Residents of a tiny town are in uproar over plans to replace a street housing disabled people with those with mental health and drug problems.

The remote neighborhood of 20 homes on Turkey Hill in Belleville, Illinois, was for 40 years used for adults with developmental disabilities.

St Clair Associated Vocational Enterprises gave them a community, often with their families, and provided them with jobs at its nearby facilities.

But the program was shut down last year after state policy changed to favor integrating disabled people into the community rather than segregating them.

SAVE lost its Illinois Department of Human Services funding as a result and discontinued the program, though it maintained its vocational day programs.

With the homes sitting empty, SAVE made a deal with Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center to house its clients in 15 of the 17 remaining buildings.

CBHC has a $537,000 federal Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to provide low-income housing to people with behavioral disabilities.

The people who would move in include those with mental illness, substance abuse problems, homelessness, or struggling with other crises.

‘Our mission is to provide quality individualized essential services for people in need of emotional, rehabilitative and social support, on a twenty-four (24) hour basis, in the least restrictive environment,’ its website reads.

However, rumors ran like wildfire through nearby neighborhoods who originally thoughts the homes would house migrants from Chicago.

When they discovered who would actually be moving in, they instead feared an influx of violence into their community.

St Clair Associated Vocational Enterprises gave them a community, often with their families, and provided them with jobs at its nearby facilities

Residents erect a structure as part of their vocational training

‘I worry about more than anything are drive-by shootings or people getting into fights, and then you have gunfire going off,’ Ginger Miller, who lives nearby, told the Belleville News-Democrat.

‘I know the Freeburg police don’t have the manpower to patrol it regularly, and our county police are already stretched thin.’

Frank Heiligenstein, who lives in nearby Freeburg, runs the Citizens Federation of St. Clair County and put the issue on the agenda for its meeting on Wednesday.

He originally titled it ‘the relocation of migrants from Chicago to the Turkey Hill SAVE site’ until he learned the truth.

‘We might have been better off with migrants coming in because they aspire to go to work someplace,’ he said. 

‘We have several facilities out here… that use migrants, legally and illegally. Some of them have to use them to sustain their operations.’

The small, basic-build frame houses, seen here getting maintainence, were built to house personnel at a US Air Force radar base in the 1950s and 60s

Disabled residents work in a garden within the small neighborhood

SAVE executive director Paul Wibbenmeyer said leasing the homes to CBHC would give the organization some income and still help people.

‘The homes will be put to a use that isn’t very different from what we’ve done in the past. We served a population that had challenges,’ he told the newspaper.

‘The people that the HUD grant is designed to assist have challenges of their own.’

CBHC executive director Joe Harper said the people who would move in were already in the community and needed its help.

‘We’re attempting to help them by giving them a stable place to live so they can become contributing members of the community,’ he said.

Wibbenmeyer said CBHC would have an employee on sight at all times, and more than one much of the time.

The group was looking into providing a shuttle bus to move residents in an out of the isolated neighborhood, and some may have their own cars.

The neighborhood is remote, with SAVE’s facilities (top right) including warehouses and assembly and packaging plants nearby where disabled clients, both residents and those who just come for the day, lean vocational skills and work for pay

CBHC provides therapeutic counseling, psycho-social testing, individual and group therapy, crisis intervention, consultation, community intervention, psychiatric evaluation, case management services, referrals, and outreach services.

Other services include drug treatment, teen-parenting classes, and transition from homelessness.

The small, basic-build frame houses were built to house personnel at a US Air Force radar base in the 1950s and 60s.

The government let SAVE use it in 1975 and later gifted it the land and buildings.

SAVE has warehouses and assembly and packaging plants nearby where disabled clients, both residents and those who just come for the day, lean vocational skills and work for pay.

(WGN) — Boston Market restaurants have been quietly closing over the past few months, leaving just one store in operation across Illinois.

Workers at a west suburban Boston Market confirm they are not closed, telling WGN News: “We’re the last one, but we’re not closing.”

The location is just outside Chicago at 830 W. North Ave. in Melrose Park.

Once known as “Boston Chicken,” the restaurant pioneered healthier fast-food takeout with its popular rotisserie chicken.

The Washington Post reported on the company’s extensive legal problems earlier this year, “with landlords claiming unpaid rent and a fresh barrage of lawsuits and investigations over overdue bills and wages.”

According to a March Restaurant Business Magazine report, the chain, which once had more than a thousand locations nationwide, was down to a few dozen.

Here’s a little warning from someone (me) who saw a family member (my son) find out the hard way about these little guys, and who’s kept an eye out for them ever since then.

It’s a Tussock Moth Caterpillar, and it’s venomous. Not the “well, it’s been nice knowing you” type of venomous, but as my son recently found out, it’s a pretty unpleasant experience.

He got an up-close-and-personal visit from one, and I think it’s safe to say he’s hoping that it never happens again, and we’d really hate to see it happen to you.

These Little Creatures May Look Fuzzy And Friendly, But Only The “Fuzzy” Part Is Accurate

Fuzzy, yes. Harmless, not so much. This whole experience began with my son Spencer and I sitting on the patio at home, about to go in and have lunch.

As he stood up, his hand went to the back right-side of his neck and he swept something away that had been crawling on him. When I looked down to see what he’d knocked to the ground, I saw an unusual looking caterpillar.

Here’s the culprit (right before being terminated with extreme prejudice by an angry mom protecting her grown son):

All It Takes Is Just A Single Touch To Make You Totally Regret Meeting One

It was a White-Marked Tussock Moth Caterpillar. I knew that because I’d recently read a piece online about venomous caterpillars. I read that piece because we’d seen another one crawling on some backyard flowers about a week before.

The caterpillar has a built-in defense mechanism located in those tufts of hair. The venom contained in those hairs is released when the hairs become embedded in your skin upon contact. That venom can cause anything from a minor irritation to a very nasty (but not life-threatening) allergic reaction.

I assumed that because there were two touches involved (where the caterpillar was crawling on his neck, and on his hand when he swept it away) my son would have two areas that would need quick attention. I went straight to Google to see what we needed to do to mitigate the consequences of it being on his skin.

Strangely enough, the caterpillar only nailed him on one of those spots. His neck:

We also found it odd that initially, he showed no signs whatsoever of having been exposed to the venom. However, when it did announce itself, it brought some serious itching, burning, and overall discomfort.

What you see above didn’t show up for several hours, and by the time we photographed his neck it was looking a lot better than it did at first. We treated it with ice and calamine lotion, and he seems to be healing up quickly.

By the way, the Tussock Moth Caterpillar is not the only Illinois caterpillar that can cause you pain and discomfort if you touch one. Make sure you don’t touch these guys, either:

The Io Moth Caterpillar has stinging hair and barbs that can cause pain and rashes if touched.

The Imperial Moth Caterpillar is covered with irritating hairs that can cause severe itch and rashes.

The Saddleback Caterpillar features stinging spines and hairs that can cause extreme skin irritation.