The Huntley Farmside

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The HimtleY Farmside
Thursday, December 17,1998
A Press Publications newspaper im^ serving tlie Huntley community
Volume 38 Issue 36
Hemmer's death is viewed as an 'end of an era'
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications
When most people die, few remember what they accom¬ plished and even fewer ever know what impact they might have had on the world in which they lived.
And then there is someone like the late Joseph G. Hemmer, whose family traces its roots to Huntley's earliest days.
Hemmer died Dec. 12 in Elgin's Rosewood Care Center, just three days shy of his 90th birthday.
Scores of friends and family members packed the American Legion Hall on Saturday after attending a mass at St. Mary Catholic Church, the Hemmer
family's home church.
Among many qualities, Patricia Hemmer-Braddock remembers her father as a man who was devoted to his family.
"My brothers and I were rem¬ iniscing how dad had a fantastic sense of humor, and how he never had a credit card and paid everything in cash," Braddock said. "I'm going to miss him. We had so many good memories. He is the end of an era."
Up until Hemmer moved into Rosewood from Sherman Hospital, he and his wife, Margaret, were inseparable.
"She visited him everyday while he was in the (Sherman) hospital," Braddock said.
see Hemmer—page 2
Photo by Steve Brosinski
Making memories
Park District Recreation Director Betsey Warrington (top left) sings carols with members of the Crusader Choir of the First Congregational Church during Saturday's Remembrance Tree Ceremony at the Deicke Recreation Center. Residents chose 158 "special people " to have their names placed on the tree. "We do this every year and keep the ornaments, " Warrington said. After the ceremony, Santa visited chil¬ dren outside the center.
Prime Automotive Group makes push for car dealership tax rebate
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications Prime Automotive Group is seeking a multimillion dollar sales tax rebate to help defray the costs of relocating three Prime-owned dealerships to the Huntley Automall.
On Thursday, the Huntley Village Board plans to discuss Prime's request for sales tax rebates of up to $1.25 million each for the three dealerships. The company intends on relo¬ cating the dealerships to the 51-acre automall on Route 47,
west of the Prime Outlet Mall.
Prime Automotive, a sub¬ sidiary of Prime Inc., is buy¬ ing the assets of Huntley's King Chevrolet, Lesser Pontiac Buick in Woodstock and Sawyer Mercedes Volvo in DeKalb.
If the village approves the rebate request. Prime could be reimbursed up to $3.75 mil¬ lion. The proposal was pre¬ sented at the board's Committee of the Whole meeting last Thursday.
"We would use that as an
incentive to get the dealer¬ ships to move here," Prime Vice President Phillip Waters said. "Because of the limited demographics, there is resis¬ tance to move."
Prime wants a deal similar to what the village struck with Tom Peck Ford in 1997. Tom Peck Ford will get back 25 percent of the sales tax gener¬ ated in five years. Peck's agreement will be extended another five years if gross sales reach $35 million. The
see Rebate—page 2
Sherman seeks to open facility near Sun City
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications St. Joseph's Hospital may have appeared to have been the front-runner in the race to open a medical facility near Del Webb's Sun City, but Sherman Health Systems beat them to the finish line.
Elgin-based Sherman plans to build a 25,000-square-foot medical care campus that will offer immediate medical care and a host of diagnostic ser¬ vices.
Sherman has agreed to buy 15 acres in the Prime Group's
43-acre Huntley Corporate Park, south of Sun City. The facility will be open to all resi¬ dents of Huntley.
Construction of the first phase should begin in spring, 1999 and be completed within two years. This would be the second medical facility planned near Sun City. Brookdale Living Community will be building a 300,000-square-foot intergener¬ ational assisted-care center on eight acres in the Corporate Park.
Phillip Waters, Prime's vice president of marketing, said see Sherman—^page 2