McHenry County Blog

Somehow this seems appropriate the day after a Chicago election.

I found it on District 300 school board candidate John Ryan's web site, but have no idea where he found it.

The sign on the back of a California septic tank pumper truck says,

CAUTION.
Truck may be Transporting
Political Promises!

Labels: Political Promises, Pooper Scooper, Septic, Truck

District 300’s board of education voted Monday night to borrow $11 million to pay interest.

It’s a lower rate than the high bench mark of 4.25% a bond expert quoted me Monday, but higher than the possible low of 3.85% he also estimated.

The $11 million is in addition to the $105 million borrowed with which District 300 can actually buy something tangible.

That’s interest that would not have to be paid, if the Carpentersville District 300 school board had been willing to let the tax rate go up in the near term.

That may make good political sense, but it doesn’t seem to make financial sense.

At least it wouldn’t in my household.

To avoid short-term pain, the taxpayers have been saddled with an extra $12 million in principal to repay, plus (if I can use the average calculated by Daily Herald reporter Jeff Gaunt) 1.63 times $11 million or almost $1.8 million more in interest.

That’s $1.8 million interest to be repaid on the extra $11 million borrowed to pay the interest to keep the tax rate lower than it otherwise would be.

Got all that.

Oh, yes, by postponing the repayment of ANY principal until 2015, there will be more people to pay it, so the share for current taxpayers will be less.

And people complain about Springfield politicians putting off making pension payments.

I hope no one on the District 300 board has every voiced that complaint.

Gaunt also notes that the typical suburban school district has to pay $1.53 per $1 borrowed.

District 300’s strategy is costing $1.63—6.5% more than the suburban average.

The headline in Elgin’s Daily Courier News today read,

District 300 saves cash

Yeah. The interest would have been $3 million more under the old, lower bond rating…

But it’s almost $13 million more because of the selected repayment schedule.

Net loss to taxpayers?

Almost $10 million.

"We are working well to help our school system and help our taxpayers,” District 300 school board President Mary Fioretti is reported to have said in Gaunt’s article.

Fioretti is up for re-election the third week of April.

Because of the bizarre school election law only allows three to be elected from the same township in a unit district with multiple townships, Fioretti is effectively running against John Ryan, who opposed both referendums last year.

Both are Republican precinct committemen, Ryan elected and Fioretti appointed by McHenry County Republican Chairman Bill LeFew.

Labels: District 300, John Ryan, McHenry County Republican Central Committee, Premium Bonds. Mary Fioretti

Hampshire insurance agenct Monica Clark is running for the Carpentersville District 300 School Board. Below is her first press release:

HAMPSHIRE – Monica Clark announced she is kicking off her campaign operations today. Clark is running as a candidate for one of the four seats on the District 300 Board of Education.

“Through this all, I want to make sure people know the most important reason I’m running,” said Clark. “I have students in the school district and our board members should always be evaluating their decisions based on the best interest of those students.”

Clark became frustrated with the way the March referendum was supported by the board last year.

According to Clark, the school board engaged in questionable tactics to support the referendum that used students as political tools.

“I should never have had my daughter coming home from school every day with a new reason why I should vote yes to the referendum.” continues Clark. “Her teachers were spending classroom time campaigning for the referendum and this should never have happened.”

Clark is running to make the board more accountable to students and parents, who she believes should be the first consideration in any decision board members make.

With two children in District 300, she’s experienced the downward trend of the education offered students, but also sees a lot of promise in the community with getting parents, teachers, and students involved equally.

“If we challenge our students to excel, they will. First, though, we need board members that can challenge themselves to be honest with their actions and focus on the needs of students before their own,” said Clark.

Labels: District 300, Monica Clark

This press release from newly the organized opponents to the formation of the Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority announces they are coming to the McHenry County Government Center at 2:30 P.M. Wednesday afternoon. They will be right outside the front door.

I thought you might find it of interest. You can see what I guess is their logo at the left. On the web page, the check and dollar sign move.

Taxpayer Group Holds Press Conferences Wednesday, February 28 to Voice Opposition to the Proposed Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority on April 17 Ballot

On Wednesday, February 28, the newly-formed Taxpayers Alliance of Northern Illinois (T.A.N.I.) will hold a press conference to announce its formation and its opposition to the proposed Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority (AUTHORITY).

Supporters of the vote no effort are encouraged to attend press conferences to be held on the courthouse steps in each of the three counties in the proposed AUTHORITY.

The itinerary Wednesday calls for announcements to be made and questions to be answered at 10:00 A.M. at the DeKalb County Courthouse, 133 W. State in Sycamore, at 12:00 P.M. at the Boone County Courthouse, 601 N. Main Street in Belvidere, and at

2:30 P.M. at the McHenry County Courthouse, 2200 N. Seminary Avenue, Woodstock.

At the press conferences, a Top Ten List of “Reasons to Reject the AUTHORITY” will be distributed.

The Taxpayers Alliance of Northern Illinois (T.A.N.I.) has established a web site at www.watertaxvoteno.org and solicits inquiries regarding its efforts at info@watertaxvoteno.org

A series of town hall meetings will be held throughout March and April.

Any group wishing a representative of the Taxpayer Alliance of Northern Illinois to answer questions or speak at a meeting is encouraged to contact interim chairman Joe Wiegand at 847-373-0691.

It is not hard to figure out from this press release that a campaign theme will be that proponents A-LAW, the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water, are trying to give government more power and that is bad.

If you click on the map and read what is underneath (taken from the opponents' web site), it says,

The boundaries of the proposed district have nothing whatsoever to do with the hydrology of our region.

Joe Wiegand, former DeKalb County board member is chairman of opponents. He has previously worked for the Family Taxpayers Network, managed the Jim Oberweis for Governor campaign and Executive Director of the Illinois chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy.

Wiegnd has a Kirkland address.

With the addition of DeKalb and Sycamore to the district, DeKalb County now has more voters in the proposed authority than McHenry or Boone.

Among other things, the opponents' web site has handouts one can download, duplicate and distribute.

Labels: A-LAW, Alliance for Land Agriculture and Water, Family Taxpayers Network, Jim Oberweis, Joe Wiegand, Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority

Yesterday in Part 1, McHenry County Blog explored questions concerning quality and effectiveness measures for various parts of District 300. There was one obvious omission.

On the next page of the questionnaire that District 300 sent home to parents via their children, there are a series of performance and relationship statements about which the questionnaire wants parents’ opinion:

• There are high academic standards and expectations of students in District 300.
• District schools prepare my child(ren) for the next level of education.
• District 300 schools teach life skills.
• District 300 teachers and administrators are accessible, approachable and responsive to parents.
• District 300 schools are safe.
• District 300 schools provide a positive and orderly learning atmosphere for children.
• District 300 discipline procedures are fair and equitable.
• The District 300 Board of Education understands and represents the parents and the community in its work.
• There is open communications in District 300.
• Parental involvement is encouraged and welcomed in District 300.
• There are adequate avenues for parents to get involved in District 300.
• District 300 is adequately funded.
• District 300 budgets and spends its money appropriately.
• Sometimes it is necessary to increase taxes to maintain the quality of a school system.

Answers to the four questions I have put in boldface type would be useful in crafting a re-election campaign for incumbent school board members, in my opinion.

Comparing the results from parents with those from non-parents, who are being polled separately, could allow campaign consultants for incumbent board members to concentrate on finding their votes among parents.

The next part of the questionnaire concentrates “issues you think are most important to the district.” Parents are asked to pick four of them, plus four that are the least important.

Missing from the questionnaire is

The District 300 Board of Education has been doing a good job.

We can trust our District 300 administrators.

The question is whether you want objective feedback.

I’m not sure District 300's survey questions will provide that. The questions seem to be heavily biased toward a positive response to school district performance.

Tomorrow read about the “issues” District 300 wants your opinions on.

Labels: District 300, ECRA Group, Questionnaire, Survey

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that 33-year old Scott Lempa of “the 2200 block of Climatic Drive” in Algonquin has been arrested “for allegedly asking a female student to send him inappropriate pictures of herself through text messaging.”

Lempa is reported to have taught math at Mundelein High School for 12 years and now serves as an assistant girls volley ball coach.

He faces three counts of solicitation of child pornography, each punishable by 4-15 years in prison.

Labels: Algonquin, Mundelein High School

This row of bridal wreath at Gate 5 along Lake Avenue in Lakewood, Illinois, was simply stunning, all covered with snow, as this winter picture shows.

Compare its beauty with that of the bushes' blooms in late spring.

Which season's beauty do you think is more striking?

Bridal wreath is also called spieria.

Snow covered picture was taken Monday, February 26, 2007.

Labels: Bridal wreath, Lakewood, Spieria

Here’s another tee shirt that I found at a McHenry Marlins Swim Team meet.

This one says,

I’m weird, you’re ugly

Let’s call it even

Sounds fair.

Labels: T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

Getting input from one’s customers is pretty routine, I guess.

I get pleas for feedback on receipts all the time, especially from restaurants. I figure they are mainly trying to get my email address.

Now Carpentersville School District 300 has sent home questionnaires designed by ECRA Group with each child.

Let’s see what they are looking for. (You can enlarge any of the images, by clicking on them.)

First there is a letter from Superintendent Ken Arndt.

Included in the introduction are meeting notices at three schools, including one at Jacobs tonight at 7.

Right at the top is a request for an overall rating of the district. Give a grade—A,B,C, D or F (or “Not enough information to respond”) on “the over all quality of the Education students receive in District 300.”

Then, questions are asked about

• Instruction Programming (quality questions)
• Administrative, Faculty and Staff (effectiveness questions)
• Facilities and Services (quality questions)
• Technology (access and use questions ) and
• School Climate (safety and quality)

Pretty straight forward, it seems.

Except while the "effectiveness" of District services, including administrators is requested, but when we get down to the "quality" of facilities and services, guess what is missing?

No guess?

It’s the quality of administrative management.

There are quality questions about

• Facilities
• Food services
• Transportation and
• Extracurricular activities

But not a word about the quality of the administrators.

Tomorrow read Part 2 in this four-part series. It's about what I characterize as performance and relationship questions.

Labels: District 300, ECRA Group, Ken Arndt, Questionnaire, Survey

If you want to let District 300 know what you want them to do in the future, tonight is the last of three “community focus groups.”

It’s being held at 7 PM at Jacobs High School in Algonquin.

I haven’t a clue what a “community focus group” is, but it is supposed to focus on “on the strategic plan” of District 300.

Labels: Distrcit 300, Focus Group, Strategic Plan

Thought I'd share this press release from John Ryan, one of the non-incumbents running for the Carpentersville School District 300 board of education:

ALGONQUIN – John Ryan announced he is kicking off his campaign operations today. Ryan is running as a candidate for one of four seats on the District 300 Board of Education.“My message is simple. I will be fair to the taxpayers and community members who contribute to District 300, honest and open about my decisions I would make as a board member, and I want to help build a community around our schools,” said Ryan.

“I think our board has lost focus on those important issues.”Ryan cites a number of reasons why he’s a candidate, the most notable of which are the way in which the board members campaigned for the tax referendum last March and the constant change in messages coming from board members. The board asked for a referendum based on enrollment projections of over 7,000 new students in the next few years, only to find later on that realistic projections show half that number enrolling in District 300 schools.

Ryan continues, “between violations of the Open Meetings Act and the link with special interest groups, this board has lost their focus on what’s important – educating our students. That needs to change.”

Ryan plans to campaign the old fashioned way, taking his message to the people and letting them decide on the ballot. “I’m confident that in the end, the voters will choose reform over maintaining the special interest status quo.”

Here's Ryan's web site.

Labels: District 300, John Ryan

I have been reading about the justifiable gnashing of teeth of public officials, parents and the community of Oswego in general with regard to what can be done to prevent future deaths of so many teens.

So far I have not heard anyone mention Operation Cool.

I know of it as a Crystal Lake High School District 155 program. The web site says,

Operation Cool strives to encourage School District 155 students to make a personal decision to wear their safety belts. This is accomplished through positive reinforcement, and prize giveaways.

Operation Cool has successfully raised the seat belt compliance rate among students from 65% to 95%, reducing the number of severe injuries during motor vehicle crashes and saving lives.

Seatbelt use going from 65% to 95%.

That sounds like a program that policy makers might try to replicate.

Maybe even in Oswego.

It seems to be a combination of education and bribery.

And it works.

As Crystal Lake Deputy Police Chief Dennis Harris told me,

We have seen almost a 50% increase in seat belt compliance. That 95% is significantly higher than the national average of between 72 and 75%.

Anecdotally, we do believe that the rate of teen accidents and the severity of those accidents has declined.

Why do the adults do this?

Youth between the ages of 15 - 20 comprise only 5% of the driving population yet they are involved in 14% of all fatal crashes.

Drivers between the ages of 16 - 17 are 6 times more likely to be involved in a crash than ALL other drivers combined.

There’s a quarterly seatbelt survey at each of District 155’s high schools.Charts of the results are posted in each school. I saw one in the cafeteria at Prairie Ridge.

Of the teens that sign a contract to live by the rules imposed, one is picked from each high school to enter a drawing for a new car supplied by Crystal Lake Pontiac-GMC Truck, owned by Sam Oginni. Oginni has just opened another dealership in Fox Lake.

That’s assuming the school’s compliance rate is above 90%

If a school’s compliance rate is over 95%, two students get a chance to win a new car.

It didn’t start out being a new car, just a recent model. That means even a used car dealer could get the ball rolling on a similar teen driving safety program.

There are lots of other prizes, too.

Crystal Lake Police Officer Sean McGrath told Crystal Lake Kiwanis that he pulls over students and, if they are “caught wearing a seatbelt,” he gives them a prize donated by local merchants or community groups.

He told one story of pulling over a mom and her child saying, “Don’t worry, Mom. It’s probably just a seat belt check.” (That’s not exact, but close.) In any event, the youth got a prize on the spot.

There is much more in the way of education and interaction between police and the students, of course. This is pretty much a full-court press to keep teens from killing themselves.

It doesn’t stop accidents.

But, it does save lives.

In one head-on collusion a couple of years ago (the word in the high schools is that they were playing chicken), a girl was sitting in the middle front seat. She had only a lap belt. But, she was wearing it. There's probably was zero chance she would have survived without it. She'll probably have problems all of her life, but she is alive.

And, she and her family probably have Operation Cool to thank.

So, why don't other towns copy this idea?

Maybe they will.

Here’s a link to the Chicago Tribune series on teen driving deaths.

For more McHenry County Blog, click here.
= = = = =
Winner of Operation Cool's car Matt Frederick poses with Crystal Lake Pontiac dealer Sam Oginni.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake High School District 155, Operation Cool, Oswego, Sam Oginni

As I was reading the Chicago Tribune while waiting for my swim conference- bound son to finish a two-hour practice, I read an article on page 14 entitled,

AIDS risk lower than thought for circumcised

Maybe it got better play in the New York Times, where the story by Donald G. McNeil Jr.originated, but page 14 in the Tribune struck me as not good enough.

Especially when put into juxtaposition with the coverage given Merck’s “Gardisil” HPV inoculations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which I have been calling the Centers for the Spread of Disease since about 1989, say that vaccinated will be protected against 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, still somehow director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, is quoted in the story thusly,

If we had an AIDS vaccine that was performing as well as this, it would be the talk of the town.

What’s the news you probably haven’t read?

Circumcision reduces a man’s risk (of becoming HIV-infected) by as much as 65%

Seems like the Bible has some good advice quite early on.

Labels: AIDS. Anthony Fauci, Bible, CDC, circumcision, HIV, HPV

Again, found at a McHenry Marlins Swim Team meeting, this tee shirt has a political message:

Vote! John
O’Neill

School Board
VoteMcHenry.com

I found out that he is first on the ballot.

And, there is a web site.

Labels: John O'Neill, McHenry Grade School, T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

I learned this afternoon that investment banking house Lehman Brothers submitted the lowest bid on Carpentersville School District 300 bond issue.

The rate is presumably being announced and accepted tonight.

A municipal bond expert told me that the average interest rate should not be more that 4.2%%.

But, more interesting that the exact rate will be how the school board plans to spend the extra $11 to $15 million over the $105 million face amount of the bonds.

I wonder if that will be shared at tonight’s board meeting.

Labels: District 300, Lehman Brothers

I have to hand it to Daily Herald reporter Chuck Keeshan.

Back in 2004 Keeshan was the reporter who figured out that the McHenry County Board had hired the same construction management firm to oversee construction of the new jail cells that was implicated in the McCormick Place bid-rigging scheme.

Now, he has discovered McHenry County is suing the same firm for what his article calls “substandard work.”

The same day one of the Jacobs Engineering’s ex-employees pled guilty in the McPier bid-rigging case and implicated other company employees, the McHenry County Board hired the firm to oversee the jail’s completion.

In pleading guilty, Jacobs employee James Nagel swore other company employees were involved, although their names were not made public. The next day a second ex-employee, Elizabeth Koski, confirmed further company involvement.

The county board approved the “plan and design” contract only after Brad Simmons, a St. Louis-based vice president, told the board that his firm--$5 billion, multi-national Jacobs Engineering--had no involvement in the Federal McPier corruption case.

Board members had no knowledge of the plea agreements at that meeting.

A tape of the meeting—which, incidentally, was subpoenaed by a Federal Grand Jury—showed the following:

then County Board member Ann Kate (R-Crystal Lake) asked,

"And the investigation has only involved these two? I mean it’s been checked out that this isn’t more widespread within your company? It’s just these two, correct?"

“Absolutely,” Simmons replied.

Earlier Simmons said there wasn’t even “hint of implications” of “charges” against his firm.

Ending the questioning, then County Board Chairman and now State Representative Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) said, “I had had some questions. I think this answers them very well.”

The county board then awarded Jacobs a $699,637 contract to oversee the $10 million project.

After a subsequent board meeting when members had been provided the plea agreements, Keeshan got these quotes:

"I am quite concerned that we are involved in this and we can be tainted by it," (then) board member Don Brewer said Thursday. "The issue here is obstruction of justice and what was known about it by the highest levels of that firm. That's some serious stuff."

"It taints everything and the public perception and our perception is that (Jacobs) can't be trusted," (then) board member Ann Gilman added.

And, now the county is suing Jacobs, hoping to get compensated for damage to underground utilities.

Labels: Ann Gilman, Ann Kate, Bid-rigging, Elizabeth Koski, Jacobs Engineering, James Nagel, McCormick Place, McHenry County Board., McHenry County Jail, Mike Tryon

I don’t know why it took so long to figure out that House Speaker Mike Madigan has plans for suburban tollway motorists to finance his version of the Crosstown Expressway.

The scheme struck me Sunday night when I was reading Chicago Tribune transportation reporter John Hilkevitch’s article entitled,

New Crosstown project has key difference—tolls

Back in the 1970’s Glencoe Democratic Party State Representative Harold Katz passed a bill, which I was pleased to support, requiring that any new tollway pay its own way.

This law, of course, was repealed by DuPage County legislators when they wanted to build I-355.

So, toll tax payers on the Tri-State, the Northwest and the East-West Tollway have been forced to subsidize the old 355, as well as its extension into Will County.

Who cares that Northwest Tollway, Tri-State and DuPage portion users of the East-West motorists have paid for their road more than once?

Madigan obviously plans to use this Pate Philip technique to build the Crosstown.

Why not?

It’s free money, isn’t it?

And suburbanites won’t raise a stink.

There too busy earning money to continue paying tolls that should have been abolished decades ago.

Labels: Crosstown, East-West Tollway, Michael Madigan, Northwest Tollway, Pate Philip, Toll Tax Payers, Tollway, Tri-State Tollway

This is a quiz.

Which of the following employers listed on the Carpentersville School District 300 $105 million bond prospectus

Largest Area Employers

list are not located in District 300?

Sears Roebuck & Co.
SBC Illinois
Community Unit School District 300
St. Alexius Medical Center
Allstate Insurance Co., Business Insurance Div.
Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Siemens Medical Systems
Center for Commerce & Economic Development, McHenry County College
Revcor, Inc.
Knaack mfg. Co.
Otto Engineering, Inc.
Leopardo Companies, Inc.
Black Dot Group
Seven Worldwide Publishing Solutions
TC Industries, Inc.
W. Kost Mfg. Co.
Althoff Industries, Inc.
Siemens Held Services
Midland Landscape Nursery, Inc.
Seigle’s Component Center
Bulk Lift International, Inc.
Bosch Rexroth Corp., Electric Drives & Controls Div.
Resolution Specialty Materials, LLC
Elteck Energy, Americas Div.
Precision Twist Drill Co.
Baxter & Woodman, Inc.
Crystal Die & Mold, Inc.
Eisenmann Corp.

Sorry if Crystal Lake residents have an advantage on this.

If you have missed Saturday's article on District 300's shrinking enrollment figures or Sunday's on how District 300 is going to get over $116 million out of a $105 million bond issue, you might find them of interest.
= = = = =
Pictured are the two locations of Althoff Industries. Can you tell us where they are in District 300?

Labels: Bond Prospectus, Crystal Lake, District 300

I’ve never read what I would call a school bond prospectus before, so I didn’t know what to expect.

I did know that financial documents such as this were federally regulated.

And that the level of “truth” required is considerably higher than in a referendum campaign.

Yesterday, I pointed out the difference between the referendum enrollment projections and the much, much lower number put in the prospectus.

Today we’ll look at what I found about how much money will be raised.

The cover says,

NOTICE OF SALE
AND
BID FORM
FOR
$105,000,000*
General Obligation School bonds, Series 2007

The asterisk says in the smallest print on the page

Preliminary, subject to change.

So, I’m reading the 40-page document at my son's swim practice and I get to the second page of the text and what do I see?

The bid price may not be less than $116,675,000 nor more than $120,000,000 plus accrued interest from the dated date of March 1, 2007 to the closing date of March 13, 2007.

Now, that is creative financing.

And, how is District 300 going to accomplish this magic?

I really would have liked to have District 300’s explanation, but, since the bonds are going to be sold Monday morning at 11 A.M., I’ll have to make my best guess.

The bonds are back loaded.

Know what that means?

It means that no interest will be paid on the money being borrowed on behalf District 300 taxpayers until 2015.

This sounds a lot like one of those “interest only” home loans so far, doesn’t it?

You know, the ones financial advisors do not advise.

The interest for the next five years (2015 through 2019) cannot be more than 9%.

That’s NINE PERCENT!

For the final five years of repayment (2021 through 2025), the interest rate may not exceed 5.25%.

I can’t wait to make a call to a municipal bond expert on Monday to find out what interest rate more conventional municipal and school borrowers are being charged. Since we are in a relatively low part of the interest rate cycle now, I’ll bet it will be lower that what District 300 will be charged.

Of course, with a regular, straight-line repayment schedule, a borrower wouldn’t get a “bonus” $11.7 million to $15 million dollars.

What will the school board do with the extra money?

Maybe we got a hint at a late October school board meeting.

At the time they were discussing how District 300 could buy Summit School:

"We are looking at Summit School. There is an opportunity…a services opportunity…We’d have to do some creative financing, but they’re willing to work with us."

I think the woman who said that is school board member Mary Warren. (Warren never returned my phone call, although I always returned her phone calls when she was lobbying me to ban leaf burning.)

Later the same woman referred to “creative financing, which this district is really good at.”

Perhaps the bond repayment schedule would help explain what Warren meant by “creative financing.”

Look at this repayment schedule:

2007-2014-Zero, nothing, nada
2015-$1.9 million
2016-$3.2 million
2017-$4.6 million
2018-$6 million
2019-$7.6 million
2020-$9.8 million
2021-$12.2 million
2022-$13.4 million
2023-$14.6 million
2024-$15.4 million
2025-$16.1 million

I don’t pretend to be a bond expert, but not paying a dime in principal for the first seven years of the loan is not something I’d want to do with my home’s mortgage.

I tried to get through to District 300 on Friday afternoon after digesting the lengthy document, but Communications Director Allison Smith suggested in an email Saturday afternoon that I should have informed Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Crates and her that I would need some time Friday to discuss it "earlier in the week."

I asked for the prospectus on February 13th, but didn’t get a call saying it was ready until eight days later. I picked it up Thursday (the next day) on the way home from a meeting.

Since I didn’t get the prospectus until Thursday afternoon, I really don’t have a clue how I could have known that I would want to ask questions in time to give much more timely notice than I gave, which was about noon and three on Friday. When I couldn’t get through to Crates and her secretary did not return my phone call, I emailed the questions to Smith.

Saturday’s email from Smith asked that anything I write

…this weekend about the bonds should NOT state or imply that D300 declined to comment. It would be accurate and fair to say that you had extensive questions and we had just one day to answer them, and that we’ve pledged to do so as soon as possible.

There it is.

Frankly, I don’t think District 300’s turnaround on my Freedom of Information request was at all timely (although it was within the legally amount of time allowed for an answer), considering the district knew the bonds would be sold Monday, but I shall be happy to run any answers I get shortly after I get them.

Tomorrow: District 300 phantom employers.

Labels: Allison Smith, Cheryl Crates, District 300, Mary Warren

With camera in hand and blizzard in the offing, your intrepid correspondent ventured into Huntley High School to visit the booths at the Huntley Expo.

There were a lot of booths.

So many that the aisles seemed narrower than at any Expo I have attended.

And, as state representative, if there were an Expo in my district, I was there.

Usually for the whole time it was open.

Being right-handed, I walked right.

The first political booth I ran into had a banner that read,

"Women for District 158"

Standing talking to people was Huntley School Board candidate Linda Moore.

Sitting in a wheel chair was Huntley School Board candidate Aileen Seedorf. (Politics must really be rough in Huntley. She must have caught some really bad breaks.)

In any event, they were interacting with potential constituents.

I continued around the corner and found a joint booth for State Rep. Mike Tryon and State Sen. Pam Althoff.

But there was no legislator to greet me.

Instead, Huntley entrepreneur Blake Hobson, Nunda Township Precinct 22 Republican precinct committeeman, former Nunda Township Trustee and the man appointed to replace GOP county board member Ann Kate when she moved.

We had a spirited discussion about the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax. Last fall, Hobson served on the county board committee that governed the Health Department and agreed with the cat regulation part of the animal control ordinance. He took the equity approach, arguing that both dog and cat owners should pay for the shelter, especially since such a large proportion of the animals were cats and kitten.

Ironically, Mary Donner, the Nunda Township Trustee that got the party nod to be on the fall ballot, also favored the ordinance.

On I walked until I found the booth of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi. Manning that booth was 5-week Assistant State’s Attorney Demetri P. Tsillimigras. He’s in charge of prosecuting traffic prosecutions and previously worked in Kane County under two state’s attorneys and elsewhere.

He surely will be one of the few county employees who will be able to walk to work. That’s been pretty difficult since the county board illegally squirreled away money while I was McHenry County Treasurer to build a new courthouse on what I call “the Hebron site.” Tsillimigras has bought a house in the new Ryan subdivision west of the county complex.

I made some tasteless comment about DUI’s and Tsillimigras observed that the one just fired by Bianchi for being arrested for DUI was a good prosecutor who had wanted to make that side of the profession his life’s work.

As I walked on I found a booth for United States Congressman Don Manzullo.

And who was manning it?

The daughter of Marilyn McNally, one of my 1988 fellow convention candidates pledged to support Jack Kemp. Marilyn has moved from Wonder Lake to Rockton.

In any event, her daughter Brigit McNally (now) Johnson and her new husband Ben were behind the table.

As I walked around the perimeter again, I stopped at the Northwest Herald booth. They were giving away free newspapers, but, wouldn’t you know it, I had already bought my second NW Herald of the week that very morning.

I did have a nice talk with reporters/columnist Tom Musick and Jennifer Martikean. Now, because Martikean is a columnist, she gets her picture in the paper every Friday, but Musick is one of those reporters you only know by his byline.

So, I took a picture.

When I went back to the only candidates’ booth, the Women of District 158, I played their game. It involved tossing three blue wiffle balls onto a board with indentations having numbers underneath.

What are the odds of covering the “1,” “5” and “8?”

Pretty high, right?

But I did it.

I was only the second one of the day to do it.

My prize?

A handful of candy.

Not on my diet unfortunately.

It was the end of a long day and the two women candidates looked like they were ready go home.

So was it.

And I would have beat the start of the blizzard, if I hadn’t gone shopping first.

The Huntley Expo will be open Sunday, if you can dig your way out of your driveway.

Labels: Aileen Seedorf, Blake Hobson, Demetri Tsilimigras, Huntley Expo, Linda Moore, McHenry County State's Attorney

This was posted on Illinoize as a response to a column by Campaign Unit District 4 School Board candidate John Bambenek by political consultant Charles Johnson.

I think those running for the first time would benefit from reading it. (I have added paragraphing to make it easier to read.)

"Welcome to my world, John.

"What you write about is why I preach so much to all my conservative friends that idealism and principle are not enough if you want to make a difference.

"First you must develop a largeness of spirit to inoculate you from the vicious personal attacks you will be the target of if you jump into the fray in a public way.

"You will not recognize the strange character that your opponents say is you.

"Just understand that once you go public - you are not really the target. You become a symbol of something - something some elements are determined to destroy.

"It is what you symbolize that people go after and destroying you is the means by which they hope to achieve victory over what you stand for.

"So if it is self-actualization you're looking for, just get out. You can't possibly stand the savageness of the attacks unless you are firmly committed to something greater than yourself.

"Having jumped in, please be careful and please be rigorous in your own self-examination.

"Some people handle the shock of ugly personal attacks by becoming, themselves, bitter and vindictive.

"Others sell out in order to get approval from those they sought to reform or to advance themselves after some initial success. If you can you can suffer attacks with equanimity, without returning like for like, you take a big step in the right direction.

"The next thing is that politics entails specific skill sets.

"Learn them.

"Don't let your good intentions become an excuse for incompetence, a failing that many ideologues fall into.

"With almost every candidate I've ever worked with, there comes a day when it looks like the sky is falling in.

"When those times come, I always look at them, grin, and say, "A lot harder than it looks, isn't it?"

"It's a make or break moment for most politicians. You've had the first shock.

"Now work to become the guy that reassures others with a grin rather than the guy that needs to be reassured.

"There is a prayer I say, often several times a day. Some days it is just about the only thing I say. It is,

Lord, lead me in a plain path, turning neither to the left out of anger nor to the right out of fear. Lead me in a plain path.

"Welcome to the battlefield.

"With courage and resolution may you be one of those who brings honor to the name, politician. (And if you are one who says you are not a politician, quit saying it. Once your name is on a ballot, you are a politician whether you think of yourself that way or not. The only question is whether you will bring honor or dishonor to the profession.)

Crystal Lake consultant Coffee Group, advisor to State Rep. Mike Tryon, among others, adds comments below Johnson’s at Illinoize.

Labels: Charles Johnson, Coffee Group

I found this one on Randall Road on the first Saturday of February when the wind was blowing like a blizzard and the salt trucks had covered the roads.

It says,

OLDER By 6

I wonder if that is an older brother or sister or husband or wife.

Labels: License Plate

Two instances in one week where citizen pressure made a difference in public policy formation! First the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax and now a stem-cell research vote.

Wow!

(Sorry for the college verbiage, but I have taught state and local government at Rockford and Harper Colleges in years past and sometimes lapse into "classroom speak.")

If you even wonder whether McHenry County’s Republican State Senator Pam Althoff will listen to her constituents, take a look at what is under the Senator’s picture on the front page of today’s Northwest Herald.

It says, “Program is too controversial.”

The fight against the bill, which would legitimize the illegitimate Executive Order of Governor Rod Blagojevich to spend $10 million on stem cell research, including on human embryos, was hotly opposed by pro-life groups.

McHenry County’s Right-to-Life lady, Irene Napier, was sending out emails encouraging people to contact Senator Althoff.

Apparently enough did to convince Senator Althoff not to offend a large proportion of her Republican primary voters.

Althoff is up for re-election next year.

Althoff told the NW Herald reporter Brenda Schory that she opposed the bill for two reasons:

• it would cost money the state did not have and
• the state should not be spending money on a program that so many of her constituents oppose

Althoff told the NW Herald that she supported

Senate Bill 19 sponsored by State Sen. William Haine (conservative Democrat from the Metro East area), which would establish a statewide network of umbilical cord banks and supports umbilical cord stem-cell research.

“To date, there are absolutely no successful studies that have shown embryonic stem-cell research will cure or help any of the diseases frequently referenced—like juvenile diabetes or epilepsy,” Althoff said.

SB 4, the bill Althoff voted against, passed the senate 35-23, with 30 needed for passage.

Labels: Irene Napier, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax, McHenry County Right-to-Life, Pam Althoff, Stem-cell research

I ran into two cat ladies at the re-modeled Crystal Lake Jewel this morning.

The one in the parking lot was wearing this sweatshirt, one of four like it she had bought when the opportunity arose.

Can you guess the Northwest Herald reporter, of whom she is justifiably proud, is her nephew?

A hint: she lives near Crystal Lake Central High School, where she says there are a lot of well-fed outdoor cats. She has one that stays inside.

My second was cat heroine Lyn Orphal. She is the McHenry County Board member who made the motion to protect cats from the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Orphal had mentioned in her presentation that she had discussed the cat tax with her dining partners that very day and the couple was quite negative on the cat tax.

I told her that her floor motion reminded me of the Illinois House of Representatives in thee 1970’s before House Speakers decided to require their personal approval of all amendments to House bills.

The county board discussion of the cat tax really deserved to be televised, but, of course, it wasn’t videotaped.

It was the most vibrant demonstration of democracy in action that I have seen. It is certainly more of a democratic process than anything in the General Assembly since at least 1993.

Both sides had rational points of view and argued their cases well before the 12-10 vote to kill the cat tax.

I asked Orphal, who is in her sixth year on the county board, if she had ever seen anything like it. She said she hadn’t.

She explained that she had called no one ahead of time. In previous split votes, she said, members had been lobbied, and, hence, knew that there was a difference of opinion.

This time it pretty much came without prior warning.

Labels: Lyn Orphal, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

There was a crisis when Carpentersville District 300 went to the voters a year ago.

New subdivisions were going to grow so fast that the schools would not have enough room.

That was the pitch.

But there is no “truth in advertising” for school districts and tax hike committees like Advance 300.

As Huntley School Board member Larry Snow says, “There is no consumer fraud protection from school officials on referendums.”

There are different rules in the financial markets.

You tell the truth or you get punished.

I filed a Freedom of Information request for District 300’s “last bond prospectus.”

What I got was the “Notice of Sale and Bid Form” for the $105 million being sold next Monday.

Boy, was it illuminating.

It seems that the enrollment figures given potential investors differ markedly from those present by District 300 administrators and its tax hike committee a year ago.

Guess how many more students there are estimated to be between last spring and the 2011-2012 school year—five years.

2,176.

Divide that by five.

That does not exactly sound like a tsunami of new kids, does it?

Here are the numbers listed in the federally regulated financial document:

2005-6 18,689
2006-7 19,117
2007-8* 19,593
2008-9* 20,011
2009-10* 20.471
2010-11* 20,897
2011-12* 21,293

(The asterisks refer to the 2005 Ehlers’ study.)

That’s 440 new students per year (from the base year of 2005-6 for the next five years—through 2010-11), unless my calculator or I made a mistake. (It’s fewer per year, if I use the six-year figures in the document.)

Elgin’s Daily Courier News reported the referendum hype was 1,140 new kids per year.

In the same article, reporter Jeanne Hovanec revealed that the figure now being touted by District 300 was 775 per year.

And that apparently does not exclude the, what, 750 students who will be attending the charter school. (Or if it does, there is no explanatory footnote.)

So, why would the District’s official request to borrow money show 440 or fewer kids per year?

I tried to ask District 300’s Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Crates, starting about noon on Friday, but got no answer.

When I couldn’t reach her after another call between 2:20 and 3, I emailed my questions to Allison Smith, District 300’s Communications Director. She did reply by email, but I got no answers.

Since the bonds are to be sold Monday at 11 A.M., I hope the District 300 folks will understand why I am publishing what I do this weekend without their input.

Labels: District 300, Enrollment

I read a comment that Cary Grade School member Chris Jenner made about his letter to the editor of the Northwest Herald being edited and was so amused, I thought I would share it with you.

Use the link above to read what the NW Herald published. Here is the Jenner's original letter:

To the Editor:

State Rep. Mary Flowers (C-31st) recently introduced HB382, which would make it state law that school children wash their hands before eating. I'm not anti-hygiene, but where does government nannying stop?

In 2005, Illinois passed a law (PA 093-0946) requiring K/2nd/6th graders to have dental exams. It was sponsored by State Rep. David Miller (C-29th), who by coincidence is a dentist and president of the Illinois State Dental Society's Political Action Committee.

Gee, I wonder if Rep. Flowers owns stock in an antiseptic soap supplier.

It's clear you parents are incapable of electing ethical officials who understand the concept of limited government. Are you also completely incapable of raising your children without government telling you what to do every step of the way?

Why stop with washing hands? I call on our legislators to introduce the Clean Posterior Act of 2007, requiring all Illinoisans to wipe in a manner consistent with national standards.

The NW Herald didn't like the last paragraph.

It's so funny it belongs in an editorial cartoon.

I don't know Representative Miller, but I do know Mary Flowers and I would be astounded if she had any conflict of interest.

I agree that it looks pretty bad to have a dentist sponsoring a bill to get his profession more business.

And I think Jenner's parting shot about legislators who aspire to the role of nanny is hilarious.

Someone who would introduce such a bill would obviously be an ally of the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Got word back from a legislator driving home who showed the letter to Mary Flowers. She told him that she wished she owned stock in an antiseptic soap company. Mary was always such fun.

Labels: Chris Jenner, David Miller, Illinios General Assembly, Mary Flowers

A doting cat owner sent me this photo of her cats.

She is really pleased that all four of her county board members voted to kill the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax.

Here's the accompanying email:

Here are my "dangerous cats". Both neutered and vaccinated. Spock on the left and Sebastian on the right.

Terribly scary aren't they?

RIGHT.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

I presume these were posted by the school’s Student Against Drunk Driving club, as were the others ones on previous days.

They are aimed at drugs in general, not just alcohol.

These were posted on a hallway wall at McHenry West High School.

Again, if you wish to read them, click on the image.

Labels: McHenry West High School, Poster, SADD

This started out as “Why aren’t you running for re-election?” article.

Crystal Lake Park Board President Scott Breeden’s statement about the future, however, changes its emphasis:

As for my future plans, yes, I will probably run for something else after a short hiatus. What that will be is still undetermined, but I feel that the County Board may need my attention at that time.

How interesting, especially in light of the votes by the two District 2 incumbents who terms are up next year in favor of the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Tuesday night.

Their names?

John Heisler, a long-time member, and

Marie Chmiel, elected in 2004. Chmiel’s husband Mike was just elected to a Circuit Judgeship, so that might mean that she wouldn’t run again. Then again, it might have no impact on her decision. Chmiel also unsuccessfully applied to be appointed County Auditor when Ruth Rooney retired last December. That countrywide office will also be up next year.

But, back to the original story.

What does Breeden think he has accomplished on the park board and why didn’t he run for re-election?

• The business that a friend and I started several years ago is going very well and is demanding my full attention, leaving me little time to devote to other things.


• When I ran four years ago it was to see if I could get the Park Board changed to a seven member board,


• To get the Board and staff to think about saving money for future projects rather than indiscriminately borrowing just because they can.


• To consolidate some of the existing facilities into a true community center, providing services that could be expanded as the greater Village of Lakewood area's needs require.

Getting the above mentioned goals accomplished was as they say, ”like making sausage;” it wasn't pretty, but I was effective.

After looking at the many qualified individuals who will be running for the five open board seats, I feel that no matter who is elected, the Park District will be left in very good hands.

My family has told me that I'm not a “go along to get along” kind of guy and that I may even be a little hardheaded, impatient and opinionated. My personality needs a strong and definite goal, which I feel has been accomplished.

It should be noted that Breeden presided over the contentious Gay Games debate and I didn’t see him lose his cool once.

Breeden previously served as President of the Village of Lakewood.

One final note. All of the information from Breeden came well before Tuesday night's McHenry County Republican Cat Tax vote.

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Scott Breeden's slightly fuzzy picture from a Gay Games park board meeting is on top.

Next are McHenry County Board members John Heisleer and Marie Chmiel.

Labels: Crystal Lake Park Board, John Heisler, Marie Chmiel, McHenry County Board., Scott Breeden

One of the people speaking during the public comment period at the McHenry County Board meeting on Tuesday night was Union’s Lisa Stanton. She was kind enough to provide a copy of what she said and I thought you might be interested. (The headings are my own.)

I’d like to speak on a number of points this evening relating to board decisions and public meetings.

Attitude of County Board Members

I’ve attended several meetings previously and while listening to other speakers I have observed the board members as the speakers address them publicly. Body language imparts far more to the public at the meetings than one might realize and I have unfortunately noticed in the past that it frequently appears board members are not truly listening to the speakers, but engaged in other activities or thoughts. This is truly disappointing. I’m sure we would all like to have our elected officials genuinely engage in the comments the public brings…no disrespect intended, just an honest observation.

Cat Tax

Regarding the cat tax, voters have previously expressed they are displeased with this yet additional tax. I’ve not heard of any vicious cat problems. Additionally, only responsible voters whose cats go to the vet and receive vaccinations will even be known. So a large group evades the tax. Voters who might have adopted from the shelter, now may decide not to. If the board had chosen the more fiscally responsible option for a new shelter at the County Seat instead of the CL location, less funding would have been required.

Sheriff’s Office

I’m appalled by the incident w/the County Sheriff who destroyed county property and initially was “let go” by other officers. Sheriff Nygren took the proper action in firing this individual, but why should the county insurance (funded by taxpayer dollars) have to pay for the repairs? The offender should pay for them…not the taxpayers.

Identity Theft in Woodstock

Many individuals have come before the board, and written to the paper, inquiring why the county won’t train its officers in 287(g) training to provide additional resources and abilities to reduce the illegal alien problems. Several county citizens were killed by illegals just last summer and the board still has taken no action on this request, yet it is a drop in the bucket (cost wise) compared to the irresponsible animal shelter choice.

Additionally, in the last 3 months, every time I use my credit card in the Woodstock vicinity a block is put on it and I am told by the credit card company it is because Woodstock has become a hot spot for identity theft. What else must the taxpayers endure? I am now having to shop in other communities to avoid this hassle.

Zoning and the ZBA

These are several issues voters have addressed and the board did not listen, not by action, nor by body language. The board has repeatedly voted in direct conflict with rulings from the ZBA on rezonings which are inappropriate for a number of reasons, even when people come to speak here. A horse racing facility (disguised as a fairground) is not appropriate in Coral Township. The KVWA referendum is a direct result of voters knowing the drastic water problem we face and the board not taking responsible action and not listening, nor hearing. Voters are also getting tired of coming before the board and spending evenings away from their families when their concerns are not HEARD.

I respectfully plead with the board to begin actively, physically listening and hearing voters and taxpayers who come to the meetings and speak to those who are supposed to be representing our citizens’ best interests.

Labels: Identity Theft, Lisa Stanton, McHenry County Board., McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

I know I already ran a story on the web site and her biography, but, as I've said before, if you have a campaing press release you want to see the light of day, send it to me. Here's Lori Phelps' on her new web site:

To help Crystal Lake community residents learn more about Mrs. Phelps and the goals she would like to accomplish as mayor of Crystal Lake, the candidate has constructed an informative website at:
www.PhelpsForCrystalLake.com .

She states:

“I would encourage all citizens to remember and appreciate the efforts of those dedicated Americans who have fought for our freedoms, particularly those who continue to fight and risk their lives to protect our right to vote. Please honor their valiant efforts. Take the time to learn about the issues and the candidates that are running for office.

"I hope my website will provide you with the information you need regarding my candidacy.

"As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions.”

Labels: Crystal Lake, Lori Phelps

When the Main Street Tax Increment Financing District was being discussed, it was made clear that the City of Crystal Lake would be providing major help to the developer of the property at the Southeast corner of East Crystal Lake Avenue and Main Street. (Read more of what was said by Mayor Aaron Shepley and the council members then than you will find elsewhere. Among other things, Shepley promises my taxes won't increase as a result of the TIF. Wrong, of course.)

That’s because the city and the developer want a traffic light on Main Street. That would give two entrances and exits to the old Hines (Rosenthal) Lumber property.

Coincidentally, those two exists would make the property much more valuable.

A signal on Main Street would also be designed to assist with traffic trying to get in and out of the old Oak Manufacturing property across Main Street, increasing the value of that property, especially for retail between the current building and Main Street.

Now the city has come up with a plan to trade land behind the old Oak Manufacturing facility where Columbia College and McHenry County College now occupy space for what the railroad now owns along Main Street.

But, not to worry.

The $6 million, 12-18 month project is not going to cost taxpayers anything.

As Northwest Herald reporter Regan Foster writes,

Before that happens, the council vowed to look at funding that would prevent hitting residents in the pocketbook. City staff are expected to look at finance alternatives, including grants.

“There are many different sources of funding, not one of which involves raising taxes or touching our taxpayers,” (Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron) Shepley said, calling the report “a shining beacon.”

Let’s see.

If these are government grants, then certainly some taxpayers are going to pay for them.

But, more importantly, if some of this is to be financed by TIF money, all of us in McHenry County will be subsidizing those whose land will get signalized access to Main Street within the TIF district.

If TIF money, Mayor Shepley still seems to be in denial about how TIF districts cause school, park and other local tax districts to raise their tax rates to get the same amount of money they would have otherwise.

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The top picture is shot from the north driveway into the old Oak Manufacturing building toward the old Hines (Rosenthal) Lumber Company. You can see one of the railroad crossings that the proposal would remove.

Next is a shot of the sign of the developers of the old Hines Lumber property. You can see the name of the developers if you click on the image.

Next comes a photo of the railroad impaired land behind Jewel. On the right you can see the lights at the intersection of Main Street and Congress Parkway. The plan proposes extending Congress west across the present railroad right-of-way into the fairly inaccessible property that used to be owned by Pure Oil, then, Union Oil, then, the Illinois Institute of Technology.

You can all recognize Mayor Aaron Shepley looking at the camera next to his NW Herald quote.

At the bottom is a view of the Main Street and Congress Parkway from the south.

The Main Street Tax Increment Financing District does not extend that far south.

Labels: Aaron Shepley, Crystal Lake, Main Street, Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

Here’s a whole wall of posters from McHenry West High School’s Students Against Drunk Driving organization.

They promote Red Ribbon Week, which was in late October.

If you want to read the smaller ones, just click on the SADD image and you should be able to do so.

Labels: McHenry West High School, Poster, Red Ribbon Week, SADD

I found this scared little kitty on the wall of Colonial Café Wednesday during the Crystal Lake Kiwanis luncheon.

It’s looking out of a round hole cut into the side of a paper supermarket bag.

There’s no reason to be afraid, little one.

The McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors won’t be going door-to-door like they used to.

Of course, way back then, they were looking for dog owners who did not register their dogs.

There I go again.

I mean they were looking for dog owners who had not paid their dog tax.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Kudos to the headline writer at the Northwest Herald.

That’s a much better headline than the one I used below.

Reporter Kevin Craver labels the loss “a surprise.”

I’m even quoted:

Former state Rep. Cal Skinner, a vocal critic of what he called the “McHenry County Republican Cat Tax” on his blog at www.mchenrycountyblog.com, had similar sentiments – feral and barn cats are exempt from registration.

“If rabies is really the reason, who’s more likely to get rabies?

A barn cat – there are actually bats in barns – or a house cat?” Skinner said. “My cat’s been looking for bats in my house ever since it came, and it hasn’t found one.”

Lots of good quotes from county board members by Craver, but, for the roll call, you’ll have to find McHenry County Blog (unless it shows up in the print edition of the NW Herald in a chart).


And, thanks to the Northwest Herald for the front page story on Sunday. Without it, I am pretty sure the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax would have passed.

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The photograph is of Keely cat hunting bats on his second floor perch. It's obviously a slow day for house bats. Maybe the barn cats are getting more action!

Below is Keely at his scratching post.

Labels: Ken Koehler, Lyn Orphal, McHenry County Board., McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

If you ever think that your voice can’t make a difference in local government, think again!

Both opponents and proponents of the Republican Cat Tax mentioned they had been lobbied by their constituents.

And some of them used language ("Cat Tax Collector") that made me know that McHenry County Blog readers had been spreading the word.

The McHenry County Board, stacked 23-1 in favor of the Republican Party, defeated the cat tax backed by County Chairman Ken Koehler (he called it a “fee”) and nine other GOP county board members.

The motion to eliminate the cat tax from the revision of the animal control ordinance passed 12-10 on a motion by Lyn Orphal, seconded by Mary Lou Zierer. Perhaps Republicans have been this split on a board vote before. I don't follow it closely enough to know. It must be a rarity, however, for a county board chairman not to get his way.

The 11 Republicans voting to kill the Republican Cat Tax follow:

Yvonne Barnes of Cary, a newcomer
Sue Draffkorn of Wonder Lake
Randy Donley of Union
Ed Dvorak of Crystal Lake
John Hammerand of Wonder Lake
Mary McCann of Woodstock, just elected
Lyn Orphal of Crystal Lake
Nick Provenzano of McHenry
Daniel Ryan of Huntley, just elected
Dan Shea of Fox River Grove
Mary Lou Zierer of Marengo

Newly elected Democratic Party member Jim Kennedy of Lake in the Hills joined this majority of voting Republicans (two were absent) to kill the cat tax.

Get down, Catkins. I’m writing a story.

Don’t worry, you’re safe now from the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Relax.

I'll scratch your chest and neck later.

Those voting in favor of the Cat Tax ordinance, which would require rabies inoculation, plus the fee (which even a supporter slipped and called a “cat tax"), couched their arguments primarily toward being fair to both dog and cat owners, plus getting ahead of the spread of cat rabies, which is in Pennsylvania.

Those voting in favor of imposing the Cat Tax Hike were all Republicans. Their names follow:

Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake
Marie Chmiel of Crystal Lake
Mary Donner of Crystal Lake, just elected
Jim Heisler of Crystal Lake
Tina Hill of Woodstock
John Jung of Woodstock
Anna May Miller of Cary
Virginia Peschke of Woodstock
Sandra Salgado of McHenry
Linda Wheeler of Crystal Lake

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Here, minus Chairman Ken Koehler, are those who attended the Cat Tax County Board meeting. (Click to enlarge.)

Koehler is pictured in profile on top, while Lyn Orphal, the Crystal Laker who made the motion to kill the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax is just below.

Keely cat is shown relaxing after the death of the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collector ordinance.

Labels: Jim Kennedy, Ken Koehler, Lyn Orphal, McHenry County, McHenry County Republican Ca Tax

On Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune gave the Land Conservancy of McHenry County publicity that could only be happen in their dreams. (The article is also on the group's blog.)

On the front page of the Tribune was a story headlined,

Keeping land safe from development — forever

Now, folks in McHenry County seem to think this is only possible if the McHenry County Conservation District or a park district (think Crystal Lake and Cary) buy it.

Not true!

As the Kane County Board has figured out, one can buy development rights and keep the view, if the gain the use of tracts of land.

And because of new federal income tax laws, people can get up to a 50% tax credit for the value of donations to organizations like the McHenry County Land Conservancy.

The value of the Tribune article is that it might attract the attention of people who don’t live in McHenry County who own land here and aren’t hell bent on selling it to a developer.

This past year, the McHenry County group got eight easements covering 406 acres, the Tribune reports.

I called Executive Director Lisa Haderlein to ask where they were and she sent me this email:

Wonder Lake Sedge Meadow - 28 acres in Wonder Lake through a partnership with the Village and Neumann Homes. This site is on the MCCD Natural Area Inventory list. (The easment agreement included a $24,000 endowment.)

Horse Fair Springs Fen - 9 acres in Spring Grove through a partnership with the Village and KLM Builders. This land is part of a MCCD Natural Area Inventory site (the total site is about 200 acres). (The agreement included a $12,500 endowment and $1,000 for legal fees.)

Acorn Lane - 13 acres in Lake in the Hills. This was a land donation that resulted from a wetland mitigation project of about 15 years ago (when they built the Ace hardware store on Randall). This land is also part of a MCCD NAI site (Woods Creek I think). The land was transferred to us (along with $50K for long-term maintenance.)

Riverwoods - 16 acres along the Kishwaukee River in Woodstock (in back of Centegra) through a partnership between the City and Orleans Homes - we have a signed land donation agreement that will result in the land being transferred to TLC in about 2 years (along with $30,000 for long-term maintenance.)

County Fair Grounds easement - 7 acres. This resulted from a wetland fill violation that the Corps of Engineers pursued against the Fair Associaiton and some contractors from the Jewel construction project. ($15,000 was provided to cover administrative and long-term monitoring costs)

Siegfried and Ann Weiler easement - 250 acres on Crystal Spring and Walkup Roads in Bull Valley. The property had been approved for 104 homes to be built (before Sig & Ann purchased it), but the Weilers chose to preserve it instead. They are in the process of restoring the land to prairie and wetland. The easement connects land that we own to the north (22 acres) and land where we hold easements to the south (31 acres).

Reiland/van Bussum Wildlife Conservation easement - 14.5 acres (some pictured here) off of Dowell Road near Moraine Hills State Park. Kathy Reiland placed this easment on the portion of "Griswold Prairie" natural area that is on her property. TLC already owns 4 acres adjacent to her easement. This is also a MCCD NAI site.

Bolger Farm Preservation Easement - 69 acres on Barreville Road/State Park Road south of McHenry. Walter and Madeline Bolger donated the first farmland preservation easement in McHenry County last December. The land provides a buffer between City of McHenry development to the north and west, and Stickney Run Conservation Area to the south and Moraine Hills State Park to the east.

The last three easements are discussed in our up-coming newsletter that is being mailed tomorrow - it will be posted on the web site tomorrow (that is, today). Also, the Wonder Lake and Spring Grove easements are discussed in prior newsletters - I think they are listed on the website under "TLC in the News" or something like that.

I noted the endowment amounts for the first several easements since they were sort of "public/private" partnerships. In those cases, the endowments are not tax deductible. In the last three cases, the easements are strictly private, so the easement value and any endowment donated are potentially deductible, so I will keep that info private.

McHenry County Board member Virginia Peschke was a driving force behind formation of McHenry County’s Land Conservancy. John Sterling deserves credit for educating me, as well.The current president is Sandra Scheinfeld.

I think she must be related to the woman that let my prior family swim in the pool after my daughter Alexandra was born in February of 1982. The home was located near the current headquarters of the McHenry County Conservation District, which was owned by members of the Scheinfeld family.

Needless to say, volunteers are welcomed and needed, as you can see on the web site.

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The top two pictures, one of a burning of a property with a subdivision in the background and the other of a pond and old barn are featured on the group's web site. There are more here.

Labels: John Sterling, Kathy Reiland, Land Conservancy of McHenry County, Lisa Haderlein, Sandra Scheinfeld, Virginia Peschke

Missed this comment on the Northwest Herald comment section on the article about the defeat of the Richmond Tax Increment Financing District:

chazkaz wrote on February 17, 2007 3:52 PM:

"Oh, No you can't just blame the schools, all that misinformation from The Illinois Education Foundation, The National Education Foundation, The Institute for Justice (Castle Coalition), The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, The Heartland Institute, The National Capital Budget Group, Good Jobs First didn't help either.

All those organizations have websites and somebody in Richmond put links to all those sites in one spot at RichmondTIF.com.

The worst part about it was you couldn't find any information about the Richmond TIF on the internet without coming across that site, McHenryCountyBlog.com or all the stuff posted by the schools.

The Village of Richmond had no clue they were getting killed on the internet.

What did the Village post on their site? Some canned, fill in the blanks consultant's study with a plan to plan to use up about $38 million and letter to residents. It's only right it was defeated, if Richmond can't market the TIF to it's area residents, how are they going to market it to the world? "

I hope McHenry County Blog was helpful.

And, if you read what's at the top of the screen, encouraging citizen participation is one of my goals.

Labels: Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

Have a Safe and

Happy Holiday!!

SADD ,

says today’s “Message of the Day.”

I found it at McHenry West High School before Christmas.

Look closely at what’s below the exclamation marks.

It shows great imagination, I think.

(For those of you disturbed by yesterday's "Message of the Day," is this enough to counterbalance it?)

Labels: Exclamation mark, McHenry West High School, Poster, SADD

I was so proud when not one single Republican Party vote was cast for the riverboat gambling bill in the earliest of the 1990’s.

Today readers of the Chicago Tribune are greeted with a headline reading,

House GOP’s $5 billion capital plan built on gambling

How sad.

Labels: Gambling, Lee Daniels, Tom Cross

I found this poster cat at the offices of Crystal Lake’s domestic violence and sexual assault agency—PEACE4ALL. It’s located on Route 14 just northwest of Crystal Lake Avenue behind Wolf Reality.

Crystal Lake Kiwanis was shooting a publicity shot of the $500 check the now all-volunteer PEACE4ALL was being given and I saw this poster of a really laid back cat.

“Relaxed” is an understatement of how this cat looks sleeping on its back with legs outspread.

Underneath it says,

I'm fine.

Really.

there is a religious message from Matthew 11:28-

Come to me, ye who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

PEACE4ALL is a domestic violence agency where counselors offer Christian counseling as an option.

The McHenry County Board meets tonight at 7 P.M. in the building north of the county jail and courthouse.

Take a look at and think about adding to the comments on this Northwest Herald story on the cat tax.

Labels: Domestic Violence, Matthew 11:28, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax, PEACE4ALL, Sexual Assault

When I wrote about McHenry’s Home School Dad John O’Neill running for Grade School District 15’s board I thought he might be the first home schooler to run for school board.

After I posted a story on Illinois Review, run by former home schooler Fran Eaton, I quickly got a comment from Susan Ryan. She informed me that her husband Patrick had “been there, done that.” (Not her words; mine.)

Patrick Ryan not only served on a unit district school board in Ford County (Blue Ridge Unit District 18, in the Farmer City, Mansfield, and Bellflower area) he served as board president.

He says that homeschooling was never an issue.

I asked Ryan about his experience and here’s what he wrote:

I served one term, which lasted 3 1/2 years because of a change in the date school board elections are held. I was elected in March 2001 and took office in November 2001, serving through April 2005.

Soon after I was elected and before I was seated, the superintendent resigned and another was hired. The new superintendent was immediately concerned about the state of the district finances and restoring financial health pretty much dominated the agenda during my term.

The district hadn't sought an increase in the tax levied for the Education Fund in 25 years, and had been deficit spending for the last few years before I took office. The district was in a financial death spiral.

This was not what I had hoped to spend my time on, but an increase in the tax rate was required.

We made cuts in several areas, eliminated some programs, and reduced some staff. The public was not persuaded that the district needed more money so they turned down the first referendum.

I was elected president after the referendum failed.

Another deeper round of cuts were made, including all extra-curricular programs. We adopted a policy that permitted self-funding of extra-curricular programs, and for one year all the sports, student council, quiz bowl, etc., were paid through fund raising efforts. It even included the Athletic Director's salary.

A referendum passed the following year, and the district's financial health has been solid since then.

The next challenge was to negotiate a contract with the teacher's union.

Since a referendum had just passed, the negotiations were pretty tough, with both sides operating under pressure from the taxpayers and the membership.

We did manage to avoid a walkout and settle on something both sides could live with.

I had hoped to spend more of my time on the board working on issues related to improving student academic achievement in the district.

Since that did not turn out to be the focus of my term, and since the feelings that were generated by the cuts that were made, the tax increase, and the contract negotiations, I felt that my talents could be better utilized in the private sector.

The fact that we have children being homeschooled was never an issue during my term in office.

There was a policy discussion about participation by homeschoolers in IHSA sports. I did not initiate the discussion, it came about as a result of a change in the ISHA policy regarding homeschoolers.

A committee was formed to see if a policy could be fashioned that would be fair to students that have to meet academic eligibility requirements. The district administrators wanted no part of it and made it made it seem like a train wreck to the other parents on the committee. So that went nowhere.

Labels: Blue Ridge CUSD 18, Homeschooling, Patrick Ryan

On the back of a van picking up a Crystal Lake South School student I saw the words,

Live Responsibly

On the same bumper sticker I saw the Miller Beer logo.

When I looked at the left side of the back of the van there was a

Chars.
Herdrich
Son

logo.

Labels: Bumper Sticker, Miller Beer

McHenry County Blog posted an article Saturday about Ariel Capital Management having kicked out of the State Board of Investments’ pension investment business, but remaining in the state's deferred compensation program as an investment option.

By November 17, Ariel has lost $165.7 million.

So, it did not surprise me to read on the front page of Sunday’s Chicago Tribune that its executives had kicked $157,000 into Mayor Richard Daley’s mayoral campaign.

The notation:

Their business with the city: investment managers of city pensions.

The Tribune reports that Ariel

• Chairman John Rogers, Jr., gave $100,000 (given after Ariel lost the state pension money)
• President Mellody Hobson gave $50,000 (all after losing the state pension business)
• Other employees chipped in $7,000 Other employees chipped in $7,000, none of which was listed in the Tribune article (I found $3,000 of it.)
  · Portfolio Manager John Miller gave $1,000 (after the state pension money was withdrawn)
  · Investment Manager Franklin Morton gave $1,000 (after the state money left)
  · Investment Manager Matthew Sauer gave $1,000 (also after the loss of state money) and
• The company contributed $1,000 the very day the last State Board of Investment money left the company.

President Hobson told the Tribune:

We have this business because of our investment record, not because of anything else.

Guess the State Board of Investments doesn’t know what it was talking about when it dumped Ariel from its pension business because of its poor recent investment record.

Here’s what these state pension managers said,

the Board of Investment “has concerns regarding recent performance of Ariel Capital Management.”

Apparently, it has done well enough over the “longer term,” that is, over ten years, but “the performance over the one, three and five year time periods has caused a great deal of concern.”

I wonder how much city pension money Ariel has to manage.

Labels: Ariel Capital Management, Pensions State Board of Investments

But the Northwest Herald doesn’t call it a “Cat Tax.”

It's a "fee."

Its big front page headline reads,

County sets vote on cat fee

Regardless of the our disagreement in terminology, I thank the NW Herald for letting cat owners know that the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors are poised to stick their hands in cat owners’ pockets.

The tax increase is being imposed merely to raise revenue. Republicans in McHenry County are not different from Democrats elsewhere.

They both act to feed the beast of government by raising taxes—even if they call them “fees.”

The lack of equal protection under the law is stunning in this proposal.

While it is being promoted as a way to prevent rabies in cats, the county veterinarian could not tell me when the last cat in McHenry County had rabies.

Worse for those who think government should display at least a little bit of logic is the exemption of farm cats from rabies shots.

My house kitten has to be inoculated against rabies, but a barn cat doesn’t?

That really makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Rest assured that I shall run the roll call numerous times between the vote and the next primary election.

The folks who vote for it are tax hikers, plain and simple.

People who want to run for county board will probably be able to start passing petitions in August, if the primary election is moved up to the first week of February.

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Our almost grown up cat Keely is seen above keeping watch for rabid bats on the railing at the top of our staircase.

Labels: McHenry County Board., McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

A friend of McHenry County Blog sent me links to painted cats.

Why someone would want to paint a cat, I don’t know, but she came up with a reason.

She suggested she would paint her cat to look like a skunk.

She’d didn’t think the McHenry County Republican Tax Collectors would bother it then.

There are so many good pictures in the book “Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics” by Burton Silver and Heather Busch (now out in paperback).

I couldn’t find one painted like a skunk so I picked this one.

Why do you think it is painted this way?

I wonder if it is a barn cat.

My blog friend says the vote on the Republican Cat Tax will be this Tuesday night at the McHenry County Board's 7 P.M. meeting.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax, Painted cats

Both of the daily newspapers that cover Elgin took aim at the U46 School Board Sunday.

The Daily Herald decided to see if $400,000 Superintendent Connie Neale really was paid less than her peers.

Guess what?

She’s paid a lot more.

Part of the Daily Herald headline reads,

pay far outpaces peers across the nation

I saw a nice graphic at Jewel, but it wasn’t worth $1.50 to get it. (A friend of the blog sent me a copy, which I have posted. Click to enlarge.)

Holding student population and household income constant, reporter Emily Krone’s first paragraph well summarizes her research:

Elgin Area School District U-46 Superintendent Connie Neale this year will be paid at least $100,000 (43%) more than any superintendent in the country directing a district of similar size and wealth.

Meanwhile in Elgin’s Daily Courier News, the editorial calls on the school board to

Hold off on approving U46 chief’s contract

until after the school board election in April.

The commentary bites like a shark.

The fish on the Elgin School Board do not get off with a "Fish are our friends, not food" approach.

Complimenting school board member Daniel Rich for resigning after realizing he had made a mistake by going along with the others in giving preliminary approval to hiking Neale’s compensation to $400,000, the editorial says,

We owe Rich a debt of gratitude, if not for his dogged pursuit of taxpayer justice, then certainly the alacrity to recognize the futility of further service.

Further down, the Courier News editorial longs for the transparency under former School Superintendent Marvin Edwards.

Millionaires were made behind closed doors at taxpayer expense.

But that would imbue the remaining U46 board members with a sense of shame, embarrassment and failure of responsibility that they obviously lack. We would have settled for

• insincere contrition;
• a Clinonesque furrowed brow and pursed lips;
• perhaps just a vague and meaningless promise to reconsider.

But the egregious avarice goes without apology.

They showed their contrition by denouncing Rich and filing for re-election. The dogs may bark, but apparently the caravan moves on.

How many of Elgin's incumbents do you think the Daily Courier will endorse?

Labels: Connie Neale, Daniel Rich, Elgin School District, U46

Crystal Lake Kiwanis, whose noon meetings are held the 1st and 3rd Wednesday at Colonial Café on Rt. 14, has donated $500 to PEACE4ALL, the Crystal Lake-Rt. 14 headquartered domestic violence and sexual assault agency.

Lauri Sobel, Co-Director, is seen at the left of the picture receiving the ceremonial check from Kiwanis members Bettie Siavelis, V.P. of Algonquin Bank & Trust, Prudential Financial Services Association and new Kiwanis member Steven Podgorski and John Morrison.

Sobel is a Certified Domestic Violence Provider, certified by the State of Illinois’ Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The agency provides assistance to male and female victims of domestic and sexual violence, offering traditional, as well as Christian counseling.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Domestic Violence, Kiwanis, PEACE4ALL, Sexual Assault

A little over a week ago, I heard that the intersection of Randall and Huntley Roads is the most dangerous in the entire Chicago metropolitan area.

As good luck would have it, on my way down to listen to and ask questions of Presidential candidate John McCain Friday, an accident there was on the other side of the road.

How long do you think it will take the highway engineers to figure out how to make it safer and the Kane County Board members to figure out how to pay for the suggested improvements?

The Kane County Board has just voted to double its local Motor Fuel Tax from 2 to 4 cents a gallon. McHenry County did that in the early 1990's.

Labels: Gas tax, Huntley Road, Kane County Board, Mortor Fuel Tax, Randall Road, traffic congestion

On the back window of this really salt-covered van’s window are two bumper stickers.

One says,

Just Give Me Jesus

The other is one advertising Elgin radio station

94.3 FM K-LOVE,

which plays Christian music,

Labels: Bumper Sticker, K-Love

When I stopped at the little pig farm near the Wisconsin border I knew it would come in handy, but I thought it would be illustrating political pork.

But, here it is the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Pig.

And here’s a pig to illustrate it.

Last year was the Year of the Dog.

Labels: Chinese New Year, Pig

I found this picture of Spike at Colonial Café, where the Crystal Lake Kiwanis meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesday at noon.

Do you think we could enlist him to dissuade the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors from doing their worst?

You can see why kitty is called "Spike," right?

It's the spiked colar the kitten is wearing.

Pretty terrifying.

Labels: Colonial Cafe, Kiwanis, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

It’s probably a first.

A homeschooling Dad is running for his local grade school’s board of education.

Undoubtedly some will try to convince people that someone who saves McHenry Grade School District 15, what, $5,000 per year per child that he and his wife educate can’t be trusted to be on the school board.

The Dad, John O’Neill, has been interested in government since he was nine years old. When others were watching cartoons, he was watching the returns for Jimmy Carter’s presidential election.

He was first appointed Republican precinct committeeman and then elected in the area between Route 31 and Green Street on the south side of town.

Not many Republican precinct committeemen run for school board. This year, besides O’Neill, there are two running in District 300. Elected committeeman John Ryan is running against Board President Mary Fioretti, an appointed GOP precinct committeeman.

So, why does O’Neill want to be on the school board?

There are three main reasons:

• First, I want to make sure that the children of the district receive the best education possible.
• Second, I want to make sure the school district lives within its means.
• Third, if I ever enroll my children in public schools, I want to know what they are being taught.

I asked O’Neill if he thought he and his wife could educate his five children better than the school system.

“At least as good, if not better,” he replied.

Why?

“At most there’s a 5 to 1 student-teacher ratio at our home. However, many times it’s one-on-one instruction,” he explained. “At school, it’s at least 20 to 1.”

O’Neill himself is an educator. He trains workers in the corporate world. And, he’s taught Sunday School eight of the last ten years, most recently at the Church of the Holy Apostles at Bull Valley and Crystal Lake Road (that’s what Crystal Lakers call the McHenry Blacktop).

What do you want accomplish?

“I want to make sure that the student-teacher ratio doesn’t get any higher,” O’Neill said. “It’s now an average of 21 students per teacher according to the D15 website, with middle school ratios even higher. The state average is 19 students per teacher,

“I want the school board to take an active role in opposing development that does not pay its own way. Thatcher Woods comes to mind.

“I don’t think we need to raise our taxes any higher than they are, especially through threats and intimidation. The school district needs to live within its means just like our fellow parents and taxpayers.“

O’Neill knows he has an uphill battle and is looking for more volunteers to help him or help with campaign expenses.

Readers can volunteer at his website, and there's a place to make financial contributions.

Labels: Homeschooling, John O'Neill, McHenry Grade School District 15

After meeting with U.S. Senator John McCain, along with some other conservative bloggers and leaders, I hung around talking to my former legislative colleague Maureen Murphy.

It was at the Union League Club, a place I hadn’t visited since House Speaker George Ryan was negotiating the RTA agreement with Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne in 1983. Having just lost a Republican primary election for Congress, I was advising Ryan on RTA, along with Kathy Selcke.

In the 5th floor hall, I heard Public Affairs Committee member Elaine Roth, who was in charge of the award, talking to Patrick G. Lee, a Barrington High School senior who had won Union League Club’s Public Affairs Award, which included a check.

Lee was scheduled to get the award from McCain at a later press conference, but Roth decided that was the time to give him the monetary award.

So, I snapped a picture, getting Roth, the award winner and his parents, Kenny and Sunnie Lee.

Since I didn’t have to be anywhere, I talked to Lee about politics (what else?) and waited for McCain’s Chicago press conference. I used to represent his South Barrington neighborhood in the Illinois House.

At the press conference, I thought McCain was quite bold in pointing out the truth of the consequences of our pulling out of Iraq, that is, genocide, ethnic cleansing, etc.

After the press conference and McCain’s presentation of the Public Affairs Award to Lee, the Fox news reporter interviewed Lee.

Unfortunately, the interview ended up on the cutting room floor and got edited out of the short Chicago Sun-Times story.

The Fox reporter had obviously been briefed on the young man’s accomplishments. Astronomical SATs, starting the Abner Mikva Challenge at Barrington High School (and I won’t embarrass us lower achievers with more).

Lee was off to Harvard Saturday for a national debate contest. (I had earlier asked if that were Harvard, Illinois. Silly me.)

Since he was interested in politics, the reporter asked Lee if he was ready to take a pledge not to raise taxes.

He paused slightly and answered,

"No comment."

How perfect.

Here's where you can find more McHenry County Blog.

Labels: Abner Mikva Challenge, Barrington High School, John McCain, Patrick G. Lee, RTA, Union League Club

At least I think it was a valentine.

Maybe it was a reminder from my wife that I get newspaper ink all over the place.

The front of this Avanti card has a guy that looks a bit like me wearing white boxer shorts with red hearts on them.

He’s leaning over in his driveway picking up the morning newspaper in white socks and slippers without backs. (I own some like that, but don’t find them comfortable. I use them in the basement.)

The envelope was more encouraging.

A heart, like the ones made from sugar, with

XOXO

Labels: Message of the Day, Valentine

I’ve got some money in the State employees deferred compensation program, so I get quarterly statements.

Included with the one that arrived on Lincoln’s Birthday was a letter from William R. Atwood, Executive Director of the Illinois State Board of Investment.

If was peculiar.

There may have been others, but this is the only one I remember.

It says that the Board of Investment “has concerns regarding recent performance of Ariel Capital Management.”

Apparently, it has done well enough over the “longer term,” that is, over ten years, but “the performance over the one, three and five year time periods has caused a great deal of concern.”

Catch that?

“…a great deal of concern.”

Since last March, “Ariel has been on the DC plan Watch List.”

The Board of Investment continues to have regarding recent performance, but

is also aware that some investors take comfort in the long relationship that the deferred comp plan has with Ariel, and that some investors value the option of investing with a minority owned Illinois firm.

Next, the “on the one hand, this, and, on the other hand, that” paragraphs:

Thus, the Board has decided not to terminate Ariel as an option…at this time…(but it) will keep the firm o the Watch List…It is left to the discretion of each plan participant as to in which play option they choose to invest.

As a result of Ariel’s recent performance, (the Board) has terminated its relationship with Ariel under which the firm managed defined plan assets under (the Board’s) fiduciary control

So, if you want to keep your money in the firm, go right ahead, but we’re pulling all the other money the firm had out.

State employees have almost $132 million invested in the mutual fund. That’s a little less than 5% of the assets. Put another way, it’s almost 84% of the money invested last year.

The State Board of Investment had $165,730,099 as of the first of 2006 and zilch as of the first of this year.

All was withdrawn by last November 17th.

Labels: Ariel Capital Management, Deferred Compensation, Illinois State Board of Investments, William R. Atwood

Well, when you look closely, you can see this is a fake.

It’s designed to look as if it has broken a car’s window…in this case, the back window.

From a distance, it looks a bit like a space ship.

And, it has a Cubs logo on it, unless my eyesight is failing me.

Labels: Cubs

Alexandra Gabrielle Skinner, born February 16, 1982, Prentice Women’s Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.

Of course, your name has probably been changed since I last saw you over Thanksgiving vacation in 1985. Maybe your birthday, too.

But, that’s what your Cook County birth certificate says.

I was in the midst of running for State Comptroller right before you were born. I’d tell audiences that you would be born on Lincoln’s Birthday. When February 12th passed, I focused on Valentine’s Day.

But you didn’t come until February 16th.

And, since your birth was Caesarian and I hadn’t been “trained” for that, I didn’t get to see it.

I was like cartoon strip character Dagwood, sitting in a little room as a baby was rolled past.

“Is that mine?” I asked the nurse.

And, guess what? It was you.

Since your mother was in recovery for an extended time, I got to hold you for a long time that day.

So, where are you?

You’ve undoubtedly graduated from college and probably got a master’s degree.

So, how is your mother, Robin Meredith Geist, and your maternal grandparents, Herbert and Millicent Geist? I assume your grandparents are still in Polo Estates in West Palm Beach.

I hope they are in good health.

Of course you don’t remember, but, the first time you came to visit after the divorce and visitation was finalized, we took the picture on the wall. You were so pretty in your dress.

Having a premonition, perhaps, we also took you down to the Crystal Lake Police station to get you finger printed. That was after going to the craft show in the basement of the First United Methodist Church. I remember you played gingerly on the jungle gym and got a clothespin Big Bird, complete with yellow feathers. You wouldn’t let it out of you sight, clutching it all day.

“I don’t need it. I don’t need it,” you repeated said with such force, as the policeman rolled each of your fingers on the form.

After he was finished, you exclaimed, “That didn’t hurt a bit.”

We walked to the Gate 7 beach. As you looked at the water, you asked in that delightful two-year old voice, “Can I touch it?’

As I wrote in the ad you undoubtedly saw on the front page of the international edition of the Jerusalem Post when you were twenty-one, I miss and love you so much.

When you decide to come looking for the other side of your family, we’re listed in the Crystal Lake phone book, still living at Gate 11 in Lakewood, right on the main drag.

I hope it is soon.

= = = = =
All images, of course, can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Top right is your birth certificate.

Next is a favorite photo taken by your mother, who was a very good photographer. (I'll have to show you the one she took at the McHenry parade when she was working for gubernatorial candidate Jim Thompson. It has her reflection in my sun glasses.)

Then, comes a picture of your mother with those big glasses and lovely smile. You are a happy baby in your playpen.

Below her is Herb and Millicent Geist. Must be a campaign event, because Herb is wearing one of my buttons.

To the left is a picture of the wall at the top of stairs at 275 Meridian Street. Your room was to the left, which 9-year old Steven now claims.

The next photo is the last one I have of you. It was taken by my sister Ellen Desmond, who now lives in Joplin, Missouri, when she and her husband Denny were attending a convention at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club. You lived right on the golf course close to the hotel at the time. Aunt Ellen gave you the Care Bear for your birthday.

Below is a picture of all of your cousins and my parents. You are the larger of the two babies. Kelly is younger by six months. The two oldest Desmond cousins are married and have children.

Next is an age enhanced guess at what a grown-up you would look like.

Below is a photo of my mother having a tea party with you and Kelly on the Lake Michigan lakefront lawn of the Lake Forest house that your grandfather rennovated. She is showing you the locket that an ancestor of my grandmother Addie Watling Skinner had made from the small amount of gold that he found in the California Gold Rush. It still has both your and my pictures in it.

Next is a picture of you "conducting" music. I wonder if you play an instrument. At the bottom left on the floor is one of the Annie's your mother made for you. She made more than one of each size so one could be washed without your missing it. do you still have little "Punk Rock Annie?"

And finally, a picture of you and me that Thanksgiving weekend.

Labels: Alexandra Gabrielle, Herbert Geist, Millicent Geist, Polo Estates, Robin Meredith Geist, West Palm Beach

A friend of the blog from Richmond sent me this update on Thursday night's village board meeting.

It seems the citizen uprising was successful.

Here's the email:

Richmond TIF Dismissed unanaimously

Lauri Olson-Yes, due to public opinion. Sent strong message to those who opposed TIF that they better have some plans for what to do because the Village's general fund has been reduced by half and they have a loan to pay off, sounded like they thought they were going to use the TIF money to refill the Villages coffers.

It reminded me of some of the Republican sentiment about the war and the Democrats and that Ok well you got yourselves elected now you figure out what to do about this war.

Charles Schultz-Yes but has ideas for grants and funding, found a 50/50 sidewalk grant program to which Ms. Olson chimed in "we don't have the 50."

Cindy Walleck-Yes and is not too interested in Mr. Schultz's TIF alternatives tonight either.

Dan Deters-Yes and I was never really convinced about the TIF any way.

Dennis Bardy-Yes and I wish people would stop criticizing me for choosing TIF in the first place instead of investigating anything else.

Bruce Hunter can't vote; he has property in the TIF.

Roy Wulffen absent, he's absent a lot, I guess his heart just isn't in this anymore.

The ordinance was written in such a way that this TIF cannot be revived before its expiration date, the Village attorney made a big deal about having to spend the money again for a study and all that if they every wanted to do it again.

I've read a couple of those studies. The consultants basically fill in the blanks to fulfill the state statutes. You can read the study with the state TIF law in the other hand and follow the statutes requirements right down through the study.

I think if they wanted to be reasonable about it they could do themselves.

If nothing else they should have a better idea of how to handle the public. Initially they relied on blind trus. Ms. Olson's response to concerns about TIF was often just what are you afraid of.

Boy, I wish I had folks like this friend of the blog who would update me on other meetings.

Labels: Bruce Hunter, Charles Schultz, Dan Deters, Dennis Bardy, Lauri Olson, Richmond, Roy Wulffen, Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

I explained here the importance of ballot order in a large race.

With nine candidates, the Crystal Lake Park Board contest qualifies.

First place on the ballot is worth an extra 10%, 2nd and last place an extra 5%.

The worst place on the ballot is next to last.

So, here’s the results of the lottery:

• Candy Reedy
• William (Bud) Schmauss
• Angelique (Angel) M. Collins
• Michael J. Walkup
• Eric Anderson
• Michael K. Zellman
• Richard Sexton
• Bernard A. Van Ham
• John H. Burton III

Not that long-term park board member Candy Reedy needed any help to get re-elected, but being first on the ballot gives her a lock, I believe.

Other things being equal Bud Schmauss and John Burton should do well.

Because of her gender, the thrid person the ballot should do well, also. Women have had about a five percentage point advantage over men in this area since at least 1966 when I first ran for office. With only two on the ballot, I'd think both would win.

And Bernie Van Ham is going to have to work really hard to make up for being in the worst place on the ballot.

Mike Walkup ran for State Senate as a Democrat when he lived in Barrington and for Nunda Township Supervisor as a Republican after buying the family homestead. He has been a Democratic Party activist, although he served as Republican precinct committeeman once.

Any of the candidates who wish something published on McHenry County Blog are welcome to email it McHenryCountyBlog@comcast.net.

And for the winners?

They, too, could end up at a park board meeting like the one above on reversal of the decision not to allow the Gay Games regatta on Crystal Lake.

Labels: Angel Collins, Ballot order, Bernie Van Ham, Bud Schmauss, Candy Reedy, Crystal Lake Park Board, Eric Anderson, Gay Games, John Burton, Michael Zellman, Mike Walkup, Richard Sexton

Otto Engineering in Carpentersville was started by conservative political activist and retired successful businessman Jack Roeser.

His son Tom now runs the business.

Most people hear the name Roeser associated with Carpentersville and think of conservative politics. But, a one-dimensional cardboard cutout that District 300 detractors envision doesn’t fit.

Recently I pointed to a Daily Herald story by Patrick Garmoe about environmental tendencies. Otto Engineering installed water permeable pavement for parking cars near the riverfront property where he allows people to fish (after giving each permission to be on the private property).

One only has to look at his buildings on the west side of the Carpentersville Fox River bridge to see that the company believes in re-using and significantly renovating old factory buildings. Expect more of the same if other nearby vacant buildings become available.

Most folks would praise that as historic preservation.

Those with brains enough to appreciate what special people entrepreneurs are should sing Jack and his son Tom’s praises for bringing 475 jobs to Carpentersville.

Otto Engineering is the largest employer in the village. It is still expanding.

You might say the elder Roeser, a Barrington-area resident, has a stake in the community, even if he does think School District 300 is poorly run and tries to do something about that with his Family Taxpayers Network.

On Wednesday, Tribune reporter George Houde wrote a long story about how the son Tom and Otto Engineering are rehabbing townhouses off Route 72.

“I own 19,” Tom Roeser told me.

“I’m doing this because I think it’s the right thing to do for the village,” Tom Roeser told the Tribune reporter. “I wouldn’t call it a ghetto, but without an effort to organize homeowners to invest, this could be tomorrow’s ghetto.”

So, besides renovating old factories, they’re into renovating not-so-old housing units.

I remember the Morningside subdivision well.

When I was the area’s state representative in the 1970’s, one of my most fervent volunteers lived in one of the small dwellings. Brenda (unfortunately, I cannot remember her last name) supported both me and Orville Brettman, when he served as Carpentersville Village President in the mid-1970’s. Boy, could she use a phone!

The townhouses are a newer version of starter homes in a town whose Meadowdale developer specialized in single-family starter homes after World War II.

These townhouses were built before the mid-1970’s energy crisis. As Roeser points out in the article, they didn’t even have insulation. When they are finished they will hold heat so much better than before. (And, having rented a similar uninsulated end unit in Springfield’s Fallingbrook, I know how cold they can get.)

So, why is Roeser re-building these homes?

“My goal is to get the value of those properties high enough so people will invest in them, Tom Roeser told me. “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Only one of Otto’s employees is living in a unit thus far.

And Brenda Grauer of Housing Action Illinois found a way to help people buy the townhouses. The state has a program under which homebuyers can get $5,000 toward the purchase of a home. They have to live there 5 years to get the entire $5,000, as 20% is forgiven every year. (More on this program next week.)

Otto Engineering also gives $5,000.

“He’s doing great stuff,” Grauer told McHenry County Blog.

Another housing purchase assistance program is administered by an Elgin agency called Community Contacts.

It administers an almost $600,000 grant to assist income eligible exiting homeowners fix up their units. The goal is life safety and exterior appearance, Lowell Tosch, associate director of the agency.

It hires general contractors for home improvements. Carpentersville is technically the applicant for the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Forgivable loans range from $3,000 to $5,000. There is also the possibility of a $10,000 zero interest-deferred loan, payable when the title is transferred.

Regardless of who gets helped, however, those who purchase the homes will be getting a jump-start on the American dream.

Others will be rented out at $600 a month after renovation is completed by Otto Engineering.

“I’m doing this because I think it’s the right thing to do for the village,” son Tom Roeser told the Tribune reporter. “I wouldn’t call it a ghetto, but without an effort to organize homeowners to invest, this could be tomorrow’s ghetto.”

Labels: Jack Roeser, Otto Engineering, Tom Roeser

There was a small article in the Chicago Tribune Thursday concerning the increase in the misuse of prescription drugs by teens.

It was the bottom of four stories on a page with mainly advertising.

It reminded me that no Chicago area newspaper has run an article on the 46-year old Crystal Lake physician named Michael Millette. He illegally wrote 62 million internet prescriptions.

Wouldn’t you think 62 million internet prescriptions would be newsworthy?

An internet site that can be found in this January 17th McHenry County Blog article says the University of Illinois College of Medicine graduate practiced emergency medicine in Woodstock and McHenry, as well as other locations.

You can find Millette's name on the U.S. Bureau of Prison's web site, but he's not behind walls yet.

Labels: Crystal Lake, internet, Michael Millette, Prescriptions

This swim cap is so distinctive, I had to get a picture.

I asked the high school girl wearing it at the Buffalo Grove meet with the McHenry Marlins what the big white

CIA

on her black cap stood for.

It’s not what you think.

It stands for Central Indiana Association, I think.

So, don’t ever think those in Indiana don’t have a sense of humor.

(Wasn’t that where the comedian George Goebel was from?)

Labels: CIA, Indiana, Swim Cap

Planned Parenthood took the opportunity on Valentine’s Day to invite people to send a Valentine to Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

I found the ad on the Chicago Tribune web site Valentine’s Day next to an article on a Chicago city employee doing something illegal while being paid by the taxpayers.

Considering the Obama can find corruption in Africa, but not in Chicago, the juxtaposition seemed a bit strange.

In any event, Planned Parenthood certainly wants to keep its hooks into the budding national politician.

Labels: Barak Obama, Chicago Corruption

It's going to be another really cold weekend, so I thought you might like to join us at a Gospel Sing.

You don't have to drive to Chicago for this one.

It's right in Crystal Lake at the First United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Dole and Crystal Lake Avenues, both of which connect with Route 14.

We owe the honor of the performance to our Associate Pastor Darneather Murph-Heath.

Her previous pastorate was the Gorham United Methodist Church in Chicago.

That's where this choir is coming from.

Labels: Darneather Murph-Heath, First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake, Gorham United Methodist Church, Gospel

Here is the A-LAW press release announcing that the referendum the group sought to establish the Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority got on the ballot. The election is April 17th.

Woodstock, IL – February 14, 2007 – The Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water, “A-LAW,” a not-for-profit corporation, announces that Judge Klein, presiding Judge DeKalb County, has issued an order finalizing the boundaries of the proposed Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority and has certified the question for the April 17, 2007 ballot. The proposed Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority “KVWA” includes much of rural McHenry, Boone and DeKalb Counties.

The boundaries of the KVWA for consideration by the public are as follows:

• DeKalb County – all cities included except Sandwich, Maple Park and Genoa. All Townships included except Sandwich and Somonauk.
• Boone County – All Townships included: All Cities included except Belvidere.
• McHenry County – Townships included: Chemung, Alden, Hebron, Dunham, Hartland, Greenwood, Marengo, Seneca, Door, Riley & Coral. Cities included: Bull Valley, Greenwood, Union and Hebron. Cities excluded: Harvard, Marengo, Woodstock, Wonder Lake, Lakewood and Crystal Lake.

Pat Kennedy, President of A-Law, was more than pleased with the Judges ruling today which granted the petitioners a majority of its request.

“Finally the citizens can have their say and decide for themselves whether a water authority will help to keep our groundwater sustainable for future generations.” Mrs. Kennedy continued.

“We are delighted to have the Cities of Sycamore and DeKalb included in the water authority. This will only strengthen the authority and will lower the assessments for everyone if the authority is approved. We look forward to speaking directly to the citizens who live within the boundaries of the water authority concerning its merits.”

A-LAW and its alliance collected more than 1600 signatures from registered voters within the boundaries of the proposed authority. The signatures along with the formal petition to place the question of creating the authority with funding was filed on November 17, 2006 at the DeKalb County Court House in Sycamore, Illinois.

Over two months of court proceedings were held to determine whether the petition was sufficient and to consider the final boundaries to be certified as a referendum. The petition faced significant opposition by municipalities and developer interests.

Municipalities were particularly interested in excluding their 1 ½ mile planning area. Petitioners strenuously fought against this request along with the requests of many small municipalities who wanted to exclude themselves completely from the authority.

Jane Collins, Secretary of A-LAW, said that she was grateful that the Judge did not grant either of these requests. Otherwise, the water authority would not have survived.

Mrs. Collins said, “It would have been almost impossible to administer an election and ultimately the water authority would have been untenable.”

Retired Judge John Countryman represented the petitioners against more than twenty attorneys during the proceedings that were held over numerous days beginning on December 21st of last year and culminating in the decision today.

The McHenry County Council of Governments and the DeKalb County Building and Development Association (DCDBA) were particularly active in attacking the authority.

Emily Berendt, on the Board of Directors of A-LAW, stated that the alliance will immediately expand its grass roots campaign to build support for the authority.

“We encourage those who have been watching this matter in court to come out and join actively to get this measure passed in April. Informational sessions will be held in each county and the alliance is willing to speak to any interested group. Anyone interested in supporting this effort by volunteering their time, donating funds or services, or helping to organize support in their local community or organization should call A-LAW at 1-866-649-9049 or visit us at www.a-lawonline.org.”

A water authority is authorized by Illinois law and created by referendum voted on by citizens of the proposed authority area. A water authority has the power to regulate the permitting of any new wells for high capacity residential, municipal, industrial and commercial users. The authority can monitor and conserve ground water and protect important ground water recharge areas within the authority. Existing wells at current usage levels are not affected. Also, wells serving agricultural uses along with residential wells that serve less than four single-family homes are exempt from regulation.

Water authorities currently exist throughout the State of Illinois, mostly in central Illinois. The Illinois Water Authority Association located in Havana, Illinois represents many of the current authorities.

Water authorities work directly with other state and local governmental units and
enter into intergovernmental agreements in carrying out its duties. A-LAW already has the support of the DeKalb, Boone and McHenry County Farm Bureaus. The Soil and Water Districts in each County has also supported the creation of an authority. Also, the McHenry County Defenders have endorsed this effort.

Here's my initial take on the proposal, including who would support and who would support it.

Labels: A-LAW, Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority

For some time I have been trying to pin down the amount of money that won’t be in the Crystal Lake city budget because of the Village of Lakewood’s deciding to start its own fire department.

This week I received a response to my second Freedom of Information request and it looks like Crystal Lake’s budget will take almost a $500,000 hit.

Lakewood was “assessed” $464,577.67 in 2006.

In addition, $31,973 has been collected so far from health benefit plans for ambulance service We all know how long it can take for such payments to be made, so I figure a bit more trickle in.

The amount would have been more in 2007.

That’s because the formula is based on assessed valuation and assessed valuation goes up each year.

For example, the township multipliers are increasing 4.88% Algonquin Township and 4.83% in Grafton Township. That means everyone’s real estate assessment goes up that much.

But, that ignores new construction.

When new houses and additions are added in, Lakewood’s assessed valuation has been increasing about 17% a year.

So, Crystal Lake is probably losing about $575,000 for 2007.

But, wait. That doesn’t consider the ramp-up in price, Crystal Lake wanted.

“We projected that next year, if they got the increase they wanted, our bill to the city (of Crystal Lake) would have been $768,591,” Lakewood Finance Director Wendy Gregoria told me.

Lakewood, on the other hand, is paying American Emergency Service Corporation $727,852 for the first year, she explained.

= = = = =
Photo was taken of loading the hose was taken the last Saturday of December, 2006, after Chief Tony Huemann's first briefing of those joining the Lakewood Fire Department.

Below is a Crystal Lake City Hall sunset taken January 7, 2007.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake City Hall, Lakewood Fire Department, Sunset, Wendy Gregoria

A press release from 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo:

Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced that Christopher Fleming of Cary, Illinois, has received an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Christopher will graduate this spring from Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake. At Prairie Ridge, Christopher is on the high honor role and pursues Honors and Advanced Placement courses. He is a member of the Spanish National Honors Society, a leader of his school's mentoring program, and a member of the St. Thomas the Apostle youth group. In addition, Christopher is a member of the Pubic Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS) program and donates his time planning meals at the homeless shelter.

Christopher is Captain of the Varsity Track Team and a member of the Varsity Cross Country Team. He also played football and wrestled at Prairie Ridge.

Christopher is the son of Tom and Janet Fleming of Cary.

I couldn't resist posting the kind of sunset that Chis might see his first week at the Air Force Academy. We vactioned in Colorado Springs for ten days that week two summers ago. (Looks like I caught some posting garbage, too. Sorry.)

Labels: 16th Congressional District, Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Junkets. Don Manzullo, Prairie Ridge High School, Sunset

Although John and Alice Pullen were not married on Valentine’s Day, it seems like a good time to put up their wedding cake topper as a “Message of the Day.”

I asked daughter Penny what it was made from.

She first thought it was made out of plaster of Paris.

“It’s made out of netting,” she observed, looking at its base. Then she said, “It’s something ‘foodish.’ The figurines are painted with an artist’s brush.

“There’s some kind of sugar in it,” Penny told me. As she looked at the bottom, a piece flaked off. She tasted it.

“Probably some kind of hardened sugar paste, “she concluded.

The older twin daughter is named Pam Reed.

John Pullen married Alice McConkey June 11, 1945.

Obviously, she loved her sailor boy. They were married for 48 years before John passed away.

Penny reminds me that he was a minesweeper captain.

= = = = =
I remember my mother playing "Bell Bottom Sailors" on the piano and singing me the words. From RootsWeb.com I found a Mary Ann from Michigan had posted some of them

Bell Bottom Trousers
Coat of Navy Blue
She loved her Sailor Boy
and he loved her too...

She is searching for words from "a poignant song that came out near the end of that war about the Solomons,,,or the Marianas. Is there an old vet on this list who may recall words of a song about the men who fell in the invasion of those islands?"

Labels: Bell Bottom Sailor, Sailor, Wedding cake

Now that Mayor Richard Daley’s administration is policing itself , guess it’s OK if President George W. Bush fires U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Can’t you just hear that as a reason it is time to put in a replacement more acceptable to the “powers that be?”

Needless to say, I disagree.

Labels: George W. Bush, Patrick Fitzgerald

As I was shoveling the driveway, that was what was running through my mind.

But, that’s really not the real question.

The real question is

Will Mormons save the Illinois Republican Party?

I know they can.

At least in suburban Chicago and parts of Downstate.

I lived in Salt Lake City in the 1950’s.

This is the best-organized church in the country.

And its leaders know how to motivate people.

Maybe this isn’t true, but what I picked up as a Boy Scout in Utah was that the Church of Latter Day Saints knew how to motivate their young men to achieve the Eagle Scout Award. The rumor was the boys couldn’t play basketball at the stake houses until they earned it.

In any event, their troops produced a massive number of Eagle Scouts.

If Mormons in Illinois buy into the Mitt Romney campaign for president, local Republican organizations could be energized like they haven’t been since Jim Thompson ran for governor in 1976.

I’m hoping Romney supporters are smart enough to encourage people to run for Republican precinct committeemen outside of Cook County. That only takes ten signatures, although I’d recommend getting 20.

In Cook County any township or ward committeeman would be nuts to turn down anyone volunteering to be a precinct captain.

I’ll bet no one is willing to argue that the Illinois Republican Party doesn’t need a massive infusion of new talent.

And here’s where it could come from.

Labels: Illinois Repubilcan Party, Mitt Romney, Morman

One of the questions asked at the fire department mutual assistance governing board meeting when Lakewood Fire Chief Tony Huemann requested admission for the Village of Lakewood’s new fire department concerned how much Lakewood would be able to help neighboring departments.

The implication seemed to be that Lakewood would need more help that it would give.

While generation of such a report was not included with other requirements, it got me interested in how self-sufficient the Crystal Lake Fire Department is.

Earlier the city told me that Crystal Lake received assistance 288 times during 2006, while giving assistance to other communities 157 times.

So, for every time Crystal Lake helped out beyond the city’s boundaries, it got help 1.8 times.

I think it would be reasonable to conclude that Crystal Lake is not self-sufficient as far as fire protection goes.

But, then again, no fire department is.

That’s why the mutual assistance organization was set up.

When I looked at the summary numbers, another question popped into my head:

What proportion of the calls were for medical and what portion were for fires?

So, I filed another Freedom of Information request.

I’m pretty surprised at the answer:

Regarding your request for MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) assistance and ambulance calls, the City of Crystal Lake does not have a document that differentiates between fire calls and ambulance calls.

Maybe I asked the wrong question again, but it would seem to me that the information I requested would be a pretty basic management tool.

In 2005, even this information is unavailable.

Labels: Crystal Lake Fire Department, MABAS, Mutual Aid Box Alarm System

That’s better than yesterday, Keely Cat

At least you are looking out the window.

No McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collector will sneak into the back yard this night.

Of course, they are probably at home since it’s so late.

But, you never can tell.

The moon is so bright.

They might try a night raid.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Today, you get something left over from Christmas.

It’s on a package, but can be used as an ornament on a Christmas tree.

Its an oval carving of a brown haired girl holding blue flowers.

Underneath, it says,

THANK YOU

On the back it says,

Katrinaland 2006

WILLOW TREE
Thank you

DEMDACO Susan Lordi

Appreciating your kindness

And where did I find this?

At the home of Pam Reed and her sister Penny Pullen. Reed edited the book, "Stories from Katrinaland – God Responds to Disaster in New Orleans."

Labels: Katrina

And, here it is.

Here’s the summary he offers (with emphasis from the original):

Brett Hopkins, a life-long resident of Crystal Lake, has been a member of the Crystal Lake Plan Commission for 6 years. Most recently, Brett has been appointed to the combined Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission.

During his tenure on the Planning and Zoning Commission, Brett has been an advocate of controlled growth within the city. He believes that maintaining Crystal Lake’s attractiveness through quality construction and the preservation of precious open space will retain the city’s unique charm. His desire to serve on the City Council is an outgrowth of that philosophy.

Brett campaigns on his integrity and sincerity, his leadership and dedication to his community and his proven experience with the processes involved in city government.

Brett is a member of the First United Methodist Church in Crystal Lake and has volunteered his time for numerous organizations within the city. Brett currently resides in the north end of town with his wife Tina and their four children.

His first fund raiser will be a $25 one at the Olde Towne Hall in Downtown Crystal Lake from 7-10 PM on Friday, March 2nd.

Here's where you can find his platform.

He wants to revitalized the Virginia Street and Downtown shopping areas and retain existing businesses and recruit technology and manufacturing firms.

Hopkins wants to

Encourage diverse, high quality housing in appropriate locations throughout the city that supports a variety of lifestyles that compliment the city’s charm and character.

He “advocates growth control as a means of avoiding urban sprawl and gridlock…”

Hee's where the family lives.

= = = = =
Photo is from Brett Hopkins' campaign web site.

Labels: Brett Hopkins, Crystal Lake City Council

The Illinois Republican Party failed to pin the tail on three donkeys.

An ex post facto rule seems to have saved the two federal legislators.

U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama and U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., are off the Federal Elections Commission hook with which Illinois Republicans tried to catch them for primary endorsements of then-State Treasurer candidate Alex Giannoulias in radio ads and billboards.

The GOP charged that the use of non-federal funds for the radio ads and a billboard in which Jackson endorsed Giannoulias “constituted electioneering communications and coordinated communications that were financed with non-Federal funds.”

According to its email,

The Commission concluded that

• the radio advertisement did not qualify as an electioneering communication and
• was not a coordinated communication with respect to Senator Obama.

I certainly do not know what “electioneering communication” means in FEC-speak, but it seems to me that all political radio ads are “electioneering communications.”

And, so are political billboards.

Perhaps someone more conversant with Federal rules than I can enlighten us.

The FEC

exercised its prosecutorial discretion and dismissed the coordination allegation against Congressman Jackson on the grounds that a regulation enacted four months after the airing of the radio advertisement exempts the complained-of activity from the coordination regulations.

Let’s see.

It was illegal for Jesse Jackson, Jr., to do what he did when he did it, but, if he had done it four months later, it would have been legal.

Case dismissed.

Oh, now I understand.

John Tsarpalas filed the complaint.

Nice try, John.

Labels: Alex Giannoulias, Barack Obama, FEC, Illinois Repubilcan Party, Jesse Jackson Jr., John Tsarpalas, k Obama

It’s been a little over five weeks since the Village of Lakewood started its own fire department.

So, I thought it was time to see what the firemen had done.

Village Administrator Catherine Peterson filled me in

“Since January 1st, through last Thursday, Lakewood residents have used its new fire department 24 calls,” she told me.

There were 11 ambulance calls:

• 7 advanced life support (on the way to the hospital) and
• 4 either “released” (where people calling decided going to hospital was not needed) or “basic life support” (more minimal care on an ambulance).

"There were six residential fire alarms, all false alarms,” she continued.

“Two open burning complaints.

“The Department responded to two motor vehicle accidents.”

There was one mutual aid response.

“A tanker truck was sent to the big fire in Hebron,” Peterson said. “It went with three individuals and we had five paid-on-call firemen replace them.

"It worked just like we planned,” Peterson observed.

“And, we had an arcing overhead wire to which the department responded.

"And a carbon monoxide detector went off, but no one was ill."


= = = = =
The photo of the tanker truck, purchased from Marengo, had not been painted with Lakewood's name when I took the photo in late December.

Labels: Catherine Peterson, Hebron, Lakewood Fire Department, Marengo

I used the web site HowManyOfMe.com allows you to find out how many people have my name.

Just one "Cal Skinner."

Try it yourself.


Thanks to Respublica for finding it before I did.

The townships of Richmond and Burton are playing with the big boys now.

They’ve taken on the Village of Richmond and the Tax Increment Financing crowd.

First, Richmond Township government’s representative on the Joint Review Board voted, “No.”

That’s so different from the McHenry County Board and McHenry County College, who in a manner that will increase the taxes of everyone in McHenry County with the TIF Tax Shift.

This is as good a place as any to apologize to Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler, who sent a letter opposing Crystal Lake’s Main Street TIF.

I suggested that a letter was fine, but if Crystal Lake city council tried to deprive local schools and parks of more revenue through another TIF that he should come in person to the Joint Review Board and vote “No.”

He understands the tax shift and certainly did more than Algonquin Township’s nothing.

But, back to the proposed Richmond.TIF.

Northwest Herald reporter Jullian Compton wrote a story about the Richmond Township’s board having voted to put an advisory referendum on the April ballot.

Good for them.

The article indicates that it had some effect on the village trustees. They have an item on the agenda to consider withdrawing the TIF proposal at next week’s meeting.

The article also notes that Burton Township has put the same question on its ballot, even though the TIF district is not in Burton Township.

That action recognizes that TIF districts affect people who live outside the municipality that wants to create it.

Just as my Lakewood home’s taxes will increase because of the three Crystal Lake TIF districts, residents of Spring Grove will see their school taxes increase if the Village of Richmond approves the proposed TIF.

School folks either started or added wind to the prairie fire of opposition by sending out a newsletter opposed to the TIF.

I suspect that aggrieved citizens laid the groundwork for all of the opposition.

My congratulations to them for great grassroots’ activity, both door-to-door and over the internet.

Labels: Burton Township, Richmond, Richmond Township, Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

All three daily newspapers have taken whacks at the Carpentersville School District 300 Board.

None have mentioned the school board elections until Sunday.

That’s when Elgin’s Courier News editor Mike Bailey gave more than a clue.

His weekly column had a fairly neutral headling:

Anti-incumbent mood here

About three-fourths of the way through the column, Bailey writes,

Incumbent school board members face well-deserved and more virulent voter wrath.

In District 300, the board and administration, through dubious claims of near insolvency and ensuing chaos, rammed through a very costly referendum. Trusting voters now learn revenue projections were artificially low and enrollment will be substantially less, meaning that as suspected, the need was exaggerated to create urgency.

In U46 (Elgin), it would be difficult to find a more egregious breach of public trust than committed by incumbent board members. While most U46 employees were given minimal raises, classroom sizes increased, aides eliminated and programs slashed, huge and unreasonable raises, pay and benefits were lavished on its superintendent and administrative staff. Nowhere can a more deceitful, insulting and avaricious contempt of the public’s trust be found.

So, how many incumbents in District 300 do you think the Elgin paper will endorse for re-election?

Labels: District 300, Elgin School District, U46

Get out of the Monopoly box top.

You need to be alert for the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Cat Dad hears they gathered in Lakemoor last Saturday night to plot strategy.

So, keep on the alert.

And pick up those houses and the die you dropped on the floor.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Am I just overreacting or isn’t it bit early to see Christmas presents being promoted?

I probably should hold my 9-year-old responsible (or his mother) for getting me on the Lego email list.

So, what arrives Monday?

A promotion for an “Exclusive First Edition” with “individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, only available until the first production quantity is gone.”

What’s being promoted?

“The ultimate Mellennium Falcon!” (Sorry, but I don’t know how to get the little Trade Mark “TM” symbol to appear above the line before the exclamation mark.)

“Will ship by 10/1/07.”

Does that sound like a Christmas item or not?

It’s over 5,000 pieces!

But it costs $499.99

Oh, yes.

If you order by March 31st, you get free shipping.

And

Limit 5 per customer

No lie.

But, “every detail…is here.”

And it’s almost three feet long.

And, there are miniatures of many of the characters.

Only 10,157 available.

Labels: Lego, Millennium Falcon

This is the first tee shirt I have seen commemorating a Bar Mitzvah.

I found it at a Mt. Prospect swim meet at which the McHenry Marlins were participating.

It says,

ROBERT ROCKS
and shows

• a young man playing a guitar,
• a tennis net, ball and racket,
• Stars of David,
• a hockey player,
• a soccer ball and
  
• a Star of David with a youth studying the Torah

beneath the illustrations is

AT HIS BAR MITZVAH
May 10, 2003

Labels: Bah Mitzvah, T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

This February if the temperature gets into the 20’s, it’s a heat wave.

As I was shoveling our driveway this morning it was so much more comfortable that when I was doing it at 3 degrees.

Yes, I admit the scenery is beautiful.

It’s like living in a park in this part of Lakewood.

Looking at evergreens my neighbor Walt Southern planted so many years ago, I am reminded that a retired postman, who he was, can’t afford to live on South Shore Drive anymore. (Yes, I know his address was 225 Meridian. I get delivery and repair people all the time driving up my Meridian Street driveway looking for the neighbor’s house.)

We are definitely in the teardown, add-on or build-over stage in this suburb of Crystal Lake.

But, it is beautiful all year round.

Now that my son can’t go ice skating, I wonder if he will still want me to buy him skates.

Maybe he’ll want to build a snow cave out of the pile of snow I made shoveling the driveway.

Labels: Heat Wave, Lakewood, Snow storm

Every week the number of people who have looked at the YouTube posting of Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley creeps up.

When I looked Sunday, 77 had looked at it. Those viewing the extended version is up to 33.

If you would like the background, here’s where you can find it.

The amazing thing about Shepley’s reiteration that the council would not use condemnation on properties in the Vulcan Tax Increment Financing district is that the Crystal Lake City Council, with Councilman Howie Christensen absent, two months before what you hear on this video.

I first heard him make the promise eleven months before.

Cellini, whom people at the meeting said was clearly in charge, made the presentation four days before Stuart (the Crystal Lake Mercy Hospital fixer guy) Levine's plea agreemeent. Newspapers subsequently said that Cellini was named as Individual A. (My work on the 1971 Springfield mayoral campaign with him is in the same linked story.)

At the end of the month Cellini's firm wrote a letter saying he would not be involved in the project. I thought it strange that the person most likely to pull off what the city wants would be allowed to leave the team.

= = = = =
I put a bit more information is this so I moved it up on the blog.

Labels: Aaron Shepley, Bill Cellini, Mercy Hospital, Stuart Levine, TIF, Vulcan Lakes

With the temperature 25 degrees warmer than this past week, a few brave souls, including my son, ventured out on the frozen water of Crystal Lake.

This is the day that golfers played on a course laid out on Crystal Lake. I caught some of them across the lake from Gate 3 in Lakewood after church.

After taking ordering some pictures of Cub Scout Pack 158’s Blue and Gold Dinner, we drove by the Main Beach and my 9-year old asked if we could walk out on the ice.

“Sure,” I said. (Understand that I am not a cold weather devotee.)

We walked out as others were playing hockey and ice-skating.

I was too cold soon enough after my son had showed me bubbles under the ice that looked like jelly fish, thought he found a fish under about (or frozen into) about 8-10 inches of ice, and sliding like a steel puck on the hardwood surface of a basement shuffle board game.

I took some pictures of hockey players. A sophomore on the South High School hockey team was teaching some of the youths with sticks tricks of the game.

And, I learned that one family had been on a hockey team near Tampa, of all places.

I also learned that District 155 does not consider hockey a school sport, even though three of the four high schools apparently have full teams and even junior varsity teams. The young man explained that although he had to keep up his grades to stay on the team, the school system doesn’t subsidize the sport the way it does football, basket ball, golf, etc.

That seems strange to me.

As I was warming myself outside the concession area of the Main Beach House, my son stayed outside with other kids without ice skates, just enjoying the work of the park district employees I wrote about previously.

He came in insisting I go buy him ice skates immediately.

Now, I know where to find new skates, but you know how fast children’s feet grow. A mother suggested Play It Again Sam’s and I told the insistent one we could go look tomorrow afternoon after school.

He then asked if he could go out on the snow, where the guys had earlier played golf, because some of his newly made friends were out there.

With the ice being as thick as it is, I again said, “Sure,” but “Don’t be gone too long.”

Eventually, even he got cold and came in to warm up, ready to go home.

Almost forgot.

Lots of folks were at the Raue Center where local talent like Jim May, the story teller, were being featured.

As we drove past on the way to Sam's Club some emergency was being handled by the Crystal Lake Fire Department.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Fire Department, Golf, Hockey, Raue Center, South High School

From friend of the blog McHampster comes this message:

All candidates and taxpayers please note that on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 6pm, at D300 offices, Dist. 300 administration is holding a meeting with CBC, CFC, SBC, Board Members and Finance Committee members in attendance to discuss the potential use of Premium Bonds.

My personal e-mail invitation reads:

"If at all possible please try to attend the meeting as we would really appreciate your input on this matter.

"The Board will be hearing about the options at their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night at 7:30 pm at Westfield School so if you are unable to attend Tuesday night you may wish to attend the meeting on Monday night.

"However, there is no time for input or questions from the audience and that is why the Tuesday meeting will give us every opportunity to answer any questions. SBC members are welcome to attend. The Board will not be acting on this till their February 26th Board meeting."

I think it imperative that candidates familiarize themselves with this issue.

Labels: District 300, Premium Bonds

The day before the Chicago Tribune’s front page story about the trouble people are having with frozen pipes, a trencher showed up at the house across Lake Avenue from ours.

It couldn’t have been a broken water pipe, because we all have wells in Country Club editions or “The Gates,” as newcomers and real estate agents have stared calling our 400+ home subdivision between the Crystal Lake Country Club and Crystal Lake.

So, it must have been a sewage line.

Since the neighbor’s home is newer than ours and we had no problems, I can only guess that our sewer line is below the frost line and theirs wasn’t.

What a problem to have a couple of weeks into one of the coldest spells I can remember!

No way to get rid of water.

Roto Rooter is doing the job and was there a full day with two trucks before the digging began.

They took the weekend off.

And now that it has turned 25 degrees warmer (28 degrees on Sunday afternoon-a veritable heat wave) , maybe they will be able to finish the job today.

Labels: Country Club Additions, Frozen pipes, Heat wave, Lakewood

70 people attended the meeting initiated by McHenry County Board member Tina Hill, according to Daily Herald reporter Patrick Garmoe’s article.

The headline is

Crowd wants action on water

The article points out that the McHenry County Board has spent $683,000 on three water studies since 1991.

County Board Chairman Ken Koehler is the only one quoted from the meeting. Here’s how Garmoe put it:

Koehler agreed that something — perhaps even a water authority — is needed, but said the county board should be in charge of the issue, and it should include only McHenry County.

“Yes, we need some sort of agency in charge of water,” Koehler said.

So, I guess the message is that if you trust the McHenry County Board, don’t vote for A-LAW’s Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority.

Meanwhile, Northwest Herald reporter Kevin Craver was in DeKalb covering efforts of the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water to get the issue on the ballot in April.

The court arguments are now over and Judge Kurt Klein has promised a ruling on Feb. 14th, which Craver notes is Valentine’s Day.

The NW Herald reporter explains what a Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority could mean to McHenry County:

If approved by voters, the authority would have the power to regulate future high-capacity wells in the three counties, which could make it a powerful check on growth. Its proposed borders, however, exclude nine cities and eastern McHenry County.

Who is the fight between?

Craver says,

Supporters say the boundaries are necessary to give rural residents a water voice, especially with some projections of dire future shortages. Opponents, however, said the alliance gerrymandered the cities out to ensure that the referendum passes.

It is interesting that both the water authority and the McHenry County Conservation District’s $73 million bond issue will be on the ballot. The campaign for passage has already begun.

In the past MCCD land purchases have been argued to slow down growth.

That’s exactly what opponents of the water authority are now saying.

Obviously, the Conservation District has not slowed down growth.

(If someone thinks otherwise, I would be please to publish his or her thoughts. Just email them to McHenryCountyBlog@comcast.net.)

The water authority will cost 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for those not in the eastern tier of townships, Grafton Township, Harvard, Marengo and Woodstock.

The Conservation District’s bond issue will cost everyone in McHenry County a tax hike of about 4 cents per $100. That’s a 27% increase in what we are paying now to MCCD.

Labels: Ken Koehler, Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority, McHenry County Board., McHenry County Conservation District, Tina Hill

From a commenter on Illinois Review to Steve Stanek's critique of Tax Increment Financing district (see also his "modest proposal" to force citeis to allow schools to impose educational TIFs).

Cal, you and Mr. Stanek are off base on this

Below is comment I put in an earlier comentary to you:

TIF were organized on the basis of strict "But For" principles. Because of the extraordinary costs of redevelopment, nothing would take place without the subsidy available through the TIF mechanism.

Among the But For reasons were the inability to assemble property, the condition of the soils themselves, the necessary movement of gas and oil pipelines and electric lines. The construction costs of infrastructure in the area.

TIFs have been used for three purposes: to attract industry, to develop property for commercial use, to ugrade residential property. Each of the three can succeed only by increasing the assessed value of the properties within the TIF.

For the rest of the article, click here.

Labels: Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

“If you McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors think I am nervous, think again.”

“The only reason my eyes are open is that Cat Dad is taking a picture.”

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

What the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors don’t understand is that cat people are invested in their cats.

How much?

This pillow says,

Dogs have masters

Cats have staff

The message is in time consuming needlework.

And, here's the evidence.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax, needlework, Pillow

The Northwest Herald ran a story Wednesday that ought to put those interested in protecting Crystal Lake’s watershed on alert.

McHenry County College is planning an almost $100 million expansion.

It will require passage of a referendum unless a miracle occurs.

Such a miracle might be in the offing, if you read this the way I do:

college President Walter J. Packard said he expected that private partners would help fund an expansion that likely would include a new health and wellness center.

Maybe the Crystal Lake Park District will be one of the “private partners.” It has land across Route 14 lying fallow.

My guess is that the cost will be between 5 and 10-cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation (probably closer to 10 cents), if MCC goes to referendum.

But Wednesday’s article outlines how Crystal Lake’s watershed ordinance attempts to protect the spring-fed lake by limiting buildings and parking lots to 20% of the property being built upon.

It is my understanding that MCC is at least at the 20% level right now.

But they’re talking buying more property.

Of course, MCC could follow the example of Carpentersville industrialist Jack Roeser and put in water permeable parking lots (either brick pavers or asphalt with oil filtration systems underneath, promising never to use salt).

But, then reporter Nick Swedberg writes this:

Mayor Aaron Shepley said the expansion could be an opportunity to improve the condition of the underground aquifer feeding Crystal Lake.

While the college might be able to build beyond the limits of the ordinance, new technology might be available help maintain clean spring water running into the lake, Shepley said.

Call me suspicious, but I’m curious just what that means.

And discussions with Crystal Lake seem to have proceeded pretty far.

Here’s what Northwest Herald reporter Grant Jaskulski wrote Thursday about MCC President Walter Packard’s comments:

the Campus Master Facility Plan includes an option to buy 57 acres straddling Tartan Drive to the northwest of the campus. If the college can get the clearance on the water ordinance, then it will propose buying this land.

I was hoping to be able to ask MCC Board President Donna Kurtz some questions when she came to Crystal Lake Kiwanis’ Wednesday luncheon at Colonial Cafe, but, through some misunderstanding, she did not come.

Maybe next time.

Labels: Aaron Shepley, Donna Kurtz, McHenry County College, Poster. Crystal Lake Park District

The Waukegan News-Sun has the story.

Sophomore U.S. Congresswoman Melissa Bean has been appointed to head the Subcommittee on Finance and Tax of the Committee on Small Business.

That reminds me of what Newt Gingrich told those gathered at a fund raiser for first term Congressman Don Manzullo at Mimi and Perry Moy’s Bull Valley home in 1994. Gingrich said that if the Republicans won he looked forward to appointing Don Manzullo to a subcommittee chairmanship.

And he did.

Manzullo got appointed to chair the Subcommittee on Procurement, Exports and Business Opportunities.

Now, following Gingrich’s example, newly elected Democratic Party House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has done the same for Bean. She has been appointed to chair the Subcommittee on Finance and Tax of the Committee on Small Business.

Except, it's less important.

It sounds like the same subcommittee Manzullo chaired, but the exports jurisdiction past is missing.

Pelosi also named Bean to a committee that will get her lots of taxpayer-funded junkets to Europe and, maybe, beyond.

She has been named one of twelve congressmen to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. February 19th is the first.

Bean criticized Republican Congressman Phil Crain, whom she beat in 2004, for taking privately-funded junkets.

Labels: Junkets. Don Manzullo, Melissa Bean, Phil Crane

Looks like the compensation estimate of Elgin School Board member Dan Rich resigned after he voted to raise School Superintendent Connie Neale was low.

It’s not $400,000.

It’s $420,000.

That’s what Daily Herald reporter Emily Krone has discovered.

And, if the school board backs down, Superintendent Neale will be making “only” $360,000.

How sad.

And what was Neale’s source for claiming she was only the 40th highest paid superintendent in Illinois?

It was Jack Roeser’s Family Taxpayers Network data base at TheChampion.Org, where you can find out what any teacher in Illinois is paid.

Or should I say, it reports the income reported to the Downstate Teachers Retirement Fund, that is, it is the income upon which folks in that system base pensions.

Here is the site which school folks hate being used to justify a whopping pay increase in Elgin.

That’s irony for you.

It probably also explains why the web site gets to many internet hits.

Labels: Connie Neale, Elgin School District, Family Taxpayers Network, U46

As hiding places go, Keely, the drawn is not bad.

It would be better if you would shut it a bit, however.

Maybe when the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors come they won’t be able to find you in there.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

I would assume that the adult wearing this tee shirt at a McHenry Marlins swim meet does not agree with the views of most Democrats on the Iraq War.

His tee shirt says,

These Colors

Don’t Run

An American flag is seen flying between the two lines of words.

Labels: American flag, Iraq War, T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

A friend of McHenry County Blog sent me the results of the ballot order lottery conducted by Algonquin Village Clerk Jerry Kauz this morning.

With 5 candidates vying for 3 spots on the Algonquin village board ballot order might make some difference in the outcome.

A study I read while in graduate school at the University of Michigan showed that with long ballots,

• 1st place on the ballot was worth 10%,
• with 2nd and last being worth an extra 5%.
• The worst place was next to last. That depressed the candidate’s votes by about 5%.

So, while it’s unlikely that that ballot placement in a 5-person race will make a lot of difference, it probably will make some.

And, the winner is…

Steve Serafin

The ballot will look like this after this morning’s lottery:

• Steve Serafin
• John Spella
• Steve Kaniewski
• Debbie Sosine
• Jim Steigert

Spella and Steigert are incumbents.

Serafin ran unsuccessfully for Dundee Township Supervisor in the 2005 Republican Primary.

Although he won the right to be listed first on the ballot, he acknowledged being listed first is no guarantee for electoral success.

“It comes down to whose going to work the hardest, going door-to-door, to determine who will win.”

Labels: Algonquin, Ballot order, Ballot position, Debbie Sosine, Jim Steigert, John Spella, Steve Kaniewski, Steve Serafin

TIF fighter Steve Stanek is from McHenry, but has a wide reach because he is Managing Editor of Budget & Tax News, a national monthly publication of The Heartland Institute. Yesterday he laid out academic findings of the failure of TIFs.

Now, Stanek came up with the “modest proposal.”

Here's a thought:

Maybe we should create Tax Increment Education districts that force municipalities to give up any increases in property taxes within the attendance boundaries of a school that creates a TIE, just as TIF districts force schools (and other local governments) to give up increases in property taxes.

Because municipalities have many revenue sources in addition to property taxes, municipalities would also have to give schools future growth in sales taxes, motor fuel taxes, utility taxes, building permit fees, etc., apportioned based on the population within the TIE boundaries.

Municipal officials would have no way to stop school districts, just as school officials have no way to stop municipalities from creating TIF districts. And a TIE district could last 23 years, the same as a TIF district.

How about it, municipal officials?

Want to give up nearly a quarter century of future tax revenues for your schools, the way you force schools (and other local governments) to give up nearly a quarter century of future tax revenues for your TIF projects?

Isn’t turnabout fair play?

TIF was meant to help blighted communities get a leg up to attract new development. Think burned-out and run-down neighborhoods in Chicago, East St. Louis, etc.

Corporations and municipal officials soon twisted that aim to their own aims. The leg up truly poor neighborhoods badly need has been wiped out by wealthy and fast-growing areas, such as McHenry County, that use TIF.

I've heard Huntley--one of the fastest-growing communities in the region--is talking about another TIF, and they already have one of the worst TIF abuses in Illinois.

The shopping center at Route 47 and the tollway is a TIF. People complain about "welfare queens" and think nothing of giving millions of dollars to wealthy developers and businesses they favor.

Even the hacks who defend TIF acknowledge that TIF shifts tax burdens, yet they make the absurd argument that TIF does not raise taxes.

Try shifting your future increases in property tax burden onto your next-door neighbor.

The total amount of tax collected from your two homes would be the same, so there'd be no net tax increase, but your neighbor would end up paying his full property tax bill in addition to some of yours.

Try telling your neighbor this would not be a tax increase for him and a subsidy for you.

= = = = =
If you have never read Jonathan Swift's 1729 "Modest Proposal," I would recommend doing so.

Labels: Modest Proposal, Steve Stanek, Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

School kids from throughout McHenry County got a chance to see the New York-based traveling version of the musical "The Suessical" Friday in Downtown Crystal Lake.

Silly me. I thought I might be able to get some pictures, at least back stage, but I waited too long to call Technical Director Roman Jahnke.

I had it on the calendar long enough ahead of time, but didn’t get inspired until my 3rd grade son had dressed in long underwear—his first—to make the wait to get in the Raue Center theater more endurable.

In the back hall I mistook one of three bird girls for Maisy, but was corrected by one of the show’s support staff.

As I waited in the lobby for Jahnke, I saw one little girl—from South Elementary School, I think—looking around.

“It’s amazing!” she said.

I went outside, hoping to find The "Suessical" on the Marquee, but it wasn’t there.

I did get a shot of some Glacier Ridge children and some who had driven all the way down from Richmond-Burton High School but I guess my computer is too full of other pictures, because it won't download from the camera; I added them later). They were in the Alternative Life Program (and I think there was an “S” I can’t remember) program.

The whole back row was empty, so I was invited to stick around until after the show was over when Jahnke said he would try to find the person in charge after he finished loading the kids back in the buses.

I got a chance to look at the Hospice photographs in the waiting areas. They were quite touching.

When he went looking for the manager, everyone had left the building for their hour off between shows.

Oh, well.

The lesson about asking ahead of time is now impressed upon my brain.

When I picked up my son, I asked him which performance of the Suessical he liked the most.

We first saw it at the Woodstock Opera House within a year of the end of its national run and, then again, last year at Navy Pier.

He said this one was best.

“Maysie’s tail was better in this one,” the junior critic observed. “Maysie’s tail was really cool.”

Asked about the long underwear that Mom bought especially for this event, he said, “It was helpful.”

And that "Chocolate Fantasy Evening" on the Marquee?

My wife and a friend went from store to store Friday night getting tasty little goodies. The cost was $10. A bit of 100 participated in this Downtown Crystal Lake promotion. They expect more next year.

= = = = =
The cast was as follows:

Bird Girl # 1 - Louise Gassman
Bird Girl # 2 - Kay Trinidad
Bird Girl # 3/ Mrs. Mayor - Mallory Hawks
Cat in the Hat - Krista Kurtzberg
Gertrude McFuzz - Steffy Gavin
Horton - Jeffrey Zoma
Jojo - Ryan Bogner
Maysie - Jenn Seracuse
Sour Kankeroo - Elizabeth Priestly
Wickersham Brother # 1/ Mr. Mayor - Jeremy Chase
Wickersham Brother # 2 - Anton Briones
Wickersham Brother # 3 - Kennen Butler

And beneath the cast listing is

The taking of photographs and/or making visual or sound recordings is expressly prohibited.

Labels: Chocolate Fantasy Evening, Raue Center, South School, Suessical

In Virginia.

So, I’m sure the McHenry County Cat Tax Collectors on the County Board will be holding Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass’ Thursday’s column high when the vote comes to require all McHenry County cats, except those most likely to contract rabies—farm cats—to be vaccinated against rabies.

What difference does it make that the rabid cat was a 15 hour car trip away or the county veterinarian knows of no rabid cats in McHenry County.

If it moves, tax it.

"After all, we need the revenue."

"That’s the only reason we’re passing the ordinance anyway."

= = = = =
Quotes are imagined, but based on fact.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax, Rabies

“I am not like Keely Cat”

“I see that Keely Cat is trying to find a hiding place.”

“I’m not afraid of the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.”

“You might be able to spray some paint on my tail, if you are fast, but there’s no way you are going to catch me an put a tag around my neck.”

“I’m too fast.”

“I know Cal’s cat is trying to find a good hiding place.”

“I’ll rely on speed to get away from you Republican Cat Tax Collectors.”

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Here’s another tee shirt from a McHenry Marlins swim meet.

Worn by a junior high school student, it outlines,

I Didn’t Do My Homework Because…

I didn’t do my history homework because I don’t believe in dwelling on the past.

I didn’t want the other kids in the class to look bad.

I sudden gust of wind blew it out of my hand and I never saw it again.

Another pupil fell in the lake and I jumped in to rescue him. Unfortunately, my homework drowned.

Our furnace broke and we had to burn it to keep ourselves from freezing.

I’m not at liberty to say why.

I wanted to frame the detention letter you are about to give me.

It was destroyed in a freak accident involving a hippo, a toaster and a bag of frozen peas. You don’t want to know the details.

I have a solar powered calculator and it was cloudy.

My mom used it as a dryer sheet.

My agent won’t allow me to publish my homework until the movie deal is final.

I lost it fighting the kid who said you weren’t the best teacher I school.

I was abducted by green-skinned, three-eyed, pig-snouted space aliens and they incinerated my homework with their death rays.

I felt it wasn’t challenging enough.

My parents were sick, and unable to do my homework last night. Don’t worry, they have been punished.

We had homework?!

I see you lips moving, but all I hear is “blah, blah, blah.”

I didn’t want to add to your already heavy workload.

I spent the night at a rally supporting higher pay for our hard-working teachers.

It's written on a page of loose leaf, three-ring paper.

Labels: Homework, Pig, T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

Because I found Crystal Lake mayoral candidate Lori Phelp's biography intriguing on her web site, I have published it below.

As a lifelong resident, I remember being able to walk across a two-lane Route 14 without needing the traffic light to get across. I remember when we used to bring apples to the horses on the property at the corner of McHenry and Lake Avenues. I also remember when the southern edge of town was Lundahl Jr. High.

Then the one event happened that maybe started me thinking about politics. On November 22, 1963, I was one of the school kids in the neighborhood that walked home for lunch. I saw the shock and sadness on my mother's face, and was the one who brought the news back to South Elementary where in a matter of minutes, each classroom had a TV rolled in. We sat at our desks, a group of innocent young kids, watching the shock and numbness that unfolded.

Is this what life is about, I thought....surely this will pass, and our normal days of playing in the Crystal Lake sunshine will return and this type of devastating event will never happen again. But of course, we weren't that lucky. Like others my age, we grew up wondering why our friends big brothers were fighting in a world far away while college kids were seen every night on TV waving signs, burning our precious American flag, the flag we were taught to respect.

Born in 1955 to my lifelong Crystal Lake area parents, I grew up learning about community service. My mother would take me with her when she went around the neighborhood seeking donations for the March of Dimes. My dad was one that jumped into action to help the Colby neighborhood after the tornado hit in 1965. My father was always talking about city issues. He was the Chairman of the city Plan Commission. He took this role very seriously, and would encourage us to travel with him to view PUD shopping centers and townhouse complexes in other cities. I remember walking the empty grasslands off of Bard Road with him, discussing the potential development that wanted to annex to Crystal Lake, but annexed to Lakewood instead (Turnberry), because Lakewood wouldn't force them to install sidewalks or pay impact fees.

Then there was Main Beach, my favorite memories. I believe that Main Beach will always be the greatest asset our city has. Swimming, swinging, walking, boating, skating...always something for everyone, regardless of the season.

So over the years, I became an advocate for our park system, encouraging husband Dave to run for the Park Board in 1993, beginning his long term volunteer role of 4+ terms. This advocacy has led me to today and my desire to use my talents and education to serve our community in a positive way. I hope to facilitate a better working relationship between the City and the Park District.

Back to who I am... After my high school years, I ventured off to California to revel in my independence. I soon found out that life was really better back here in the Midwest and returned. I then began taking classes at McHenry County College while working full time for the City of Crystal Lake. Starting in the Finance Department/City Manager's department, I eventually became department secretary for the Planning and Engineering departments. I furthered my education of the municipal development process by recording the meeting minutes at Plan Commission and Zoning Board meetings.

After 5 years of working at the city and attending MCC one to two nights a week, I met my husband Dave, a Crystal Lake police officer. Even though we attended high school together, it took the "city" for us to meet. We married in 1983. With the difficult hours that patrolmen work, it was time to leave my full-time job at the city as love and children took precedence over my job with the city.

After a few years and our first child arriving, it was time for Dave to return to college and finish his bachelor's degree. I worked part time and took care of the family while Dave finished his Bachelor's degree. He then continued on to grad school, working towards a law degree during the day while working full time evenings, weekends and holidays at the Park District as their Chief of Police. Dave ushered their Ranger department into the fully accredited Police Department it is today.

After 4 1/2 years of Dave in college, with me being pretty much a single parent, Dave was finally finished with school. During this time, I started an embroidery business (first in downtown Crystal Lake, then moved to our home years later) which led to my existing business today of selling "Holloway" Sportswear/wool school jackets on our family-built website.

Besides juggling work, homeschooling our two daughters and taking care of our family while Dave worked night and day, my proudest accomplishments evolved over the past two years. I am only one CLEP exam away from earning a degree with high honors in Business Management from MCC.
During this time I also studied courses in Leadership, earning an MCC "Certificate of Leadership". My business grew by 1000% during my first full time semester in school which included a grueling schedule of 26 credit hours. The bonus wasn't the profit I made, it was the 4.0 that I earned during that whirlwind semester.

I am used to hard work, accomplished at managing my time well, and accustomed to devoting all my time and energy to achieving my goals.

Over the years, I've tried to stay involved with issues that concerned our community, such as fair lake usage and pursuing a community center/pool. As a hard working supporter, I have been an active participant in many local elections, including three mayoral elections. I made my own attempt at getting elected to the Board of District 47 in the mid-90's. My main platform involved incorporating character building skills into the school curriculum. While I was not successful, I was encouraged by many who asked me to stay involved in the community and the local political process.

I am currently a member of the Community Center Site Committee and have participated in pool/community center committee's in the past. While our children were growing up, I encouraged their participation in scouting, while I volunteered as a Girl Scout and Webelos Den leader. I helped my son and several of his fellow scouts earn their Eagle Badge and proudly served on Troop 168's Eagle Scout Board of Review committee.

Our son Jon is now a Junior in college, studying mechanical engineering. Daughter Kathryn has taken a year off from college to work, and will be back in school this fall.

With our youngest daughter Kelsey in high school, I volunteer when I can as a Central Booster Club volunteer. Service and volunteering is important to me whenever time permits. The word "vacation" rarely comes up in our house, but when it does, my favorite place to be is in the north woods of Wisconsin. I respect nature and want to do all that I can to promote conservation and environmental protection. Dave and I are members of "Republicans for Environmental Protection", a nationwide group that has its beginnings in our neighboring Lake County.

Writing "about me" was not easy as I'd much prefer to write about someone else. Thank you for taking the time to spend time learning about who I am!

Lori Phelps

Here's where you can find her web site.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Lori Phelps

There’s only one elected incumbent on the ballot—School Board President Mary Fioretti, who is from the McHenry County side of Algonquin.

Fioretti was also appointed as a Republican precinct committeeman by McHenry County Republican Chairman Bill LeFew. LeFew lives in Harvard.

Running against Fioretti is John Ryan, a Republican precinct committeeman who won the post at the ballot box. Ryan also lives in McHenry County’s Algonquin Township.

Ryan was savaged by Nancy Zettler of Advance 300 (the District 300 tax hike committee) when he wrote a constituent (he was an appointed GOP precinct committeeman then) what he thought about the school tax hike referendum.

Ryan also blew the whistle on the district 300 tax hike committee’s failure to report District 300 School Superintendent Ken Arndt’s $600 February 22nd contribution to Advance 300 prior to the referendum date, as was required by state law.

So, there is a built-in core of tax hiker opposition to Ryan’s gaining a seat at the school board table.

But, with the revelations that enrollment projections were widely exaggerated by District 300 and its tax hike committee and the illegal secret meetings to discuss moving the graduation location, the opponents to the close election are energized. The NW Herald even ran an editorial.

As reported earlier, perhaps not clearly enough, because of the Byzantine (and very anti-one-man, one-vote) law governing elections in District 300, both Fioretti and Ryan cannot win. No more than three can be elected from any township and two from Algonquin Township are already on the board and not up for re-election.

While there is no guarantee that either Ryan or Fioretti will win, I have previously handicapped Fioretti as the one more likely to be elected.

Northwest Herald reported David Fitzgerald has a “here’s who filed in School Dstirct 300” article Thursday. It’s a good start in figuring out which candidates favored the tax hikes and which didn’t.

Two non-elected incumbents—Joe Stevens and David Alessio--are running for election for the first time. Both were appointed. Of the two, Stevens, a retired hospital manager, is committed to making sure the money approved is spent well.

The NW Herald put it this way:

"Stevens, who said he voted for the referendums, said he would work to ensure that the district used the money wisely so that another ballot measure would not be needed for some time."

Both appointed incumbents voted for the teachers' contract.

Way on the other side of the referendum spectrum from referendum opponent John Ryan is former teachers’ union president Dennis Cleveland. He applied for the vacancy that Stevens got.

Another candidate, Chris Stanton, was active in Connect 300, part of the taxpayer-financed run-up to the tax hike referendums. He was nominated for a Dundee Township Public Library “Faces of Courage” award by District 300, so he probably is pretty District 300-friendly.

Joining Ryan in opposing the 55-cent tax hike is Hampshire State Farm Agent Monica Clark. She told the Herald that she was appalled at the way her daughter’s teachers pushed passage of the referendum.

Alfred Douglas, who lives in Rutland Township, previously served on the Cicero School Board. He told reporter Fitzgerald that he voted against the two referendums.

Also being out front about his opposition to the tax hike referendums is John Gott, the owner of machine shop in Carpentersville.

He told the Herald that “he was running for the board because he believed that he was being taxed out of his house to pay to educate illegal immigrants.”

So, four candidates,

• John Ryan
• Monica Clark
• Alfred Douglas and
• John Groth,

who are running for the school board, opposed last March’s referendums.

And four people are to be elected.

Can they turn the closest referendum result 52% to 48% for the tax rate hike referendum) into a victory?

That’s the question.

= = = = =
Photos: top right Mary Fioretti looking downward toward challenger John Ryan.

Below on the left are appointed board members Joe Stevens to the left and David Alessio to the right.

Labels: David Alessio, District 300, Joe Stevens, John Ryan, Mary Fioretti

Did you get your McHenry County Conservation District newsletter this week?

It’s called “Landscapes.”

I was impressed when I read about the 14 Whooping Cranes found at Glacial Park in 2006 in the black on cream-colored 36 page newsletter.

I guess I missed Board President Joe Gottemoller’s page 2 letter about the $ 73 million April 17th bond request referendum the first time through.

That’s up from the $68.5 million requested in 2001.

But I didn’t miss the four-page, four-color center fold.

It wasn’t Nichole Smith, but it was the most color I have seen in an MCCD newsletter in years.

But it will cost taxpayers more than the $88 million Smith got when she divorced oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall. (You do know that when the interest is added to the $73 million borrowed that it will cost almost twice as much as the face amount of this MCCD “mortgage” on your property, don’t you? It’s just like your home mortgage, just more zeros.)

Clearly, this was a special newsletter edition.

And, just as clearly, the campaign to convince us in McHenry County to vote for a 27% increase in the money going to the Conservation District has begun.

First comes this pitch, purely factual, of course, despite the lack of real need for the costly full color presentation of flora and fauna.

The first page, which I shall try to put up today, if Blogger will allow the posting of images today, is of the front page of the brochure. (If does not have numbered pages like page 16 before and 21 afterward, so don’t be surprised to see it show up elsewhere.)

It has a picture of bikers, an owl and a boy holding something.

About all it says is that MCCD has a “General Obligation Bond Referendum” with the date of the election and this:

• Open Space and Watershed Protection
• Wildlife Habitat Restoration
• Recreational Imrpovements

There's no mention of the 27% tax hike that will result if the referendum passes.

Labels: MCCD, McHenry County Conservation District, Tax Hike

I received the following email from Steve Stanek, a former Chicago Tribune and Northwest Herald reporter who is the first person I know who fought a Tax Increment Financing district’s formation in McHenry County. Stanek is now Managing Editor of Budget & Tax News, a national monthly publication of The Heartland Institute.

That first fight was in McHenry and Stanek won.

Here’s some good food for thought on the TIF issue:

A ere is the truth about local communities using tax increment financing (TIF) as a redevelopment tool:“

Tax increment financing is usually sold to the public with assurances that ‘TIF does not increase your taxes.’ However, NCBG’s study indicates clear warning signs that the liberal use of TIF captures the natural growth in property tax base, putting more strain on every taxpayer and all taxing bodies, a strain more acutely felt in public budget belt-tightening times.” -- Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, which includes economists at University of Illinois and Loyola, DePaul, and Chicago State Universities.

“Our analysis of 235 municipalities in the metropolitan Chicago region finds cities, towns, and villages that had TIF districts actually grew more slowly than municipalities that did not use TIF.” -- Professors Richard F. Dye and David F. Merriman for a study published by the University of Illinois.

“TIF does not tend to produce a net increase in economic activity; favors large businesses over small businesses; often excludes local businesses and residents from the planning process; and operates in a manner that contradicts conventional notions of justice and fairness.” -- Developing Neighborhood Alternatives Project, a consortium of Chicago neighborhood groups and university economists.

Economists who have studied TIF almost universally agree with these findings.

Nearly the only people who defend TIF are developers and consultants who make money from TIF, and municipal officials who create TIF districts.

Study after study shows that TIF districts often fail to achieve their stated goals; divert growth away from other areas of the community, resulting in no net gain in development and sometimes net losses; and enrich a favored few developers, landowners, and businesses at the expense of everyone else.

There is remarkable uniformity of opinion on this. Conservative, liberal and libertarian economists all agree on these findings. There is almost universal criticism of TIFs and other targeted tax incentives by independent economists.

Yet municipal officials and economic development officials, who have a stake in thumping their chests and proclaiming they are the engines of economic progress, ignore all this information and blithely give away the store (sometimes literally) to wealthy developers and well-connected insiders.

Most municipal officials don't have a clue what they are getting into; listen only to the TIF consultants (who have a stake in ensuring that TIFs get created so they get more income) and to a few property owners who stand to gain; pay little or no attention to ordinary people who may be affected; and care nothing about objective independent analyses showing how often these things fail to meet their goals.

They will point to a handful of "successful" TIFs -- never thinking that the success may have come at the expense of development that would have occurred elsewhere -- and ignore independent economists who can point to hundreds of TIFs that have failed to achieve good results. And as we've seen a number of times recently, they don't even care what local school officials think.

Municipal officials are willing to create TIFs because municipalities typically get less than 10 percent of their revenue from property taxes, unlike schools, fire districts, library districts and other local taxing bodies that don't get motor fuel tax money, sales tax money, sewer and water fees, utility taxes, building permit fees, vehicle sticker fees, parking tickets, traffic tickets, etc.

Tomorrow, a “modest proposal.”

Labels: Steve Stanek, Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

Hiding behind cleaning supplies will not keep you from getting tagged by the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Today’s tee shirt message originated in Los Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel.

It really caught my eye at the McHenry Marlins swim meet against Arlington Heights last Saturday.

It shows a picture of a male lion with the text,

Here Human, Here Human

Apparently at the hotel one can walk under lions.

Maybe this "kitty" can be induced to come and fight the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax.

Labels: Lion, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax, MGM Grand, T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

“I’m in no better mood today.”

“Taxing cats that only go out in the yard once in a while.”

“Don’t you McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors know I can take care of myself.”

“I don’t need no stinkin’ nanny state Republicans to take care of me.”

“Even Jim Thompson wouldn’t have done this to me.”

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

So, folks are all upset that two ex-felons, convicted of some sort of misconduct relating to their office as Chicago Alderman, are running for election.

And, two Cook County judges say, “No problem. If they can run for the legislature, they can run for city council.”

Now the Illinois Supreme Court has taken up the case.

For those who don’t remember, the original bill excluded all ex-felons from holding office, didn't it?

Then, someone figured out that, dah, it would keep a fellow state representative, Coy Pugh from running for re-election.

That wouldn’t do, especially since the mild-mannered Chicago Democrat had served a couple of terms and had an inside view on matters concerning prison.

Previously he had served time in state prison, but not for committing crimes while a public official. When freshmen legislators visited Pontiac in 1993, inmates were shouting, “Hi, Coy!”

Pugh went on the study for the ministry.

The Illinois General Assembly has been called many things, but “non-representative” is not one of them. Folks from all of the power structures in Illinois have their representatives.

It seems to me that there are enough ex-felons in Illinois that allowing them to run for at least legislative office probably adds something valuable to legislative considerations.

Labels: Aldermen, Coy Pugh, ex-felon

This is what Crystal Lake's Main Beach would look like if it were on the ocean or Lake Michigan.

This certainly looks like a big wave breaking on the breakwater in from of the Main Beach House, doesn't it?

And here is the rest of the picture.

A snow blower is located behind the "wave" of snow.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Surf

The web site for Crystal Lake mayoral challenger Lori Phelps is up. (Just in case the link does not work, you can paste this URL into your browser: www.PhelpsForCrystalLake.com)

On the front page, Phelps labels herself as

(Certainly it would be difficult to be more liberal than current Mayor Aaron Shelpley…on all sorts of issues--my observation, not hers.)

• Phelps’ goals are
• Vulcan Lakes,
• a community/senior center,
• a pool and
• a community hospital

She hopes “to revive our local economy to derive the greatest amount of sales tax revenue possible.”

She “recognize(s) your disdain for any increases in property taxes or service fees” and that “road congestion continues its negative impact on our quality of life.”

Lori Phelps' bio tomorrow.

Labels: Aaron Shepley, Crystal Lake, Lori Phelps

While waiting for the guys who were preparing Crystal Lake’s surface for skating to come back from break, I read what was on the bulletin boards.

I was surprised to see a notice of an “Arson Tipster Award Program.

Perhaps you will remember how 9-year olds torched the Knaak Park playground equipment.

The poster has a picture of the damage.

So, this is today’s “Message of the Day. See someone trying to set park district property on fire, call the police.

There’s a reward of up to $500 for those who do, if it leads to an arrest.

Labels: Arson, Crystal Lake Park District, Knaack Park, Poster

DeKalb County’s MidWeek reporter Diane Strand wrote two stories about the court fight to put A-LAW’s Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority on the ballot this week.

The first reported that Judge Kurt Klein ruled that municipalities and townships had “standing” in the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water-initiated lawsuit.

The judge even ruled that everyone who had filed an objection would be allowed to speak in court.

Some city officials want in so they can marshal enough votes to kill the proposal. Others that have been included in the district want out.

The second story adds more detail.

Labels: A-LAW, Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority

At least it would be if this were next year and House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) gets his wish to move the primary election from the third week in March to the first in February.

What will result?

Lower turnout.

Think of the times you have avoided going out this early February while the temperature has been near zero. We skipped swimming practice Monday.

And, even where it’s warmer, that’s what’s happened.

What if the Bears are in the superbowl again? If so, challengers will get virtually no media coverage.

It would be no surprise if all incumbent legislators won re-nomination. Certainly, fewer will get primary challenges since the filing date will be in November, about a year before the election.

But, as The Hill's reporter Aaron Blake points out,

The change would lengthen the campaign for the state’s two most vulnerable members of Congress, freshman Rep. Peter Roskam (R) and second-term Rep. Melissa Bean (D), and create a nine-month battle for Sen. Dick Durbin (D) if Republicans can muster a strong challenger.

A congressional or state legislative challenger could knock on a lot of doors in seven months, but he or she would have to afford to do so. That might make it difficult for a state employee like Tammy Duckworth, now Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, unless she takes a salary from her campaign fund, as at least one statewide Republican candidate I know once did.

So, easier to get re-nominated, but maybe harder to get re-elected in a marginal district.

Oh, yes. U.S. Senator Barack Obama wins the Illinois Democratic Party primary election.

And lots of liberal Republican women cross over—as they did in 1992 to vote for Carol Moseley Braun—giving conservative Republicans a better chance of winning Republican primary elections.

Labels: 6th Congressional District, 8th Congressional District, Incumbent Protection Act, Melissa Bean, Peter Roskam

How often do you think this “geyser” erupts in Crystal Lake?

I was taking pictures of the preparation of the ice rink in front of the Main Beach Friday and got this picture.

It looks a lot like a geyser to me.

Of course, I was 12 or 13 when I saw my last geyser in Yellowstone Park.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Geyser

The $400,000 woman in Elgin—Connie Neale--has come up with the quote of the day:

"…in reality we want for all of our employees to have fair market value."

That’s how Elgin’s Courier News reporter Erin Calandriello ends the story about the school board meeting where parents stormed the Elgin School District 46 “castle,” er, school board meeting.

Labels: Connie Neale, Elgin School District, U46

“So, I hear that the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors are coming.”

“I’m getting in shape.”

“Those revenuers will be no march for me.”

“And, please notice the elephant’s trunk below my face.”

“The humans in this house vote in Republican primary elections.”

“And, they know how to organize others to do the same.”

Labels: Exercise, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

What was your 8th congressional district United States Representative Melissa Bean doing last Friday night?

The Democratic Party congress folks were at a retreat that President George W. Bush addressed last Saturday at the Kingsmill Resort & Spa in Williamsburg, Va.

But, according to The Hill,

Democrats said they had no time to relax during their two-and-a-half day retreat

Friday night wasn’t work time, though, the “Under the Dome” column reported.

Lawmakers threw back a few drinks and danced late into the night.

By the end of the evening, most members and staff went to bed, leaving the 30-something working group of Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Hilda Solis (Calif.), Tim Ryan (Ohio), Melissa Bean (Ill.) (OK, they look 30-something!) dancing the night away. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and James McGovern (Mass.) were out there, too.

I wonder if Bean will put up a photo of herself dancing on her campaign web site the way that Alderwoman Arenda Troutman did.

= = = = =
Photo is of Alderwoman Arenda Troutman taken from her campaign web site.

Labels: 8th Congressional District, Arenda Troutman, Melissa Bean

This campaign button—or maybe it is more of a pin—was produced by the Wheeling Township Republican Women after the 2000 victory by George W. Bush.

It shows the states Bush carried in red and the ones Gore one in blue.

Underneath is

George W. Bush

Our President

Labels: button, George W. Bush, map

When I read the Chicago Tribune’s lead editorial on Tuesday, I found I agreed.

It opposes mandatory inoculation of every schoolgirl against two viruses that cause cervical cancer.

The Tribune asks,

Should the state require medical treatments for diseases that aren't easily communicable in our day-to-day casual contact with one another? That's a big step from our current public health policies for protecting children in classrooms and on the playground.

As it says earlier,

Kids are not at risk in the classroom, through casual contact, as with most other diseases calling for mandatory vaccination. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus.

What this editorial brought to mind was Illinois’ requirement that babies be inoculated against Hepatitis B.

It, too, is not spread through casual contact.

I really wonder where the Tribune was editorially in the debate on making Hepatitis B vaccinations mandatory.

I can tell you that we did not have our son vaccinated against Hepatitis B. We used the religious exemption, which I would be please to share with anyone who would like to see the letter.

How long do you think it will be before Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich follows in the foot steps of newly elected Texas Governor Rick Perry in mandating such shots by Executive Order?

Or, maybe, when it affects a governor’s own family—as mandatory child seats did Governor Jim Thompson’s—Blagojevich will find a way to exempt his daughters Annie and Amy.

Labels: Cervical cancer, Hepatitis B, Jim Thompson, Rod Blagojevich, Vaccination

“Big boys toys” is what I thought of as I watched the driver of the Crystal Lake Park District sidewalk snowplow do wheelies after he had finished his part of clearing off the ice rink that was being created in front of the Main Beach House.

I wish I could have videoed it.

He seemed to be having so much fun.

But, all I had was a camera.

What you see is his snowplow turning in circles.

Labels: Crystal Lake Park District, Ice, Main Beach, Snowplow, Wheelies

So, it was cold.

Very cold.

Below zero.

But the frigid weather did not start early Monday morning.

It was all weekend.

Take a look at this blizzard-like wind at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach on Saturday afternoon.

And, it wasn't snowing. That snow was blowing off the lake.

So, why were we awakened at 6 AM with a call saying there would be no school on Monday?

Why did we get this email at 6:11 AM?

Complete Message: Cyrstal Lake School District #47 is closed today due to weather. I apologize for the late notice but we cannot get enough buses running for the elementary and middle school routes. I have decided for the safety of our students to close school for D47. However, there are enough buses to run routes for Crystal Lake High School District 155 and they will be in session.

Thank you

School Name: Crystal Lake Communiry School District 47

Sent By: RONALD MILLER

So, what can the excuse be for the bus company jointly owned by High School District 155 and Grade School Distict 47 not being able to start enough buses to get District 47 Grade School kids to school?

There was plenty of time to prepare the buses.

All weekend.

Buses ran in Kirkland, Illinois.

That’s west of DeKalb out in the open prairie.

They ran in McHenry.

Last year, as we drove from home to South School, my son and I would try to guess how low the temperature would fall on the car thermometer.

I remember it’s getting at least to 9 below zero.

The buses still ran.

Was it any colder in Kirkland or McHenry than it was in Crystal Lake on Monday morning?

Labels: Crystal Lake, District 47, School Bus

Does this frost anyone’s cookies but mine?

And, with the temperature as low as it is, it takes a lot to frost them.

Our esteemed Governor Rod Blagojevich has proclaimed a new bridge over the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area will be one that

"that does not toll Illinois residents."

The last time I checked the Illinois Department of Transportation drains $88 to $120 million out of the pockets of Chicago area toll road users.

Missouri and Illinois have to come up with $760 million.

If Illinois pays half, that means it will take less than three years of Motor Fuel Taxes paid by Chicagoland tollway motorists to pay for the Illinois share of the new bridge across the Mississippi.

Meanwhile, Kane County is discussing building toll bridges across the Fox River.

Thanks to Respublica for the lead for this story.

Labels: IDOT, Kane County, Mississippi, toll bridge, Tollway

I don’t think the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors will go after this cat.

He is “King of the Household,” according to its owner.

And look at the American flag.

Can’t you just hear this cat telling the Cat Tax Collectors,

“It’s un-American!”

And, maybe,

@#^/&@!

Labels: American flag, McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Today’s message might be appropriate for a Monday morning:

I’m not Mad

Just Grumpy

Perhaps even this Monday.

And if you didn't see my post from last night, you can find it here.

Labels: Message of the Day, Sweatshirt

Periodically checking the recent campaign disclosure findings of the State Board of Elections led me to a change in control of former McHenry County Board member Richard Klasen.

Klasen died last year and left over $3,000 in his campaign fund.

When I checked his original filing statement, he said he wanted any money left over to go to the Marengo Area Schools Educational Foundation.

In late November, I checked with some of the folks who would know and discovered that it had not been transferred.

New political action committee treasurer, by then elected to fill one of the seats left vacant in the western McHenry County board district, Mary McCann told me it would be issued the next week.

Now it has.

The Foundation got a $3,242.24 check, although Klasen's committee's final report, dated December 27, 2006, does not say when.

Labels: Marengo, Mary McCann, McHenry County Board., Richard Klasen

McHenry County Blog has compared the fund raising efficiency of McHenry County Republicans and Democrats and found the Democrats much more efficient.

Republicans seem to have spent over 70% of its contributions to raise its money.

Democrats seem to have spent 10% (at least that’s what I can identify).

Whatever the exact percentages, the Democrats were much more efficient in their fund raising than was the GOP.

The only money spent I can find the Republicans spent to directly assist candidates is $2,240.85--for “County Board Election Postcards.”

That’s a little over 4% of the total amount the McHenry County Republican Party had available to spent during the last six months of 2006. That time period featured the election of all statewide elected officials, not to mention county candidates and the unopposed state representatives.

Democrats, on the other hand, gave $6,062 directly to its candidates for Congress and county board.

That’s over 28% of the money the opposition party had available.

If one assumes that the primary purpose for the existence of political parties is to win elections, the Republican Party did OK this year.

They failed to re-capture the 8th congressional district seat and didn’t even put up an opponent to State Rep. Jack Franks, but the GOP only lost one county board seat.

But, if the primary purpose is the help candidates, the Democrats surely put more of its money where it could count in the fall of 2006 than did the Republicans.

Finally, let’s take a look at money left over.

The Republicans had $2,931, while the Democrats reported $1,750. Both parties pretty much exhausted their treasuries.

Labels: Jack Franks, McHenry County Board., McHenry County Republican Central Committee, Melissa Bean

“Make it easy for me."

“Scratch my stomach and chest and, maybe, under my chin and behind my ears before you pick my master’s pocket, you McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.”

Cat Dad asks, "Are you a collaborator now? How cheaply you sell out."

Labels: McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

Before the light went out on a bus to the Pop Century hotel complex at Disney World, I saw this hat standing in front of me in the aisle.

It says,

Love All Serve All

Turns out it belonged to a minister from northern Louisiana.

I got a picture when we arrived at the hotel and the lights' went back on.

Labels: Disney World, Hat, Message of the Day

The packaging from the DVD of Limony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Labels: Chicago Bears, Superbowl

Crystal Lake Councilwomen Ellen Brady Mueller and Cathy Ferguson are teaming up in the spring elections.

At least that’s what it looks like from the name of the political action committee they have just formed.

It’s called the “Citizens for Cathy & Ellen.”

Its purpose is “to re-elect Ellen M Brady Mueller and Cathy Ferguson to the Crystal Lake City Council.”

The PAC’s statement of organization was filed with the State Board of Elections on Tuesday.

Labels: Cathy Ferguson, Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake City Council, Ellen Mueller Brady

Got this press release from the Coalition to Save International Plaza in Arlington Heights and thought, given Mayor Aaron Shepley's use of emminent domain after promising not to use it, that folks in Crystal Lake might find it of interest.

Shop Owners Wage on Battling Village Hall
Residents furious with their own trustees

(ARLINGTON HEIGHTS) – The disappointing decision handed down by Circuit Court Judge Epstein regarding the future of International Plaza has caused a great deal of turmoil with business owners and residents of Arlington Heights. Plaza owners and tenants have vowed to continue their fight to protect the rights of all property owners from the abuse of Eminent Domain in our community. While two more lawsuits are pending to reverse the judge’s opinion regarding the plaza, the Coalition to Save International Plaza will continue its hard work to heighten public awareness regarding this outright theft of property engaged by village officials.

“Our local politicians, and now the courts, remain tone deaf to the public offense of allowing property seizures by use of Eminent Domain simply to transfer the property to another private developer who promises more tax revenues” said Stephen Bachtell, general manager of Studio Salons of Arlington Heights. “We are asking all residents to contact village officials and tell them to reverse their outrageous position.”

The Coalition to Save International Plaza has quantified the public sentiment regarding this issue by conducting a door-to-door survey of Arlington Heights residents. “88% of local homeowners surveyed oppose the action the village is taking. People understand Eminent Domain is necessary and useful to widen a road or build a fire station but they recognize abuse when they see it,” said Leo Plotkin, owner of the Unique Camera shop in the plaza. “Stealing private property and giving it to a developer is just plain un-American!”

The survey also asked residents about how well Arlington Heights village officials are prioritizing their spending habits. Most residents agreed by a vast 3:1 margin that the village is engaged in reckless and irresponsible spending. “Maybe the redevelopment scheme they are trying to force us out with is to cover up and pay for their own mistakes,” said Bachtell.

The public has stepped in solidarity on the side of the small business owners at International Plaza and are asking village officials to deem the TIF redevelopment and tactics used as inappropriate for the community. “Why would anyone want to buy a home or small business in Arlington Heights if they know they will only be there so long as they serve the whims of the village board?” said Plotkin. “This is not the kind of reputation we want for our community.”

Anyone wishing to contact Stephen Bachtell may do so by calling 847-530-3999 or emailing him at sbachtell@comcast.net.

= = = = =
Scott Bludorn discusses strategy with two opponents of the Arlington Heights Tax Increment Financing project. Photo credit: Windy City Blog.

Labels: Arlington Heights, condemnation, eminent domain, Tax Increment Financing District,