and sweeping other countywide posts.

Battling a pandemic

The biggest story of the year was the pandemic, which took more than 6,000 lives in the suburbs, and was at its most ferocious in November and early December as the year moved to a close. Death was a lonely affair, often separated from family, and no opportunity to mourn together.

The disease ravaged nursing homes, thrived on underlying medical conditions, cost children months of education, devastated restaurants and the entertainment industry, overwhelmed hospitals and produced levels of joblessness unseen since the Great Depression.

And as the year dragged on, COVID-19 sparked increasingly bitter fights among a confused and tired populace over masks, school openings and business closings.

People found new ways of working and living, however, showing remarkable agility and ingenuity. And as the year ended, the arrival of vaccines offered a ray of hope.