Yarn-shop owners blame 911 outsourcing for closure

A yarn store in downtown Wauconda is closing its brick-and-mortar operation after less than two years in business, and the owners are blaming the village board’s decision to shut down the town’s 911 center. The Unraveled Yarn Shop opened in August 2014 at 110 N. Main St., across from village hall. The 400-square-foot shop is owned by Jessica LoBue and her mother, Joanne Schmoeller, who also works as a police dispatcher inWauconda. The pending closure of Wauconda’s 911 center— a move officials say was made to reduce village spending— will cost Schmoeller and about 10 other dispatchers their jobs. That income was needed to help keep Unraveled afloat, the women said.

—Russell Lissau