McHenry County Blog

I try to post a religious message each Sunday.


This one may not seem like one to you until you learn what it's connected to.

It's McHenry's St. Patick's Church.

When I stopped by, Karen and Steve Verr were manning it.

While we talked for a bit, a man came up and asked if this were a “pro-life” booth.

Neither of us could figure out how he could have any doubt, but assured him it was.

He then dropped a $50 bill into a donation box.

Next to the booth the Verrs were at was one promoting 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services.

I noticed signs for offices in both Harvard (815-943-1500) and Johnsburg (815-385-2999).

Labels: 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services, Karen Verr, McHenry, McHenry County Fair, Message of the Day, Pro-Life, St. Patrick's Church, Steve Verr

The firm that designed the “I Shop Crystal Lake” logo for City of Crystal Lake taxpayers and won a $43,000 six-month contract, now has won the $5,300 city taxpayer contract to work with McHenry’s “Heart of the Fox” slogan.

That’s what Crystal Lindell, reporter for the Northwest Herald writes.

She reports that Dobbe will “help the city refine its marketing techniques.”

Ironically, I found this “I Shop Crystal Lake” in the parking lot of Knox Pool in McHenry in late June.

So, will a little fox be saying,


And, after all the towns in McHenry County get a “Please Shop in Our Town Because We Really Need Your Sales Tax Dollars,” will any community with a sales tax rate lower than Crystal Lake’s now 1.75%--you remember, Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% city sales tax increase--dare to put up signs on the way out of Crystal Lake saying,




That might just increase sales in McHenry or Woodstock.

Just wondering if a chamber of commerce might have the guts to do something that might actually increase sales in their town, even if it offended the tax-hiking Crystal Lake City Council.

If McHenry wanted to go with its fox theme, I’m sure Dobbe's people could come up with a variation on a fox jumping over the Crystal Lake sales tax fence…like this one leaped on top of and over our fence on Lake Avenue during prime shopping time.

For any municipal officials out there, sales tax revenue is a zero sum game. There's only so much out there.

Maybe you can divert a tiny bit of it with a marketing campaign, but before you spend you tax dollars on it, you might want to make sure the contract is a performance-based one. In other words, if sales tax revenues do not increase more than they would have otherwise, you don't pay anything.

I'll bet no marketing firm would take the risk and sign such a contract.

If they won't, why should you take the chance and spend your taxpayers' dollars?
?

Labels: 75% Sales Tax Hike, Aaron Shepley, Crystal Lake, Dobbe Marketing, I Shop Crystal Lake, McHenry, Sue Dobbe, Woodstock

Republican precinct committeeman John O’Neill is seeking folks to walk next to the GOP floats and candidates on Sunday, July 20.

It starts at 1:30 pm and Republicans are offering to bus people from the township office in Johnsburg, if they so desire. Folks wishing to park there are asked to arrive at the McHenry Township Center between noon and 1 PM.

Here is his plea:

Hello All Republicans and Supporters,

I am writing to ask your support for the Republicans participating in the McHenry Fiesta Days Parade.

We have an opportunity to show ourselves in force once again. After the FANTASTIC showing or 200 or so Republicans in the Crystal Lake Gala Parade, we are hoping for a good showing of Republicans to attend the McHenry Fiesta Days parade.

In order to accommodate this we have been able to provide the following;

• Free Parking at the McHenry Township Center.
• Free Transportation to and from the parade and the parking area.
• Free lunch at the Veteran's Memorial Park after the parade.

We are asking all on this email to attend with your families and if you are a Precinct Committeeman please invite some of the best Republicans in your precinct to participate.


In order to gauge how many Republicans will be at the parade (and to estimate the cost for the lunch) please reply to this email (mchenry20@gmail.com) and let us know whether you will attend and how many Republicans will be in your party.

We ask that you wear either the new "Energized Republican" shirts or a shirt representing the current Republican candidate of your choice, that way we get some additional Republican marketing at the park during lunch :-)

We will meet around Noon at the McHenry Township Center which is located just west of Route 31 at Johnsburg Road, behind the Moose Lodge. Please park in the lot near the athletic fields. We will take care of your transportation to the parade start and after lunch at the park, we will provide transportation back to the McHenry Township Center.

We appreciate all that you do to help promote our Republican values and elect more Republicans to office, and we look forward to seeing you at the parade and the park afterward..

Thank you,
John O'Neill
(815) 276-2507

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The photos are from the Crystal Lake Gala's 4th of July parade, compliments of John O'Neill. On top, you see him and his family.

Next comes part of the Lou Bianchi for State's Attorney contingent.

Congressman Don Manzullo waves to the crowd at the start of the parade. In the background, you can see some of the 200-plus folks who walked for the Republican Party and its candidates.

State Senator Pam Althoff can be seen passing out candy.

State Rep. and GOP County Chairman Mike Tryon poses with District 3 County Board member Nick Provenzano in the photo below.

At the bottom is a tractor pulling a load of candidate balloons. Can you pick out Brent Smith, one of the parade walker recruiters?

Labels: 4th of July Parade, Crystal Lake Gala, Don Manzullo, Fiesta Days, John O'Neill, Lou Bianchi Dan Regna, McHenry, McHenry County Republicans, Mike Tryon, Nick Provenzano, Pam Althoff

Can't you just hear minor league baseball stadium promoter Pete Heitman saying that?

Heitman is on a search for his Holy Grail—a minor league baseball stadium that he and his mysterious investors won't have to pay for.

This Black Knight has had one arm hacked off in his efforts to storm McHenry County College treasury.

The peasants got angry.

Pitchforks.

Torches.

You know the routine.

Still, it wasn't a total loss.

Heitman's buddy Mark Houser made off with checks for tens of thousands of dollars.

But the Black Knight has another arm left.

Plus two legs and a body.

Plenty of more profit motive fight left in his black heart of hearts.

“Just have to find the right public treasury,” the Black Knight thinks.

“One with feeble guardians.”

And, now the Northwest Herald's Tom Musik reports Heitman is approaching other castle treasure chests.

A half a dozen, most in McHenry County, but two in Lake, according to the article.

I wonder if one is near a prospective pig farm in Island Lake.

No.

The prospective pig farm has a vigorous defender. He has a finger gun, too.

Maybe it's Round Lake, I thought.

Mayor Bill Gentes, who is running for the 26th state senate district, has a site on which he wanted Advocate to construct a hospital. I thought it might work. Instead they looked seriously at one near downtown.

But it didn't work out.

When I asked, here is what Gentes said,

"We talked to those guys about 2-3 years ago and decided it made no sense for us."

He said he had written about it on his blog.

As reported before, Huntley, Woodstock and McHenry are interested and one whose leaders want to discuss disbursement of the coin of the realm with the Black Knight in the dark.

“The team would seek some financial help from its home community and county,” Musik quotes Heitman indirectly.

And in a direct quote, “... we’ve just got to find somebody who’s going to help out. We need a little bit of help, obviously, because we can’t do it all ourselves.”

Is it possible county board members could be so audacious as to support such a proposal with McHenry County Democrats preparing the ladders to storm the excellent paying Round Table's gates?

The Northwest Herald has already indicated it thinks county financial support is a good idea.

Could the Republican Party be ready to cede the role of fiscal conservative to that the party it has painted as the B-I-G SPENDERS?

McHenry Mayor Sue Low and Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager are quoted in the article, which says Heitman wants a four-lane highway.

Don't we all?

Maybe that puts Huntley in the lead. It already has a four-lane road.

But, then again, so does McHenry.

Tomorrow, the questions Round Lake Mayor Bill Gentes asked of Heitman and the ones Heitman could not answer satisfactorily.

= = = = =
Holy Grail modification of Monty Python movie scene compliments of Heck of a Guy blogger Allan Showalter.

Labels: 26th District, Baseball Stadium, Bill Gentes, Black Knight, Brian Sager, Huntley, Mark Houser, MCC, McHenry, McHenry County Board, McHenry County College, Pete Heitman, Sue Low, Woodstock

A couple of Mondays ago (March 31st), I didn't get around to reading the Chicago Tribune and, miracle of miracles, the paper did not end up in the re-cycling container before I had time to look at it.

On the front page was a story entitled,I was more interested in the map printing on the inside.

You can see the McHenry County portion here.

Red is worst.

25 or more foreclosures per 1,000 mortgageable properties in 2007, the key reads.

There are two more areas of red in the county, one appears to be in western Lake in the Hills. It may be in Huntley School District 158, as the biggest on in the county clearly is. The other is in western McHenry.

A lot of old Carpentersville also seems to be colored red.

I was just thinking.

If so many people in your school district were suffering from foreclosure, would it be the right time to put your school district in a position where another tax rate hike referendum would be almost a foregone conclusion?

Labels: Carpentersville, Huntley, Huntley School District 158, Lake In the Hills, McHenry, Mortgage Foreclosure, Tax Hike

Nunda Township County Board member Mary Donner convinced NASA Education's John Blanchard, whose organization is on Route 31 just up the hill from Terra Cotta, to send some veterans to help sand bag Orchard Heights.

NASA Education employees and those of two other Blanchard companies headed to the Orchard Heights subdivision to join Mary Donner and Nunda Township workers.

Under the leadership of Township Road Commissioner Don Kopsell, they filled sand bags so that local residents could do what they could to save their homes from the rising Fox River.

The township had just purchased “The Sandbagger” on Monday, April 1st, for about $18,000

The Sandbagger is a machine that is loaded with sand and then through 4 pour spouts Blanchard’s team is able to produce bags filled with sand, which are then tied off and stacked for the local home owners to use

It was taken to Riverside Drive in McHenry.

Bayview Beach was also at risk.

Wednesday afternoon the river was rising at approximately 2 inches an hour.

“This isn’t something that can be finished in an hour or two, but will be ongoing for quite a while until the water starts to subside,” Blanchard said.

Kane County supplied approximately 120,000-130,000 bags. McHenry County only had about 20,000-30,000 bags on hand, requiring Nunda Township to go out and purchase additional bags from an outside source.

NASA Education is a Crystal Lake-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive workforce and community reintegration services for U.S. veterans who are displaced, disabled, homeless or otherwise in transition.

For more information, contact Amy Johnson at 866-338-4968.

= = = = =
Pictures from NASA Education. They are of the effort of prepare sandbags to protect Orchard Heights homes in McHenry, Illinois. The two people whose faces can be seen in almost the lowest photo are NASA Education President John Blanchard and McHenry County Board member Mary Donner.

Labels: Amy Johnson, Don Kopsell, Flooding, Fox River, John Blanchard, Mary Donner, McHenry, McHenry County Board, NASA Education, Nunda Township, Orchard Heights, Sandbag, Sandbagger

If you want to see the future of Crystal Lake Tax Increment Financing Districts, you need look no farther than McHenry.

In a new blog run by the Northwest Herald, McHenry Blog, Jillian Duchnowski reports condo developer Curtis Commercial wants

“$200,000 more in incentives to build a complex with 27 condo and 12 retail spaces downtown.”

The developer of property, right across the creek from the movie theater, has “discovered” that the cost of building a parking deck is a couple of hundred thousand dollars more than the firm expected.

So, where does the developer think the extra money should come from?

That honey pot called the Tax Increment Financing fund.

The City of McHenry has already committed itself to shelling out $2 million in incentives “to boost a project that otherwise wouldn't be profitable.”

The article continues:

”The value of those incentives is similar to what the city offered Cunat Inc. for a similar project proposed across the street.”

Am I the only one who has a problem with this concept?

The same thing has happened in Elgin, by the way.

How long before the Crystal Lake City Council follows suit?

Oh, I forgot.

Crystal Lake is going to use its 75% hike in sales tax, plus TIF money to bail out developers of choice.

Labels: Cunat, Curtis Commercial, McHenry, McHenry Blog, Tax Increment Financing District, TIF

It appears that Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley was correct.

Other communities like Huntley, Woodstock, McHenry and Algonquin, are interested in a minor league baseball stadium, just like Shepley predicted right before his zoning proposal went down the Crystal Lake watershed drain tile:

“I guarantee you there are other communities that will accommodate a baseball team.

“What if it goes a couple miles down the road and settles in Woodstock?” he asked, pointing out that Crystal Lake would have the same problems with none of the benefits.

The interest from other McHenry County towns was revealed to Northwest Herald reporter Tom Musick by baseball promoter Pete Heitman, who heads up an unknown group of investors called McHenry/Lake Professional Baseball Limited Liability Corporation.

That’s “Limited Liability,” as in “We can walk away from the deal and leave you to pay off the cost to build our stadium, if we don’t make enough money.”

Musick, who covers Huntley for the NW Herald found explicit support from Huntley village and park district officials.

“It has been in my mind for probably six or seven years that I-90 and [Route] 47 would really be an ideal place for a minor league baseball stadium,” (Thom)Palmer said.

A possible solace to McHenry County College taxpayers is that Huntley is not near enough the center of the college district to be selected as anything the trustees could sell as being a centrally located MCC taxpayer-supported site.

Not in the original college district, Huntley School District 158 joined when the state legislator mandated that all parts of Illinois be in one junior college or another.

So maybe there will be a bidding war among communities like those for a major tax generator like a regional shopping center. Or a housing developer playing one municipality off against another.

The only difference is that baseball stadiums are not major tax generators. (Now that I think about it, subdivisions don’t pay their own way either, but towns still fight over them.)

In its one and only article looking at the financial end of McHenry County College’s baseball stadium, its staff could not find one economist who had done a study that showed the benefits outweighed the costs for a baseball stadium.

Huntley Village Administrator Carl Tomaso expressed excitement on behalf of village government. He talked about the desire to have a large entertainment venue near the tollway or elsewhere, reporter Musick found.

At least Huntley has figured out how to pry significant road improvements out of developers, something Crystal Lake has not done yet.

All of the widening of Route 47 from the tollway north to park was financed by developers.

The only pathetic contribution from state government on Route 47 is the center turn lane thru the old part of town—built by the state, complete with curbs and gutters, which will have to be torn out when the road is widened to five lanes.

Built with only three lanes, even though every state IDOT official with a brain knew Route 47 needed five lanes.

One final thought—if you thought the Crystal Lake city council chambers were full for the baseball stadium zoning meeting, can you imagine how large the room will have to be if a Huntley location is proposed where fireworks could be heard from Sun City?

Labels: Algonquin, Carl Tomaso, Huntley, Huntley Park District, MCC, McHenry, McHenry County College, Sun City, Woodstock

At the McHenry Marlins victory splash party, I saw an intriguing tee shirt about dodgeball.

I have fond memories of playing dodgeball with Tommy Callahan, Stan Johnson, Bill Hill, Leroy Miller and Timmy (whose last name I can’t pull up, but who was the fastest runner, even though he was the shortest). We did it in a circle on an asphalt playground at Easton (Maryland) Elementary School, a three-story building with outside fire escape for the 5th graders on the top floor. It’s now the site of the Talbot County Health Department.

My son says that Crystal Lake’s South Elementary School won’t allow the kids to play dodgeball.

Or tag.

Or soccer.

No roughhousing.

But McHenry’s Fiesta Days have no such compunction.

In fact, the festival held its first dodgeball competition this year on July 14th.

I talked to a swim Dad who works in the McHenry County Jail.

He told me that basketball courts were used at the new middle school across from the McHenry Drive-In Theatre.

Just imagine.

Grown men standing in two lines across a basketball court throwing balls about the size of ninepin bowling balls at each other.

Only softer.

It was described as a big nerf ball.

21-year olds versus much older guys.

And having a ball.

The tee shirt that caught my attention said,

MADA
McHenry Area
Dodgeball
Association

Ignoring the obvious, as I with a Rockford YMCA tee shirt, I asked,

“What does ‘MADA’ stand for?”

The swim Mom said, “It stands for ‘McHenry Area Dodgeball Association.’”

Dah.

And, on the back of the tee shirt, you can see there are even sponsors.

The swim Dad said some of the guys on the Sheriff’s patrol were a bit miffed that they hadn’t been invited to form a team.

My guess is the second year of this contest will be much bigger than the first.

I found the National Dodgeball Amateur Association web site and, lo and behold, there are all sorts of program--48 in all--including ones in Crystal Lake and Algonquin.

And, the McHenry Parks and Recreation program has a MySpace web site.

Labels: Dodgeball, Easton, Fiesta Days, McHenry, South Elementary School

Haven't you always wanted to do that?

I actually did on this date in 1963.

By now, most newspapers and television shows have stopped remembering the day that President John F. Kennedy was shot.

That day I was in the office of the Oberlin Review.

It was the student newspaper of Oberlin College.

I was chairman of the Republican Mock Convention that year.

How could that happen in such a liberal school?

In 1962 in what was perhaps the first and only time in what is now a not-so-recent memory, Young Republicans elected half of the student council. We did it because the student council decided whether the model presidential nominating convention would be for the Democratic or Republican Party.

Now, all of us did not run under the SCOPE party label, but 2 1/2 years before the Mock Convention took place, we put enough people on the student council to make it a Republican Mock Convention.

I love Review reporter Anne Speakman's November 16, 1962, description of the campaign:

"Concluding a ruthless campaign, characterized by heated party politics and scandal-sheet tactics, voting officially closed at 2 P.M."

Having observed vote fraud on the part of the liberals the year before, this year we were prepared with adequate poll watchers in the proportional representation (like Illinois used to have for state representatives before Pat Quinn's Cut Back Constitutional Amendment) election.

By the time the first 10 members of the 12 member council had been announced the conservatives has 6 votes. The reporter describes "the paling faces of the liberals," in this 75.2% turnout election.

A member of the liberal Progressive Student League "lamented, 'We don't know how to behave in a minority.'"

Having spent over 2 years listening to anything but Republican speakers we were well motivated.

We had watched the liberals stuff the ballot boxes the year before and had a ballot protection program in place.

So, we won 6 out of 12. The winners (in order they placed) were Dennis Bathory (SCOPE), Mac Garber (PSL), Pete Anderson (SCOPE), Jon Eisen (PSL), Bob Peterson (Independent, but a Young Republican), Eric Seitz (Independent, a liberal), Bob Kuttner (PSL), Cal Skinner (SCOPE), Paul Keefe (SCOPE), Melinda Kuntz (SCOPE), Ed Schwartz (PSL) and Jon Polier (PSL).

In any event, I was in the student newspaper's office on the afternoon of November 23, 1963. The radio was playing.

When we heard the report of Kennedy's having been shot, I asked if the staff (of which I was not a member) wanted to put something on the front page.

They agreed they did and I asked if they wanted me to tell the pressmen in the next room to stop the press run.

Again, agreement.

So, I got to shout,

Stop the presses!

And I'm sure the Oberlin Review was the first paper on the newsstand, at least in Ohio, perhaps in the entire country.

The headline?

Kennedy Assasinated

My lack of ability to select type faces does not do the heavy block print justice.

As I was rooting around in the basement for a copy of the paper, I also found a second Oberlin Review dated Friday, November 22, 1963. It's headline was

Campus Mourns Kennedy's Death

This paper, however, seems to have the wrong date on the masthead, because inside the date reads, Tuesday, November 26, 1963.

Labels: McHenry, Mock Convention, Oberlin College, Oberlin College Young Republicans, Woodstock